海水浴と温泉！

I really, really, really should be reviewing for my test tomorrow/writing my journal/preparing for my final speech right now, but I really want to talk about my amazing weekend. This weekend I made not one, but two trips to 湯の川 (Yunokawa), which is Hakodate's most famous hot springs (温泉) hot spot. Apologies for the bad pun. For some reason, 湯の川 is actually located right next to the ocean - don't ask me how you get hot springs 200 feet from the sea. I have no idea.


The past two days have been unusually hot - over 30 degrees Celsius, or 85 degrees Farenheit. Doesn't sound like much, but combined with strong sunshine, high humidity, and no air conditioning or fan, staying at home can be uncomfortable. Now going to a hot springs might not be the first thing that goes through your head when you get hot weather, but apparently Japanese people do it a lot and it makes more sense that you might think.


I had heard from the first day of the program that Hakodate was famous for its hot springs, with more than 100 locations spread out across the city, and that many onsen enthusiasts travel all the way across Japan to experience the hot springs here, but never actually had the opportunity to go to one. So to patch up on missing experiences in Hakodate (which still includes the no.1 night view in the world, by the way), me and a dude friend hopped on the tram (市電) and headed for 湯の川. We were completely clueless and made the terrible mistake of not even bothering to read reviews for the 20-30 something onsen spots that were there. However, it might have been a blessing in the disguise, because on our quest to find the perfect onsen, we found a beautiful enclosed beach that was bustling with people. Now despite its easy access to the sea, it's not easy to find a good beach in Hokkaido, and moreover you have to be there at the right time - I'd say there's about a six week window, max, for which sea water bathing (海水浴) makes sense. You don't want to head straight into the ocean if you don't know what you're doing, as we do get some pretty strong waves here.


So here we were, standing on this beautiful beach, with a grand view, and lifeguards and cute Japanese girls in bathing suits, and the water was cool but not cold, and the breeze so comfortable, and... we didn't have swimming shorts. Or clothes to change into. Oops. We ended up standing in the water for a long time, and withstood wave after wave until our shorts were soaked and our feet hurt from standing on pebbles. I haven't had the opportunity to go to beaches all that much before, so everything seemed quite new to me. I loved how the waves would suck up the sand from beneath our feet when it retreated. The sea breeze was intoxicated. We could see the misty silhouette of Hakodate-yama from the distance. It almost seemed like it wasn't Hakodate for a while, but Okinawa, it was so nice.


After the beach, we ended up going to a tiny onsen in an inconspicuous hotel with only two indoor pools and one outdoor pool, attracted by a ridiculously huge billboard slyly placed on an adjacent apartment building. Although the onsen was small, the water was bona fide mineral spring water, scaling hot and tasted quite salty (it was not on purpose, I promise).  Conversation proceeded, and good times were had. 


Today was equally hot as yesterday, and I successfully made up for my blunder (of not bring swimming gear) the day before by going to 海水浴 went with two Chinese exchange students (留学生) from next door. We first had a fantastic buffet (食べ放題) lunch at a  huge barbecue place, and then embraced the waves at 湯の川. It was a perfect day. Two important takeaways:


1. Damn seawater's salty.


2. Going to the beach with girls = WIN.


Gotta go to work now! Sorry for the lack of pictures - I wanted to make sure that my camera survived the trip. I'll be harassing my friends for pictures though, so there still is hope on this front. Things to look forward to next week:


a) Finally seeing the night view from Hakodate-yama.


b) The huge 港祭り (Port Festival) on Aug 1st, 花火大会 (Fireworks!), and of course, the イカ踊り(THIS).


c) My final speech at the closing ceremony!


Things that I'm NOT looking forward to:


a) Leaving Hakodate - I don't want to go at all! :(


b) Saying goodbye to all my friends. I've made quite a few good friends in the past two months, and it'll be really sad to see them go.


c) Leaving my host family: I'll definitely be missing 爺ちゃん's 野菜, 婆ちゃん's delicious　料理, and their combined 優しさ.


I love Hakodate!


Chris