Manza Onsen - part 2

 Back with part 2! At the end of part 1 my feet were cold and I had decided to return to the hotel. I'm almost at the hotel entrance and I'm thinking that as soon as I get back I'll go investigate the other hot bath.

The second hot bath is on the 6th floor and our room is on the 6th floor, now that's convenient! The entrance is just around the corner from these stairs.

Here we are! For anyone not familiar with the Japanese Onsen system the red noren (curtain) is the entrance for the women's bath  and the blue is for men. 

In-between the two entrances is a fountain for people to drink spring water. There's a basket full of paper cups next to it. If one soaks to long in the bath it's easy to get dehydrated so it's a good idea to drink water before and after bathing.

Before getting into the bath one is expected to get clean first. This is the area for scrubbing up. The hotel provides soap and shampoo/rinse.

Going into the bathing room. It's kind of steamy but not too bad. I should note again: the only reason I can take these pictures is because I'm the only person in here at this time. 

The view from the window.

Hot spring water continuously pouring into the bath.

The spring water has a very high Sulphur content level.  This feels great to soak in. After about 20 minutes I was cooked and it was time to go back to the room.

After I was leaving the bathing facility I took a picture of the outside of it through a window.  One might think, if the Onsen bath is on the 6th floor why can I see the ground? The answer is that the hotel is built on the side of a hill. 

I stopped by the gift shop on the way to diner. This looks like an interesting gift.

Time for the day's main event! It's diner time! (second night). 

This is my happy face!

This is my crazy happy face! (more crazy than happy?)

This is my "if you come any closer to me I'm going to kiss you" happy face.

And, this is Emi's happy face. Diner time at an Onsen hotel is always a lot of fun.

Next morning, last day, time for breakfast.

Coffee is good! After breakfast well take one last soak in the bath and then pack for our trip home.

The view from the hotel shuttle bus waiting room.

We got lucky and were assigned the front seat of the shuttle bus. This is the view through the front window as we head down the road to the train station.

The bus has snow chains on the tires.

The bus driver is flying down the hill like a race car driver. He's either an experienced professional or he's crazy! 

Either way, this is exciting!

The blueish color at the top of the picture is the tint on the windshield.

Here comes a snow plow.

As we got close to town the driver stopped and took the snow chains off the tires. I could tell this is a daily event for him because it only took him about 5 minutes to take the chains off and start driving back down the hill.

The town and the train station are just up ahead.

This is our shuttle bus parked on the backside of the train station. 

The front entrance of the train station.

I took a shot of the train schedule. We are on the 12:47 train. We don't want to miss it!

Out on the platform waiting for the train.

Here comes the train! Is this our train? People are confused.

We weren't sure if this was our train, but after checking with the train conductor we were assured that this was indeed the right train for us. 

All aboard! There were only a few passengers 😁

Anyway, this was the beginning of our long train ride home so I'll end the adventure here.

Thanks for stopping by!
Mike

Bonus shots!