spirited away

Legend has it that the best cure for a hangover is a bowl of oily salty ramen and a dip in a 40 degree Onsen. Today I tried this out, and found it to be true.

I went with my Japanese language class to Dogo Onsen - one of the oldest Onsen in Japan and, it is said, the inspiration for the hot baths in the animated film Spirited Away. We drove for two hours deep into the isles of Shikoku. The town of Dogo was totally dinky. Old and well maintained, it definitely had a fantasy feel about it. The Onsen building (pic above) is situated at the top of Dogo hondori (a covered shopping arcade). When I first arrived in Japan I went to and wrote about Mihara Onsen but a visit to Dogo confirmed for me that the bright lights and electric zinging of Mihara Onsen is not what these traditional baths are all about. At Dogo, even though it is really famous and steeped in legend, the bath consists of only one relatively small room lined with shower fixtures and little wooden stools along three of the four walls. At its centre is a deep stone pool and at the centre of the pool is a delicate carved stone fountain chugging water. The pool has a lip that you sit in up to your waist. The stone is hot from the water and perfectly smooth and comfortable (decades of bums have worn it perfectly). The one wall that has no showers is dominated by a blue and white tiled mural. The water and the surrounding harmonize beautifully. You really do feel stress and toxins (and beer) just drain out of you into the water and away. I could only tolerate the heat for about ten minutes after which I trotted kaalgat to a shower stall and rinsed myself with ice cold water from a bamboo bucket.

Afterwards I admitted to a Japanese friend that I was craving ice-cream (I felt guilty wanting such a decadent thing after such a cleansing experience). Oh! she said, its very common to want something milky after going to an Onsen and to prove it to me she showed me the vending machines in the lobby - full of milk both plain and flavoured. She had something better in mind though and took us a little further outside the building to a swanky gelato place with crazy flavours. I had a sea salt soft serve. It was utterly delicious and faintly faintly gritty; a creamy electrolyte feast.

The shopping to be had on the hondori was very touristy and Onsen related. The look of the shops, the lighting and bright omiyage (souvenirs) were pitched to perfectly twang your consumer strings so I duly bought some orange jelly and special mochi balls (sweet rice) - both of which are particular to the region.

On the bus coming home I had a full tummy post Onsen nap. Ahhh, heaven.