Onsen, Snow and Yoga
About 10:30 this morning, it started snowing again, which, according to yours truly, makes it official...it has snowed here more this year than the prior 3 years combined. Except today's snow was a really heavy, wet snow. All day you could hear these huge "kerplops" as snow that was weighing even itself down fell from places higher up.
As luck would have it, it's a Tuesday, which means yoga class. A Japanese friend tipped me off earlier in the season that the much beloved hot spring (onsen) in the neighboring town (Ogawa) runs relaxation yoga classes on Tuesdays. I've always been curious about yoga but never really tried it, so I figured it was a good opportunity, although I have to admit, any remotely valid excuse to get to this hot spring... :-)
I happen to think onsens are best visited when it's snowing. There's nothing like soaking outside in a natural pool of hot water from the shoulders down, while from the shoulders up, you're being brushed by falling snow. Tonight did not disappoint. There are forested hills surrounding this onsen, so as you walked outside tonight, you were instantly greeted by a hill of white rising out of the steam from the pools with the sky dotted with snowflakes. There weren't many people tonight (the driving conditions were not great...I realized how incredibly NOT all-weather my car's tires are), so I had one pool all to myself. Part of it was covered, and I sat in this part for awhile, watching the snow fall just behind reach. The snowflakes eventually called me out into the open. The snowflakes were so big, heavy and wet, sitting beneath them was almost like a baptism. If you fixed your eyes on one spot in front of you, the snow turned into a meteor shower, the flakes not gently floating from the sky to the earth, but zooming down all around you.
I usually go to yoga et al with friends, but neither could make it tonight. As I sat there alone in the outdoor hot spring, relaxing after yoga and ganbanyoku (hot rock sauna room), watching the snow fall and decorate the landscape, observing the young bamboo tree so heavy with snow it was nestling against the earth, it's leaves poised just above the water, I thought....
"Boy, I'm turning WAY too Japanese."
As luck would have it, it's a Tuesday, which means yoga class. A Japanese friend tipped me off earlier in the season that the much beloved hot spring (onsen) in the neighboring town (Ogawa) runs relaxation yoga classes on Tuesdays. I've always been curious about yoga but never really tried it, so I figured it was a good opportunity, although I have to admit, any remotely valid excuse to get to this hot spring... :-)
I happen to think onsens are best visited when it's snowing. There's nothing like soaking outside in a natural pool of hot water from the shoulders down, while from the shoulders up, you're being brushed by falling snow. Tonight did not disappoint. There are forested hills surrounding this onsen, so as you walked outside tonight, you were instantly greeted by a hill of white rising out of the steam from the pools with the sky dotted with snowflakes. There weren't many people tonight (the driving conditions were not great...I realized how incredibly NOT all-weather my car's tires are), so I had one pool all to myself. Part of it was covered, and I sat in this part for awhile, watching the snow fall just behind reach. The snowflakes eventually called me out into the open. The snowflakes were so big, heavy and wet, sitting beneath them was almost like a baptism. If you fixed your eyes on one spot in front of you, the snow turned into a meteor shower, the flakes not gently floating from the sky to the earth, but zooming down all around you.
I usually go to yoga et al with friends, but neither could make it tonight. As I sat there alone in the outdoor hot spring, relaxing after yoga and ganbanyoku (hot rock sauna room), watching the snow fall and decorate the landscape, observing the young bamboo tree so heavy with snow it was nestling against the earth, it's leaves poised just above the water, I thought....
"Boy, I'm turning WAY too Japanese."
posted by Mandy | 11:44 PM
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