It’s hard to know exactly what day it is at this point, but the jet lag mitigation plan seems to have worked. We’re tired but fully functional.

Japan is by far the most confusing place to navigate of any of our foreign in destinations. Addresses are nonsensical at best. Places are simple referenced by but is nearby – probably great for locals, but not foreigners. Luckily, everyone has been particularly friendly to us so far. On two separate occasions random people approached us to help with directions. Possibly they just wanted to practice English, but whatever.

The main destination today was a hot spring (温泉) town. Nine public bath houses are spread throughout the town, with additional ones in the traditional ryokans (旅館). The faint sulfur bouquet is not the barrier to entry so much as the scalding 60C degree waters. 50C was our limit although we boiled our toes in the hottest (70+). We kept ourselves to vacant ones as I didn’t wanted any Japanese men staring at my gaijin white ass.

Possibly the best part of this leg was the traditional Japanese meal. Aside from the gelatin cube of veggies and some strangely viscous vegetables it was all delicious. But mostly is was weird and different, which is great.

Tomorrow: monkeys!