Enjoying the Foot Spas of Ureshino Onsen

Visited Ureshino Onsen, a hot spring resort in Saga Prefecture, Kyushu, yesterday. The hot spring is known for the silky-smooth quality of its spring water, apparently due to the high concentration of sodium bicarbonate, and is said to be good for your skin.

When I entered the bathing area of one of the spas I thought the baths looked fairly ordinary, but as soon as I got in I noticed how soft and smooth the water felt on my skin. I've done a lot of spa bathing in my time in Japan, but the waters of Ureshino are really something special.

After bathing at the spa, we strolled out of town, stopping at some of the "ashi-no-yu" or public foot baths which are free to use. You simply whip off your shoes and socks, roll up your trousers and plunge your feet in the warm water. It was a freezing cold day, yesterday, but pleasant to sit there warming your feet and calves in the healing waters of Ureshino Onsen while chatting to the other foot-bathers.

The second footbath we plonked our feet into is called "Siebold's Footbath," and is named after the 19th-century German physician Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold, who introduced western medicine into Japan, fathered Japan's first female western-medicine doctor, and documented the quality of Ureshino's hot springs during his time in Japan. However neither the retro-style structure built over the footbath, nor the footbath itself has any direct connection to the man himself.

Siebold was eventually accused of spying and kicked out of Japan in 1829, but is a celebrated figure in Japan, especially in Ureshino, where one of the main bath houses - the most famous building in the town - is also named after him because he praised the quality of the spa waters there, and rightly so!

Cheers!

David Hurley
#InspiredFocus

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