Last Day Luxury

Hmmm, what to do for our last full day in a hectic crazy city? Lets go to Odaiba Onsen, an onsen 'theme park'!

First stop, check in our shoes, get our 'e-tags' and yukata and it was time to relax.

The rules of the onsen - no clothes allowed past the change rooms. Everyone there had to wear their underwear only under a yukata, but that was all. The onsen itself, all you were allowed was a bare butt and a tiny towel.

Having never been to an onsen before and growing up in a country where the only place you would find a large group of naked people is in the changerooms after a footy match, I found this a little weird!

We did the safest onsen option first - a foot onsen. A nice false stream through beautifully manicured garden. Relaxing our aching feet in a warm stream. This was wonderful, but tame, so we decided to upgrade our onsen experience.

Next stop - Doctor Fish! We paid an extra 1000 yen ($12) to sit with our feet in a small warm pool so that some small fish could nibble all the dead skin cells on our feet. OK, so everyone thinks this is disgusting, but it was actually really ticklish and fun. I had to concentrate to make sure I didn't giggle, as every giggle or twitch made the fish swim away, and well you know me - I wanted value for money. The doctor fish provided a very relaxing 15 minutes.

(These are my feet and the 'doctor fish', and no I don't have cankles - it is merely the angle the photo was taken from!)

We were on a roll, so next we thought we would try a sand bath. Another 1000 yen and we were in a heated barn like building, laying in a giant sandpit being buried up to our necks in heated sand. Another bizarre experience. The weight of the sand combined with the heat of the sand (someone said something about 40 degrees?) allowed you to feel the blood pump throughout your body. I couldn't get my wedding ring off before the sand bath, so my hand had to be wrapped in a towel before it was buried to prevent swelling of my fingers and being burnt by the metal. Another strange but very relaxing encounter, but after 10 minutes I was almost cooked.

The real 'normal' onsen was amazing. Heated mineral pools, spas and saunas of all temperatures both inside and out. Once I was accustomed to the 'get naked with a bunch of strangers' concept, the onsen was amazing.

It is amazing how exhausting it is just relaxing all day long....

Oh well, back to reality. It is now time to pack and tidy, ready for the journey home.