Chiba Prefecture which is located right next to Tokyo Prefecture is about an hour and half to two hours by subway from our home in Machida. Luckily, many resorts in Japan such as this onsen offers a free shuttle bus near the Urayasu subway stop on the Tozai Line to Yumeguri Mangekyo Onsen.
If you ever get a chance to go to an Onsen, this one is the best place to go. Yumeguri Mangekyo Onsen has both a separate guys and girls section along with a shared guys and girls section where wearing bathing suits is allowed. This was advantageous for us because we were a group of five girls and one guy. In case you don't happen to know, an onsen is a traditional hot spring bath sort of like a hot tub infused with different herbs and such. A traditional onsen requires you to enter completely naked; hence the reason for separation of guys and girls in the onsen area. Typically, when you visit an onsen, you usually stay overnight at one of the rooms that they have their. It's supposed to serve as an all purpose spa and get-a-way vacation. Because of budget concerns (an overnight stay plus onsen admission was about 12500 yen or $125 not including food) we opted for a plain onsen admission without an overnight stay for about 3000 yen or about $30. Yumeguri Mangekyo Onsen was the most convienent onsen that you could go to though it is the only onsen that I planned on visiting while in Japan. It is quite big as well. The establishment has both the onsen area and a little "town" with different shops you can eat at complete with a souvenir shop and an arcade even. The convenience of it all is the bar code wrist bands that they give you when you first enter. You keep the bar code wrist band on your wrist even when you're in the onsen pool. With the bar code you can buy anything by simply scanning the bar code. It's like a tab that you run and pay for when you leave the onsen.
As mentioned before, the onsen has two sections a guys and girls section and a shared section outside. Both the guys and girls sections are set up quite similarly as what I could understand from the map. When you first walk into the girls section there are rows upon rows of lockers where you can store your clothing and belongings. It's here that you fully undress and then take your towel over to the onsen. When you first step into the indoor portion of the onsen your greeted by three rows of showers; a few stand showers but most of them are sit down showers. You have to shower fully; there's shampoo, conditioner, and body wash all there for you free to use. Once you've showered completely you are free to enter the onsen pools which are located in the same room as the showers. There were about 12 indoor onsen pools that differed in the types of minerals or water used, temperature and layout. My favorite pool was an indoor pool that used red wine from red grapes. It was so fragrant and relaxing and the water smelt delicious enough for me to want to drink it. Outdoors on the girls side where three more pools. I opted for the ones outside because the hot temperature of the pools made it too hot for me to tolerated for long periods of time. By the time we arrived at the onsen it was already dark out so being outside naked in a hot onsen under a dark starry sky was absolutely fantastic.
(Image taken from the Yumeguri Mangekyo Onsen site at http://www.yumegurimangekyo.com/onsen/detail-16.html)
Since we went to the onsen with my neighbor who was a guy, me and another one of my girl friends decided to change into our bathing suits and meet out back where there were shared pools. The shared pools were even better than those indoors. I think it was because since the shared pools were outside they were a lot bigger. The pools construction outside was beautiful. They did a great job of incorporating nature around the pools. There were so many hidden rooms and crevices that you could explore and even a hand made waterfall that you could stand under and enjoy. My favorite outdoor shared pool was the igloo one. The name of it was written in kanji that I couldn't understand but it's pink igloo shaped doom was distinctive among the shallow inground pools that surrounded it. The water of the pink igloo had to be around over 100 degrees it was so hot I couldn't stand it. Because the water was very hot the inside of the igloo had a stone bench that was slightly submerged in the hot water about 2 cm under the water. It was big enough for the three of us to lay down flat on the stone; it was so relaxing.
After enjoying the onsen, we took another shower and headed off to the powder room. This is another reason why I think Yumeguri Mangekyo Onsen is extremely convenient. The powder room is actually two rows of about 50 individual "stalls." Each "stall" has a bamboo circular seat with no back and a sink. Around the sink were a bottle of face wash, moisturizer, hand wash, cotton balls, Q-tips, a brush, tissues, mousse, and a hair dryer. I was so happy to have a hair dryer! I thought my head would freeze on the way home!
Once we got dried up we dressed in our Yukata's that we rented and headed out of the locker rooms to eat in the little town square. We decided on a restaurant that served seafood. Everyone had seafood except for me of course. I love seafood, but I really wanted the curry. We ended up staying there for a good 5 hours. And, surprisingly, after food and a visit to the souvenir shop, my total cost was about 5000 yen or about $50.
If I had a chance to revisit Japan, I would definitely go back to Yumeguri Mangekyo Onsen. It was a great experience for such a little cost compared to other onsens. I definitely recommend it to anyone who wants that onsen experience and if you can afford it definitely stay overnight. I was so relaxed by the time I left that I couldn't help but fall asleep on the train ride home.
Subway Directions to Yumeguri Mangekyo Onsen from Machida:
1. Take the Odakyu Line from Machida to Shinjuku.
2. From Shinjuku take the Shinjuku Line (which is part of the Tokyo Metro system) to Kudanshita.
3. At Kudanshita switch to the Tozai Line (which is still part of the Tokyo Metro system) and get off at the Urayasu stop.
4. When you exit the station, walk staright until you hit the main street. Take a left at the main street and walk about 30 meters until you see the Yumeguri Mangekyo Onsen bus stop on your right. Times for the buses are listed at the stop.
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