Don’t ask me how I ended up on the site, because I couldn’t even tell you, but apparently there is an amusement park/spa in Hakone, Japan, where you can soak in an enormous pool of coffee, or green tea, or wine, or sake. All of the pools are decorated with giant utensils (teapot, wine bottle, coffee and sake barrels) that “serve” your bathing liquid to you. If anyone happens to have been to this spa, please comment on this post! I am so curious about the effects of bathing in coffee. Cost is around 3,500 yen, or 40 bucks at the time of this writing.
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The closest I’ve come to doing this is at Olympic Spa in Los Angeles (sorry guys, women only). They have one pool full of a Korean medicinal tea. It smells very relaxing. I don’t think it’s considered more unusual than soaking in a lavendar or mint infused tub.
I bet they have the coffee tub because of the reports awhile ago that coffee in beauty products was good for increasing circulation and reducing cellulite (iirc). The giant serving vessels are a hoot.
I hope they use cheap wine for this bath! :O
http://spooninandforkin.com
If I ever get the chance to visit Hakone, Japan, I will try this! The tea would be easy to do at home, I think I’ve even seen “bath tea bags” in some stores, probably chamomile tea.
I visited Yunessun in June, 2006 and it was awesome! This place appeals to kids and adults of all ages. I wish we had something like this in the US. The pools are heated by natural springs so its open year round. Its set into a gorgeous wooded hillside in Hakone. The outdoor red wine, tea, sake and coffee baths are quite warm (hot actually) as they are heated by natural hot springs. You can actually smell the coffee in the coffee bath. There are also mineral/rock baths to soak in outdoors as well. There are beautiful waterfalls and streams on the property and a natural geyser.. There are some small outdoor waterslides for the kids and you can swim in the cave under the water slides. There are indoor pools as well. One has small fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. Another has salt water like the Dead Sea (but it burns). Another is themed like a Turkish Bath. Yet another has dark blue water and has an enclosed tank of jellyfish. The main indoor pool is called God’s Aegean Sea and has thunder, lightning and rain special effects. THey also have a traditional onsen on the premises which I did not try. I loved this place tremendously and would go back in a heartbeat. It should not be missed if you find yourself in Japan. Its about 2 hours from Tokyo by train. so you can see it as a day trip. You can get there by Shinkansen to Odawara (visit the castle there if you can) and then one more train and a bus. They have a gift shop on the premises that sells the packages to recreate their baths. They also sell inlaid wood boxes that can only be opened by sliding certain inlaid panels in a particular sequence. For more photos of Yunessun go to Webshots.com.
Yunessun has a chocolate bath right now. They call the theme style pools “swimsuit zone”. The swimsuit zone is always crowded. it is just sitting in the small pools, not swimming around. It is fun to try once. I liked the more traditional hot spring bath better. They call it “Mori no yu”. It is famous for healing skin ailments. You can get discount passes at local hotels. they also use a wristband system that you use for purchasing, your locker and checking-out. I know of people kicked out for tattoos, so beware if you need to.