So Ryan and I finally arrived at the sento in Shizuoka. After such a long day... cycling up the mountain after Hakone, the great downhill ride, and tough, dangerous ride from Fuji city, the sento was a site for sore eyes.
When we arrived, we parked our bikes at the sento. I should tell you about unloading our bikes. Ryan and I were both carrying bags that sat atop a rack that was mounted to our bicycle seat post. We split our tent into two parts and each carried half. Usually we slept in a tent close to our bikes so we never really worried about anything being stolen. That's kind of a funny thing about being American. We are always mindful about leaving anything alone because we're afraid it might be stolen. In Japan though, it's so much safer. Nonetheless, we took everything of value off our bikes: our bike computers, lights, my bicycle seat (a brooks leather saddle, http://
We went into the sento and it was bustling with people... all dressed in the same lemon yellow and lime green pajamas! Needless to say, I thought it was a little funny. I mean, everyone was wearing the same thing! So I was a bit embarrassed to check in, knowing that I was going to be clad in the very same pajamas in a matter of minutes! Ahh! But we were exhausted, so in we went.
The check-in was painless. We were issued our lime green pajamas and told we could enter. The sento was amazing to us. There were free massage chairs, a community room where people could drink and watch TV, men's and women's TV rooms, a community Karaoke room, free internet, restaurants... everything you could want! And they gave us elastic wrist bands with bar codes on them so we could buy anything we wanted, just by scanning our wrist band at any vending machine, restaurant, or shop!
But what did we want?... the relaxing waters of the sento! So we went in and it was great! It was such a relief from the day's rough ride.
The next day we woke up and I was ready to hit the road! I went to the sento again, then jumped in the shower, and after that I was ready to go. I packed my things and went into the common room to meet Ryan. And there he was, sick as a dog! He was pale and looked like he was dying. I guess his not having any warm clothing the previous day had taken its toll on him. He told me he couldn't cycle that day and asked me to go down to the front lobby and tell the staff we would be staying another day. It wasn't really a problem because we had given ourselves plenty of extra time to get to Hiroshima, but for me personally, I didn't want to spend a whole extra day in the sento. But we had no choice. I guess one good thing was that it was raining that day... so maybe Ryan's being sick was a blessing in disguise.
Day 4 in the sento was terrible... it seemed to pass by so slowly. Everyone dressed in the same lime and yellow pajamas... I felt like I was trapped in a prison. I wandered between the different places at the hotel... the massage chair room, the TV room, the common room (to check on Ryan dying). I read, I used the internet... but the day just lingered on. I was determined to get on the road the next day.
By the end of the day Ryan was feeling a bit better and thought he could cycle the next day. So we decided to get up early the next morning to try to make up for lost time. At the super sento, if you stay past 3am you have to pay an overnight charge, so that's the time we decided to get up... 3am!
(To be continued... day 5, our most dangerous day!)
Here's a link to the super sento if you're interested!:
http://
Jabble英会話スクール
http://
When we arrived, we parked our bikes at the sento. I should tell you about unloading our bikes. Ryan and I were both carrying bags that sat atop a rack that was mounted to our bicycle seat post. We split our tent into two parts and each carried half. Usually we slept in a tent close to our bikes so we never really worried about anything being stolen. That's kind of a funny thing about being American. We are always mindful about leaving anything alone because we're afraid it might be stolen. In Japan though, it's so much safer. Nonetheless, we took everything of value off our bikes: our bike computers, lights, my bicycle seat (a brooks leather saddle, http://
We went into the sento and it was bustling with people... all dressed in the same lemon yellow and lime green pajamas! Needless to say, I thought it was a little funny. I mean, everyone was wearing the same thing! So I was a bit embarrassed to check in, knowing that I was going to be clad in the very same pajamas in a matter of minutes! Ahh! But we were exhausted, so in we went.
The check-in was painless. We were issued our lime green pajamas and told we could enter. The sento was amazing to us. There were free massage chairs, a community room where people could drink and watch TV, men's and women's TV rooms, a community Karaoke room, free internet, restaurants... everything you could want! And they gave us elastic wrist bands with bar codes on them so we could buy anything we wanted, just by scanning our wrist band at any vending machine, restaurant, or shop!
But what did we want?... the relaxing waters of the sento! So we went in and it was great! It was such a relief from the day's rough ride.
The next day we woke up and I was ready to hit the road! I went to the sento again, then jumped in the shower, and after that I was ready to go. I packed my things and went into the common room to meet Ryan. And there he was, sick as a dog! He was pale and looked like he was dying. I guess his not having any warm clothing the previous day had taken its toll on him. He told me he couldn't cycle that day and asked me to go down to the front lobby and tell the staff we would be staying another day. It wasn't really a problem because we had given ourselves plenty of extra time to get to Hiroshima, but for me personally, I didn't want to spend a whole extra day in the sento. But we had no choice. I guess one good thing was that it was raining that day... so maybe Ryan's being sick was a blessing in disguise.
Day 4 in the sento was terrible... it seemed to pass by so slowly. Everyone dressed in the same lime and yellow pajamas... I felt like I was trapped in a prison. I wandered between the different places at the hotel... the massage chair room, the TV room, the common room (to check on Ryan dying). I read, I used the internet... but the day just lingered on. I was determined to get on the road the next day.
By the end of the day Ryan was feeling a bit better and thought he could cycle the next day. So we decided to get up early the next morning to try to make up for lost time. At the super sento, if you stay past 3am you have to pay an overnight charge, so that's the time we decided to get up... 3am!
(To be continued... day 5, our most dangerous day!)
Here's a link to the super sento if you're interested!:
http://
Jabble英会話スクール
http://
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