Hokkaido Japan

We just finished our 5 days tour of Hokkaido. It's our second tour to Japan, and second tour with Signet Tour. As usual, food was wonderful, lodging was great, and hot springs hot

Hokkaido is known for its dairy products and seafood. After the milk scare in Taiwan, we went a little crazy. Had ice cream daily, fresh milk daily, and bought 10bags of soft milk candy (Hokkaido specialty) to bring back with us. Every meal was like a feast. We had all kinds of fish, scallops, crabs (grilled, steamed, stewed, fried, and raw), squid, sea urchin (there's a special type of sea urchin called, and I kid you not, "horse shit sea urchin", it actually looks like a black donut with tiny spikes).

This time, we stayed at hot spring hotels for 3 nights. And for 2 of those 3 nights, we slept on traditional tatami. In Japanese culture, hot spring equals to naked public bath. I had a hard time last year with my first Japanese hot spring experience. Basically, you stripe naked in the "locker room", and take with you a tiny hand towel to the public bath area, and shower yourself while seating down. Then you go into the hot spring "bath" all naked, with no towels to hide anything. Why do people do that? Well, in traditional Japanese homes, and in our hotel rooms, the actual shower/bath tub is tiny. One hotel we stayed at had the sink, toilet, and bath tub all in a tiny closet sized room. Not the most comfortable showering/cleansing setting. And then there's the special body scrub, hair shampoo and conditioner, lotions, etc, that's available for use at the public bath area. Wei and I both scrubbed ourselves from head to toe with the peeling gel, and have our skins feeling soft and silky. Then there are different types of hot springs. There is iron spring, salt spring, sulfur spring, dead sea spring, and some other that I couldn't understand. They all benefit different parts of our body, and supposedly promotes good health. So, we would bath once when we check into the hotel, once before bedtime, and once more before breakfast the next day. Result? I am no longer conscious of myself naked in front of strangers.