Continuation of Mid-Project Retreat Recap

WARNING! SUPER LONG POST AHEAD! READ AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION!
Oh, in the last post I forgot to mention something interesting...
When we were at the hotel, we noticed that they had something called a "public" bath. (Some of you probably already know where I'm going with this...) Anyway, some of the guys and I decide to hit it up and relax there at the end of our long Saturday of exploring Hakone ("Hah-koh-nay"), the city we were staying in. Anyway, we head down there in our swim trunks with our towels and head into the "men" section and see this sign in the changing room before the bath which reads "No swim suits allowed. You cannot bathe in your underwear. No towels. Do not dip your towel in the water." or something to that effect. Anyway, we're taken aback a bit by this but take it in stride and all go in there "au natural". It was the weirdest experience but not all too bad. Heh, God has really grown us together as a team which was evident in the fact what we were able to do something like that.
The next day we left for Yuneson at about 9am (but had to wait in line for about an hour before we could even get in). The first thing we did was hit the water slide and dark cave place thing. The slide was really cool! There were three tracks and we raced down them each time we went. The slides themselves were like molded out of this foamy, weird material that probably wouldn't hurt you even if you smashed your head against it (which was probably the point). We finally figured out that the first one was the fastest (but also the twistiest). Some of us almost flipped out on the final curve! It was a blast! The cave thing was also cool. It was basically a dark, cave-like enclosure under the water slide area that had water coming down from the roof. Oh, also all the water in every place was warm. Some of the people even tried to start playing Signs in the cave, even though we could barely see anything! (If you don't know what "Signs" is" I'll have to teach you when I get back).
After that we finally went over to the onsens. The first one we tried out was the "Dead Sea" onsen that had really salt taken from the Dead Sea in Israel in it. It made you float like crazy but also stung like crazy if you had any sort of cut. (Poor Maria! I told her not to stick her foot in!) The next one was out the door (and, yes, most were outside) was the coffee onsen. (Oh, and by the way, swimsuits were mandatory there.) At first I thought it'd be nasty, but it really wasn't that bad. When you looked into the onsen, it looked really dark (like coffee) but if you cupped out some of the water, it looked normal. You could also smell it if you got close. After that one was the HOT onsen. It was really nice. There was even this little rock bed under the water that you could lie on with your head on a rock pillow and some rock seats that you could sit on underneath the hot water streams that were coming from above. After that was the red wine onsen. That was interesting, too, because it was bright purple-ish red. It was really funny, cuz' there was this sign next to the onsen that said "Please do not drink the water." After that we went up to the green tea onsen which was really bright green and hot! There was a hot waterfall on one side that renewed the water and there was some little kid sitting directly under it. Yow! That takes guts! I think after that, we had lunch, which was great!! It was a all-you-can-eat buffet with tons of yummy things! We also didn't have to worry about "eating and swimming" because there really wasn't any swimming happening... only loafing. Wen went back up to the onsen when lunch was over and continued up the side of the hill that the onsen were located on. The next one was the sake (rice wine) onsen. It was also hot and smelled a bit sweet. The onsen next was located directly above on the deck of this structure and was super hot and smelled of flowers. I know it sounds "girly" but I think this was my favorite one (as well as the favorite of several other guys). I think that they had just refilled it with color/smell as it was really dark purple and smelled very strong. Near the top of the hill was the charcoal onsen. While that sounds really weird, it was actually not that bad. The water was black, but past that, it was perty nice. Comming back down the hill on the other side were several "water only" onsen that cascaded into each other with the hottest one at the top. There was also this steam geyser near the middle but we couldn't tell what it was for. After we went back inside, some of the girls had us go to this place where there were little fish (a variant of coy, but only 1-3 inches long each) in a pool that you would stick your feet in and they'd nibble at your toes and eat the dead skin off. While most (if not all) of us were quite hesitant, I'm glad I didn't pass this experience up! Man! It tickled like crazy! I think they liked me, cuz' I had about 20-30 on my feet at one time! Anyway, we completed our onsen spree by visiting the curry onsen and the honey onsen. The curry onsen was really weird and spelled funny, so I didn't stay long. The honey onen was equally weird and actually looked a bit green. After I had made sure that we had hit each and every onsen, we went back outside and soaked in some of our favorite ones again. One funny thing to note was that Chad made it a personal goal to dunk his head into every onsen. I think he actually did...
Well, that's basically a recap of the time at Yunneson. We have "Men's Night" in an hour and I still need to grab dinner so I think I'll stop here.
Also, if you even read this far, please, please, please(!) leave me a comment. It's really easy and will take but a minute of your time but mean a whole lot to me, really!
I'll write soon! I promise! There's still some things I want to talk about.
Later, then!