Onsen heaven in a city… Osaka

Joyce Belfort

8 years ago

Madness! In short, this was an onsen theme park. That’s right, all different theme, type and sort of hot spring under ONE roof in the heart of Osaka. Technically, no one ever needed to leave if one had enough money. This place had a hotel, spa around the world, shopping AND restaurantS. Any type of hot spring around the world was here. It’s the place where I got so relaxed and fed that I couldn’t bear to leave? (bank account was screaming)This was obviously a mostly nude experience, so don’t expect a ton of photos. I’ll share the experience as much as I can.

I took this photo with my phone

Upon arrival, I was VERY confused. They had many different packages at the entrance ticket vending machine. On their webpage, it was WAY simplier. Strange categories and bad English (like no ways of understanding what’s going on type).

ASAP enter the gate, it was bare foot time. Men and women baths were separated by floors. They rotate monthly i.e. this month women’s floor was the Western bath, men’s floor was the Asian bath; the following months it would be vice versa.

It was Western bath month for us girls. I showered, scrubbed and washed myself thoroughly (I was CLEAN). After cleaning myself silly, I proceeded to try various baths.

Ancient Rome – Think laying in a bath surrounded by sculptures
Cold bath – extra cold water bath in a round golden colour Jacuzzi with Rome style decorations
Blue Grotta – Italian style, meant to be Capri of Italy. The water was milky colour and the girls there told me that it has minerals to make my skin super smooth. I was a believer and stayed in there for a LONG time 😀 I felt soooo smooth
Salt / Sauna? – It was WAYYYYYYY toooooo hot for me. My feet burnt and the salt was also burning. I was out within 2min 😛
Greece medicinal bath – There were pouches of herbs in the bath. There were several of them. Each had different herbs. The water was a funny brown looking colour. Felt great though. The herbal bath really smelt good. I loved the rosemary/mint bath. Refreshing stuff.
At this point in time, I was too lazy to move. I got myself a cold bottle of water.
Open air bath – No idea what theme that was and no idea what I was doing. I was either too relaxed or I had reached critical internal temperature to stop functioning.

Only the official site had glimpse of the place http://www.spaworld.co.jp/english/onsen.html But even their photos couldn’t do these baths justice. The place was really awesome.

Alright, after all that bathing. It was time to eat… Choose okonomiya 😀 Kansai style~~ Now that I could take photos. I did not eat nude 😛