Open up and say Ansen!!

We left our respective hosts families and headed to the much awaited Ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. Our Ryokan is also an “ansen,” or hot springs bath house. As we entered the building, situated on BEAUTIFUL Lake Biwa (think Loch Ness sans the monster) we were greeted with deep bows and instructions. Rule 1. Wear the Yukota (cotton kimono) at all times whilst in Ryokan (after 2 weeks of business attire, we were all ready to lounge around in bathrobes for a day Rule 2. no shoes or slippers, but you may wear toe-socks (photo to follow)
Rule 3. relax! There’s that indistinct (and, seemingly anti-Japanese word again)but his place meant it.
The Ryokan isn’t yer average hotel and 4 of us ladies shared a single room. As we opened the door to our room and entered the living/sleeping room, the four of us could be heard unanimously uttering an overjoyed curse word under our breaths as the space was BREATHTAKING. Photos do the place no justice, as everything was “just right” about the place, from the central living room, to the view, to the toilet (it had a sink on top of it), to the outdoor tub. Immediately, we changed into our yukotas and began to plan how we’d spend the next 18 hours.
First stop: public bath.
A word on public baths in Japan: As was the case with our ansen, baths are typically single sexed and very naked (in a Jerry Seinfeld kind of way)The first area is for disrobing, weighing yourself (not), and using the sink. You enter the bath room in yer birthday suit, an idea that puritanical Americans might find discomfitting.
However, I'll be the first to agree that once everyone else is birthday’ed, the sensation is strangely exhilarating. Once in the bathroom, you must scrub yerself clean whilst sitting on a wooden stool before entererin the bath. After you’ve scrubbed, you may enter the bath. Our bathhouse had 3 tubs, one interior, one exterior (overlooking lake Biwa) and a cold plunge. We stayed until red and pickled then got ready for dinner

Dinner:
Ever imagine what a 13 course Japanese dinner would look like? We filed in to the dining room with our hand-selected yukotas and were seated in front of edible art. You can check out the photo but it does the meal no justice. A train of delicacies were brought to our table, each one more interesting (and even I’ll admit it, weird) than the next. I became the official repository of all uneaten raw fish (give it to Lexie, she'll eat it) and believe that I’ve finally had my fill of raw fish. We drank sake and beer and then some more sake and beer afterwhich the karaoke machine was rolled out. There’s something about singing Engleburt Humperdinck in a Yukota that really makes a girl go wild. We left dinner then headed back to our rooms to prepare for another dip at the bath. When we got back to our rooms, we were pleasantly surprised to see that our living room had been made into a giant slumber party room during our meal. To celebrate, we drank more sake.
Morning:
Feeling the not-so-nice affects of the night before, we reluctantly awoke to Emilie’s alarm clock (let that be a lesson in overinduldgance). We hobbled into the dining room for our morning meal and sat down to a 12 course fish breakfast. Though it was beautiful, sake + fish breakfast makes for some weird indigestion. We left early that morning back to Tokyo, hectic Tokyo.