Taking a break from the news was hard, but today was White Day, a second
sort of Valentine’s Day in Japan, so Nicky took me to Arima Onsen, a
little hamlet thirty minutes out of Kobe.
After
spending too many hours watching news of the earthquake, and reading of
now a possible nuclear issue in Fukushima, Nicky and I decided it was
time for a break. Right now, it is very easy to get depressed, so we
decided not to cancel our plans to visit Arima Onsen on White Day. I’m
really glad we went; it was really beautiful, and a day in the hot
springs was perfect to get rid of the pent up stress.
Arima Onsen is a small town about two
hours from Kyoto by the normal train. The tracks travel through the
mountains on old, rusted tracks that wind in and out of tunnels, and as
we got further and further from civilization, and more and more people
got off the train, Nicky and I relaxed, side by side, allowing ourselves
a moment of solitude.
The town itself is rather small, and
the whole of it can be explored in a day. There is really no need to
spend the night, unless you plan to visit all of the onsen in the area.
We had a few places we absolutely wanted to see, one of them being the
Arima Toys and Automata Museum. It was really cool, with many antique
German toys on display. The most interesting floor was the Automata
floor, I think- I’ve compiled a video of the attraction here.
We decided to eat lunch at an open-air
bar, which was serving Kobe beef curry, the most amazing curry I have
ever eaten. Arima also has a famous cider drink (ramune) that is
ridiculously carbonated, so we tried that as well.
Afterwards, we headed to the Onsen
Temple, and then to Taiko no Yu, the onsen theme park in town. Like
Odaiba Onsen in Tokyo, this onsen sported Dr. Fish (yay!), and many
styles of bath, though the baths Arima is known for are the silver and
gold baths, each begetting their name from the natural minerals in the
water. We ate parfaits to celebrate White Day after we were done in the
baths.
It was
getting late after the onsen, so we decided to head home. It was a
really nice day... though the news of the last few days loomed in our
minds, we were still able to enjoy it.