Week 17 in Japan: Tazawako Onsen, Korean Drama, and Snowboarding

This week in Japan was really a blast! On Thursday me Yunseok, Palguem, and Teppei left for an Onsen in Tazawako, Japan. Onsen means hot spring but if you are speaking English in general you still use Onsen and not hot spring. Tazawako is about 2 hours by train from Akita City and thats how we traveled. The hot spring was natural which I think all the best Onsens are. Since it's natural you get a sulfer smell and some stuff in the water which I actually like. I think there are minerals and stuff in the water that are great for your skin and you get that from natural Onsens. Anyways I'll go a little more into detail on the trip. We had Thursday and Friday off of school because the campus was having exams for high school students wanting to go to college. This test is taken extremely seriously and spans multiple days for lots of kids to take it. Also to ensure there is no cheating nobody but high school students can even enter the university grounds. We met on Thursday around noon and took a train for about an hour before stopping in Daisen City. We got to explore Daisn City which had an incredible amount of snow. I have a few cool pictures from the couple of hours we spent in the city. We were in Daisen city waiting for our next train. The next train ride was again about an hour and it took us to Senboku City which is close to Lake Tazawako area where all the Onsens are. Most people call the area Tazawako but in 2003 Tazawako along with 2 other small towns were merged into one and the new city was named Senboku. When we arrived in Senboku somebody from the Onsen we were going to be staying at was waiting for us to drive us to the Onsen. When we got to the Onsen we brought our bags to our room and then we went outside to play in the snow. Although Tazawako area is further south than Akita City I think it gets more snow and is a little colder too. We took a walk and were just goofing around in the snow. Next we decided to go into the hot springs. Before you get into the natural hot spring water you shower off. The place we were at provided everything we needed in terms of bathing for free (well we were paying to stay). Towels, face wash, razor, aftershave, shampoo, conditioner etc. all available. They have some really cool face wash, which is interesting to say because it's the first time i've ever been excited about face wash (I don't even own any). They had one kind that was green tea flavored but it was really green tea not just flavoring. Then my favorite one was coal face wash. It was a grey color and had a little smell to it that isn't exactly fruity but I liked it. Not sure about the rest of the world but they use coal for a few more things than just a bbq in Japan. Anyways there were two tubs you could enter. One was inside and one was in a room that was similar to a garage. It was definitely colder and was not heated but not out in the open sky. I liked the one in the room with the cooler temperature. You get warm pretty quickly and can overheat in the one inside. I think the one that is completely inside had a hotter water temperature too. The one that had an outside feel also had windows so it was cool to be able to see the mountains. The indoor Onsen was nice too and had a giant rock/boulder in it that was maybe 15 feet tall. I think they just built the tub right around the mountain/ground. There was a smaller rock maybe 2 feet tall in the outdoorish tub. I think the water in the onsens are about 3 feet deep. After being in the onsens we had dinner. Dinner was awesome and was part of the fee we paid to stay at the hotel/onsen. We stayed up late playing cards and other games, didn't end up sleeping til I think after 4am. Breakfast was also great and was really something I loved because it was a buffet. One thing I enjoyed for the first time was raw egg, soy sauce, and rice mixed together or in Japanese Tamago Kake Gohan which translates to "egg over rice". It was surprising flavorful given the simple ingredients. I occasionally ate raw eggs before coming to Japan but it's interesting here that they see zero danger in eating raw eggs really quite the opposite from our view in America. I believe raw eggs may be one of the first foods a lot of babies eat here (not exaclty sure though). Anyways we went into the Onsen once more after eating and left the hotel with a free ride at 10am to the station. Everything that the Onsen provided was 50 dollars per person between the 4 of us. Defenitely a cheap price considering transportation 2 great meals, and a great room to sleep in too. You really need to go to an Onsen if you get a chance to visit Japan. We had a great time doing some sightseeing and hanging out on the way back so we didn't get back to Akita City until a little late. We had to either take a Shinkansen which is a little expensive or wait for the regular train. There were intersting places to visit and we were not in a hurry so we did various things to spend our time. One thing we did was visit a place that was all about the Korean Drama Iris. Iris is a famous drama in Korea and some of the drama takes place in Akita Prefecture. That brings a lot of Korean tourists to Akita Prefecture. The Tazawako area in particular is where some of it was shot so at the train station there was all kinds of Iris materials. Props from the series, pictures, signatures, free goodies, and more were available.
       On Saturday I went snowboarding at a mountain near Daisen City about 30 minutes outside of Akita City but about a 40 minute drive from where we departed. I hadn't snowboarded for about 5 years but I was still able to ride so that was a relief. Snowboarding is great but it can be hard to learn for a lot of people. There were a number of first time riders in our group and I know a few people who gave up quickly because it was too hard. My opinion is the two girls were too afraid to fall and get a little wet with snow to learn to ride. I think it's difficult to learn to snowboard without getting a few bruises and being a little daring. Anyways it was a great time and the conditions were great. Lots of powder to ride in and it snowed on an off all day but was not too windy so that was nice. On the lift up the biggest moutain when it wasn't too foggy/snowy you could see all the way to the Sea of Japan and Akita City. Really an amazing view. You could also look around and see different weather. Too the left maybe snowing and dark, to the right foggy/cloudy. I felt like delivering a weather forcast.
       I could really write so much more about the last week. So many fun things but I don't have the time or energy to write more right now and I feel like you guys have read enough too. Anyways I have TONS of pictures from the trip to the Onsen (most of them my friends took). I'll post some picutres and give you a few more details on the trip. Thanks for reading and I hope you have a good week.

 From left to right it's me, Palguem, Teppei, and Yunseok. Palguem and Yunseok are from South Korea and Teppei is Japanese. This was in Daisen City where we spent an hour two on the way to the onsen. We had a city worker take this picture haha.

 I took a nap on the train on the way there. I slept a lot the night before but was still sleepy and figured it would be a late night (and it was). Sometimes the train is packed sometimes it's not depending on a couple factors. The train had lots of open space so I think this was alright. Teppei said it was alright because i'm a foreigner (he likes to joke about that).

 Playing in the snow. This was basically right outside of the Onsen hotel. You can't really see the mountains here because we were kind of in the mountains. Also tons of snow.

 The whole time we stayed there we wore Yukata which is like a traditional robe thing that Japanese people where at these types of places I guess. 

 Here is a picture before eating supper. I was so hungry but I didn't really get completely full. I ate an awesome amount of food for breakfast the next day though because it was help yourself to as much as you wanted style.

 They had a big touch screen tv that you could you use to check out information on the television series Iris. You could also take pictures and then send them to yourself for free. Everything was free. I was kind of going King Kong mode on the building.

 The second floor of the station was all full of stuff about the series called Iris. I've actually never watched it but I'm assuming it's pretty good. One of the main actors is at least a little famous even in the U.S.. Lee Byung‑hun is one of the main actors and has roles in movies like Red 2 and GI Joe too so I was familiar with him a little. 

 One thing we did while we waited for the train was check out this old house/building where samurai used to live. Samurai are cool. Also most of the group pictures we took together we did with auto-timed capture so we are not constantly asking people to take pictures for us.

 Especially the other three really like taking pictures. Always taking picutres. Then when we got back to Akita City after the trip they wanted to go do Purikura photo booth. Which is fine with me I have nothing against pictures haha \(*^-^*)/. I wasn't ready for this picture at all haha.

 I took this picture with my friend Ginwook on the mountain. Ginwook is also South Korean. I wanted to get the scenery in and we had already went a little ways down so we turned around on the slope. Because we were turned around down the hill I'm acutally basically laying down in this picutre.