A trip to Kusatsu

Recently, I went to Kusatsu in Gunma prefecture with my girlfriend. For those not familiar with Kusatsu, it's a popular tourist destination, known famously for its hot springs. The water there is said to have healing properties, so naturally people go there to rest and recover. You can get to Kusatsu by bus or by train, but we took the bus due to being the cheaper option of the two. However, from Tokyo, the trip takes about 4 hours with a pit stop or two along the way.

One thing you will notice when you get to Kusatsu is the smell of rotten eggs. That's the smell of sulfur, and it is most prevalent in the central area, Yubatake. I am not sure if I am in the minority, but I suffered from headaches during my stay, due to the sulfur. It eased up when I moved away from Yubatake (or stayed in my hotel room), but my headaches were at their worst when I was hanging around there. For anyone who suffers from the same reactions like I did should be aware. Weirdly enough, my girlfriend had no problem with the smell at all.

Yubatake

In any case, upon arrival to Kusatsu, we headed to the hot springs, specifically the Sainokawara Open-air bath. Admittedly, I have never been a fan of the hot springs, despite having been a number of times in the past. I am really self conscious about entering a public bath naked with a bunch of other people, especially when you're the only foreigner there. In the past, when I traveled with a friend, it took the edge off, as we could just go to one corner and talk. But my friend wasn't there this time, and since the hot spring is divided in to the men's and women's section, I was pretty much going on my own. Fortunately, I was left alone to my own thoughts and admiring the scenery of the open air bath, and people went about minding their own business. Despite that, I'm still not a fan of hot springs - though I am willing to give it a try from time to time.

Afterwards, we finally checked in to our hotel. My girlfriend had booked everything and it was a nice, spacious room that had its own private outdoor bath. The outdoor bath section also had a small latch so we could have a view of outside if we wanted, but due to construction that seems to be ongoing, it was mostly a view of scaffolding. Fortunately, the outdoor bath was set up in such a way that nobody else can see in to other customers' baths. 

Room with included private outdoor bath.

The next day, we headed over to Kusatsu Onsen Netsunoyu, a pretty short walk from our hotel. The main attraction there is the showcasing of the dance used to cool down the water. The idea behind it is that the hot water is usually around 95 degrees celcius - too hot for people to enter - and that this dance was developed to cool down the water without diluting its natural healing properties. They showed a video before the performance explaining the history of the dance, and it even included English subtitles - though for some reason, the subtitles stopped 3/4 in to the video. Apparently the translator just gave up at that point. The dance was fascinating to watch, in the way that it's supposed to cool down the water just enough for people to be able to enter it.

We later checked out a small zoo, Kusatsu Tropical Wonderland, which apparently focused on tropical plants and animals. My girlfriend enjoyed feeding the monkeys, but the main section - a tropical dome - contained the majority of the zoo's animals, including various reptiles, birds and monkeys - including one monkey that was born in the 1960s. 

Eventually, we left Kusatsu at around 3pm by bus, and didn't get back to Tokyo until after 8pm. However, unlike the trip going to Kusatsu, there was only two other people besides us in the bus, so we had ample space, and silence, to be able to take a nap. 

It has been a while since we went for a trip somewhere that wasn't Tokyo or Chiba. If it wasn't for the CCP virus, I would definitely recommend checking out Kusatsu and the hot springs. Just be aware that The place is going to smell like bad eggs, especially around Yubatake - and if you're body doesn't take too kindly to the sulfur, there are other places in Japan where you can enjoy hot springs - though Kusatsu has recently been named as the number 1 spot in Japan for hot springs.