Relaxation Orihime Experience
There was one big problem at this ryokan. This awesome feature called Orihime (kind of like its own spa inside ryokan) on the top floor was women only feature. No men allowed. Shawn felt a little left out when Amelie and Rika were pretty excited to use that facility. So, we ordered the massage practitioner for Shawn. The lady came to the room and give him a massage for 40 minutes for 4400 yen. Note: Shawn thought it would have been better if the practitioner was a male to get a full relaxation effect. In a meantime, Orihime was blocked only for us almost the entire 90 minutes (with the secret codes you get from the front desk, and numbers position on the keypad randomly changes every time you open the pad). Pretty darn secure. Other two ladies were there for the first 20 minutes or so but they quietly left. There were 2 different kinds of hot springs tubs outside on the rooftop. One to lay down in the water so that you can see the stars in the sky when it’s clear (although it was raining hard in our case, they had a awning opened above the tub so that we didn’t get rain.) The other one was a herb bath. Inside, there were shower rooms, vanity room, massage chairs, drink fountain, planetarium room to relax and therapeutic aroma steamer was on. By the way, the massage chairs they had in there, was something else. It massages the entire body including your arms, hands, and legs all at once. Rika had to do two sets of 20 minutes session. It was so quiet and peaceful. If we had this room in our house, we would never leave the room… OMG, ladies, if you go to Takayama, you must stay at this ryokan only to experience this spa! It’ll be worth it.
One thought on “DAY 2 – Relaxation Orihime Experience リラクゼーション”織姫”体験”
I don’t know if the trade of personal massage was fair trade-off for the spa, but I’m glad the girls got to enjoy it. I wanted the massage for the legitimate reason of taking care of the top half of my back being tweaked. When the girl showed up, I have to admit I thought it was a bonus that she was a cute young woman, rather than someone who looks like they are actually one of the old maids. But in reality this girl didn’t have enough power, and didn’t stick to the regions I asked for. It helped, and was nice (although she tried to massage the outside of my thighs, which was largely ineffective, and was too nervous to massage the inside of my thighs – which would have at least been fun LOL), but I would have benefited more if it was either a stronger woman or a guy. I normally prefer women though – just an added level of relaxation.
I went to the hot springs bath after and sat on the massage chair for a while after that, and that was certainly more effective. That chair had muscle!