hotspring in hot summer

My friends, you're in for another late account of my second Japan experience. In many ways different from the first one (the experience, not the account). For example I feel more relaxed and happy about travelling on the road, by changing plans by the moment (the only schedule to respect is the reservation at the ryokans, that imperatively pretend you to be there no later than 6pm, otherwise they could not be able to serve you dinner..... on the other hand, in Japan at 6pm it is almost night, and most activities, temples, museums etc close at 5, so there is not much left to do...)

For example, today I had planned to leave early from Nara and go back to Kyoto to see some other stuff. But then I said, what the heck, isn't Nara the heart of ancient Japan? isn't it worth spending a few more hours here? So I headed for the older set of temples, which are located indeed outside the city. Dropped the luggage at the JR station lockers (what a fantastic custom we have lost, in all Europe, because of the fear of terrorism), and found my way with the bus to reach one complex of temples dating from 670 to about 1340 (with some more recent reconstructions, since temples are all made in wood and catch fire easily during the centuries). Some unbelievable statues of bronze Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, testifying the indian origins of japanese (and chinese, by that matter) buddhism (because of the indian-like styles of many statues). Even some unexpected surprise, such as traces of greek culture, like the decoration of some altar with sculpted vine leaves (likely,a trace of the north civilization of the Indo river overtaken by the hellenistic Alexander for quite some time).

I wanted to go also to another set of temples, where the oldest buddhist temple in Japan dating 607 is still standing tall, the oldest wood building in the world they say (it's true our architects in the ancient mediterranean basin, from Egyptians to Romans, built everything in bricks and marble...), with its 5-stories pagoda and again a treasure of art that one cannot find even in Kyoto (all too obvious, since Kyoto developed in full only a few centuries later). Interestingly, at the bus stop on the way back I made friends with a little girl that was waiting for the bus, together with her mum and the younger sister. I sold her an italian finger-in-the-cheek technology that she trusted enthusiastically, and won some nice photos as a payback. And on the train to Kyoto I made friends again with two old guys, in their 80s, the one more shy and courteous, the other more finely cultured (he knew lots of stuff and travelled with an old guide of Japan full of stitches and pages attached with scotch tape) very outgoing, probably also because of the Suntory whisky (albeit diluted with water) he was sipping from a can.

Everything is small in this country, or smaller. Cars (but some are big too), ceilings, chairs... when in the hotel I can't never find a pair of slippers that fit my feet. I imagine what could happen when some of those giant round-bearded mormons from Utah (I said mormons, not morons...) or some health-looking californian big-guy come visiting here, they won't even fit in the bed, let it go stuffing their knees under the table for dinner. Everything is small and cut to size, for example I am putting together a full collection of those little toothpaste tubes they give you for free in the hotels... gee, they are tiny!!
I am spending a fortune in these (small!) vending machines that you find at every corner to buy refreshments. Such machines are widespread, and way more frequent in the streets than the trash bins (totally unnecessary, on the other hand, since the japanese are by far the cleanest people on earth and they probably would rather swallow their waste, to keep the streets neat). They sell everything in these machines, from the obvious cigarettes and condoms, to drinks of 1,000 different kinds, including Suntory whisky diluted with water, to... replacement underwear! The busword is: Japan is an easy society, where the living runs smoothly (at least on the surface). Therefore, for just 120yen you can buy a can of Miiu lemon water, containing nothing less than microelements from the Muroto deep seawater: "Deep seawater is seawater that has settled at the bottom of the ocean having beome cold and heavy, and which spends about 2,000 years circulating the world's oceans". Cool, huh? (I wonder how did they estimated that figure of 2,000 years..... why not 4,000?)

So, after a longish travel (3hrs of shinkansen bullet train, 10' of blurbing slow odakyu local train, 50 minutes of bus winding uphill) I arrived in the beautiful mountain village of Hakone, at the slopes of the mount Fuji. Here at 800m altitude the night is fresh, even coldish. The Yugiriso ryokan is nothing special, a modern interpretation of the hostel, looking more like a low-class motel. But it has its "pluses", as I will tell later. Here the service is more basic, in any respects, the maids are kind but less careful, and are dressed more 'country-style' (well, japanese country-style :-) than the city geisha-look. The food is good but far from excellent, for example their kaiseki tonight (it's becoming a tradition in such ryokans) was quicker and also with some pre-confectioned food (I found a little piece of plastic wrap in the fish).
That's a little in the style of the lieu, Hakone is your classical popular holiday resort of Japan, only 1+half hours away from Tokyo, and as usual in such tourist traps, prices are high and quality gets lower (I pay just about 15 euros less than in Kyoto, for a far lesser quality location). But this place... has a hotspring!! In fact, this region is heavily volcanic (remember the old white cone of the Fuji?), and geysers, hotsprings, smoke-pots (?) are scattered everywhere. Hotspring pools (in japanese they are called osen) are very popular, and many hotel propose them. So, right before dinner I treated myself with a fantastic splash in the outdoor pool: a circle of rocks with a stone channel dripping slowly water from underground, at a temperature of about 57°C, strong smell of sulphur, and vapours coming from the surface of the water. All around a nice garden, with some pine and cedars, and bushes of hydrangea.