Captain Reimer, Warrior Poet of the 21st Century.: Mission: Ofuro and Last Day in Osaka

The writing for YU, which means ''hot water''

On my first trip to Japan, I was introduced to the Ofuro, the bath house. They are also sometimes called Onsen or not so commonly, Sento.
They are a hugely important part of Japanese culture dating back since as long as anyone can remember. They are a common fixture in every town, and can be found rather readily when one cares to look.
Going to them has also become somewhat of a tradition for me while I'm in Japan.
This trip is no exception, in fact, there's a new mission.
MISSION OFURO: To visit an ofuro in every city we come through.

First stop, an Onsen in Osaka

This is a layout of the facility in case you lose your way...

Every Ofuro or Onsen has it's own features. At their most basic, they are outfitted with showers, a hot bath, a cold bath, and most often times with a sauna as well.
More and more common these days, you can choose to attend a fancy establishment. These are equipped with a veritable wonderland of different bath types including waterfalls, jets, outdoor pools, 'electric baths', sit down tubs, lay down tubs, saunas with TV and even a cold room with fake snow, if you can imagine that.
These upscale spots will often offer massage, food, and even places to sleep if it's a ''24-hour'' spa.

Needless to say, they can get quite interesting.

Typical showers in an Ofuro

Reading material when you just want to relax after a soak.

Slightly ambiguous machine

One of the more notable features was the ''Below Zero Room''

Kind of weird, right? Made me miss home a little bit. Haha.

Here are some other sights from our last day in Osaka prior to our trip to the Ofuro.

Here is the view from outside our friend's home

Osaka is a very old city which is located near Kyoto.
In older times, Kyoto was the Capitol of Japan, and the seat of the Emperor long before Tokyo.

Because of it's close proximity to Kyoto, there are many graves of Nobles and long dead Emperors located throughout Osaka.
Often times there would be man-made moats dug around the graves to form an artificial island. This was so that the grave or tomb would go undisturbed.
One of these graves was located near the house, and on the island there live many creatures. Some of which are the Japanese ''raccoon-dogs''. tanuki.
Many people walk by and feed the creatures bread and seeds. There are also many ducks and turtles there as well.