Japanese Spa

Tuesday, April 4, 2006

We slept in after a long day and a hard work out on our bodies. We finally decided that we wanted to try to get to the Aquarium for the day until we found out that it was about 2 hours by bus, and getting home would prove to be difficult.

A woman by the name of Heetumi at the front desk took pity on our situation, and tried to help us find something nearby to do. All of a sudden, I had a brainstorm—my joints were killing me from diving, and Maggie had always told me about how cheap spas are when she travels in Asia. Inspired, I asked for information on local spas, and we hit the jackpot. We found a spa offering a 3 hour treatment for the same cost as a 50 minute massage in DC. Plus—no tipping in Japan—bonus!

We had some time to kill prior to our spa treatment, and Heetumi recommended the American Village-which would at least be close to the spa, and would provide us with something to do rather than stare at hotel walls while we waited.

We headed to the American Village, and promptly found that we were, in fact, the only Americans IN the American Village. Basically, it’s just a hodge podge of stuff-some of it American fashion for kids in Okinawa trying to emulate American fashion. We struck it lucky though, and found some cool t-shirts and such- Al had been on a rampage making me stop at every possible store that sells t-shirts so that he could get a cool one. I am so relieved we finally found some. I totally dug the stores at American Village-like the punk stores in Tokyo, they are all blasting 80’s music as loudly as possible. I had to keep from doing my own impromptu Karaoke on the spot.

After shopping, we grabbed a quick bowl of Taco Rice-another one of Fodor’s “excellent” recommendations. I’m seriously going to email Fodor’s after this trip and tell them where to shove it.

Anyways, the taco rice-not so original. Basically, it’s like nachos—only instead of the nachos, they use rice. Not really a mind bender.

After Taco Rice we headed to the spa. We walked in to a huge tacky fountain lit up by green and red flood lights. Niiiiiice. We looked around, and there were a ton of Americans there getting treatments-GI wives mostly, and another American couple.

We settled into our 3 hour treatment. I first started with a facial, which was lovely—one of the best I’ve had. After that—75 minute massage-which was good until someone started blaring a TV in the background. And, then a body scrub. I had no idea what a scrub was, but it’s basically like an exfoliating treatment-and doesn’t feel so great when you have a bit of a burn from diving the day before.

After our treatment, we ran into Heetumi as we left the spa, and she helped us order dinner at another traditional Okinawa restaurant. Al got pork with ginger and I got champura, which is a mix of tofu, egg, cabbage, pork, and a spam-like product.

We were pretty zonked after our spa treatment, so we made it an early night after our dinner out.

Next stop--Kyoto