Tobira Onsen

A private bus full of senior citizens took us 45 minutes up into the mountains to the baths. We were asked to leave our shoes at the door and use their slippers (took them a bit to find their biggest ones for Chris, which were still too small.) They don't wear shoes inside and have an entirely different set of slippers by the toilet that are only for that room. Very interesting.

We were given a run down on the baths - there are 3, separated by gender, all overlooking the forest with the sounds of the waterfall just below. Then we were asked to change into our yakutas before wandering the halls.

This is a big ask for our teen boys, and they were pretty leery of baring it all in front of strangers, but in the end they both did it! And it was worth it, the baths are amazing.

In the evening we had a 9 course feast in our robes, which kept slipping off the boys. The octogenarians at the next table would have gotten quite a show of green and blue fruit of the loom had they been paying any attention.

After dinner we got back to our room to find they'd laid out the futons for sleeping.Read more