In early January, I was asked if I wanted to go on an onsen trip by one of the niji guys and 4 other people. It was meant to be an onsen trip with a cozy group of 6 people, but because two of the people in that group couldnt make it and potentially some more, he ended up inviting another 8 to make a total group of 15. He spent a lot of time and effort preparing for it, and it was a really great trip. We spent one night at a ryokan in Yamanashi prefecture with a perfect view of Mt. Fuji from our room.
Our all girls room
Lunch: ほうとう (Houtou). Which to this day I still have no idea what it is, but essentially its thick home made udon noodles in a thick broth and lots of veggies, including pumpkin!
We then walked to Tsutaya to grab movies for later that night and came out with Inception, an hour long special of Japanese "real" horror videos where ghosts make an appearance in home videos, and a romantic comedy-esque Japanese movie. We watched all of them including Ted, a movie that one of the guys brought. The Japanese horror clips were especially fun to watch. We crammed 15 people in one tatami room covered with futons and watched in total darkness, screaming in sync. It was also my first time watching Ted, and although it was as expected, very crude humour, I enjoyed it more than I'd like to admit. And I also enjoyed the Japanese romantic comedy movie more than I'd like to admit, inappropriate jokes included.
Oops, skipped too far into the night. I can never blog in order...
Anyways, after Tsutaya we went to the ryokan which was a lot prettier than anyone expected. It was 8,800 per person a night, breakfast included. The onsen was also a lot more luxurious than we thought and could almost battle Oedo Onsen on the enjoyability scale. The outside bath had small bridges that connected to four different baths and it was surrounded by snow. We had a snowball fight at the onsen, which i dont think one can say quite often. I dont think I can enjoy an onsen without snow anymore...its the perfect balance of hot and cold. We could also hear screams from the guys side, and as we speculated, they were having a snowball fight also.
Since dinner was im an hour, we only had a quick dip before meeting the guys at the dining hall. Dinner was all you can eat shabu shabu!
After dinner we were supposed to onsen again, but since we wanted to rest our stomachs before baring them again, we rented a room for an hour long ping pong match. You'd think an hour is too long for ping pong, but no no no. We all got really into it and many were actually very good. Now that I think of it, the people who went on this trip were all very open to sports and although some of the girls may look girly, they're all very adventurous and willing to do anything.
The guys were joking around and used their slippers as rackets, thinking that going against the girls team with normal ones were gonna be too easy of a match. They lost and were forced to do 15 push ups.
After that it was onsen time again, and when we came back we all met up in one room for drinking and movies and puzzles. 1000 pieces to be exact. At first, we were like puzzles?! Really??
And then we proceeded with piecing them together for the next 4 hours. It may sound ridiculous, but this was also part of the fun we had that night.
Hell yeah we finished it. The planner of the trip, receiving the honour of finishing the last piece of the puzzle. The last one piece of the one piece puzzle.
After that we watched movies and then slept all in that one room, everyone dozing off at around 4:30-5am ish. We woke up 3 hours later for breakfast groggy eyed but ready to eat.
Ryokan breakfast is awesome as always. Unlimited coffee and orange juice included.
You may think its a little over doing it, but we onsen-ed again, this time going to the top floor for a different onsen bath. This one had a huge window view of fuji san right by the bath and it was very picturesque. Too bad theres no pictures!
So I'll give you guys this one instead. All the girls in shower caps.
I think the guys beat us in the photo contest though...
Trying to decide what to do after we checked out, we decided on visiting a cheesecake store nearby to look for souvenirs and lounge around.
"Do a cheesecake face!"
The new york cheesecake. Not as good as my mom's, but still plenty good.
After finishing the heavy dessert, we headed out for some fun in the snow right by the lake. By "fun in the snow" I mean violently pushing each other until were all soaked and our hands and faces blushed with colour.
Oh boys.......what are you doing.
If you throw the plates through the ring, you'll be blessed with luck in the love realm.
A view just like Canada.
Once we made our way down we took the bus back to Shinjuku. If you thought this trip would end with us going home straight after, you're underestimating our college student energy capacity.
We all headed for Niji Volleyball right after, some of us actually bringing volleyball wear on the trip itself to prepare. Sporty people unite!
This was a great ending to the trip. All the guys showed off their spiking chops and it was admittedly, very impressive. I haven't played volleyball in roughly 3-4 years and I forgot how much I loved the sport. I hope we have more of these events in the future!
As always after Niji events we headed out for Saizerya dinner where we ate for 2 hours, and although we said goodbye to most of the people there, I visited the Hoshien lounge (an international dorm) for more socializing. No drinking for me, just chatting.
I got home at 11:30 and clocked out at 12, the earliest I slept in a while..
It was a really fun trip all in all, and I'm immensly greatful for all the people I've met so far!
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