- Take a stroll back in time,
10000 years in history to when this town started.
Izaka Onsen town.
This is a hot spring town,
just 20 minutes outside of Fukushima station.
This is a really good town to visit
because you can take a train directly here
from Fukushima station.
It's just in 20 minutes,
it'll drop you off at a train station right here.
And the town is just a short 10 minute stroll
up on that hill.
I'm gonna meet you up there.
But before you head up to the center of the town,
admire the view from the bridge right next to it.
You see a great view of the river down below.
It's a small little Onsen town,
but it's famous for really hot water.
Let me show you around this town.
By the way, a lot of the streets
are really narrow and quaint.
We'll see more in a bit.
Walking around this town you might think
this is a pedestrian bridge.
This is not.
This is a car bridge,
and it's not one way,
it's actually a two way bridge.
So, if you're driving, be careful
'cause you'll have to wait for other cars to pass.
Watch, here's a car gonna go over it.
Look how narrow that bridge is.
That's a car from the hotel,
that's why he goes so fast.
If you're driving here,
you'll go a lot slower.
And this town is famous for having nine public baths.
This is one of the public baths.
Admission to this one is 200 Yen,
the most expensive is 300 Yen.
And if you need a towel
and soap and a bathing set,
that'll cost you 300 Yen
that you can pick up at many of these baths.
This town has been an Onsen town for over 1000 years,
and it's famous for the water being very hot.
Each one of these public baths has a sign in front of it
to tell you a little bit about the particular
water in that bath.
So, one of the great parts about visiting Onsen towns
in Fukashia prefecture,
this one in particular too,
is just kind of strolling around,
walking the side streets.
We were walking here and we found a Pan shop,
a Japanese bread shop.
And one of their specialties they're famous for here is
Onsen egg in a bread.
This looks pretty tasty so we had to get their specialty.
We asked them, what's their Osusume,
what's the most popular?
And they pointed to this one 220 Yen,
we're lookin' forward to trying it.
And they realized we spoke English,
and so they handed us a handy English guide map
of the whole Onsen.
So, look for these to pick up when you get here.
You'll probably find these down at the train station too.
So I'm looking forward to trying this.
One thing to know though,
when you're in Japan is don't eat and walk at the same time,
it's considered rude.
So, if you want to eat this right away,
then just kind of stand in front of the store, enjoy it.
Mmmmh.
Can you see kind of the egg in there?
There's some mayonnaise as well.
So I ate a little more of this
and you know what's funny?
I assumed the white was the mayonnaise,
and the yellow was kinda some egg.
But, actually as I bit into it more,
I found the egg and it was the white part underneath.
It actually tastes like egg,
I understand this now.
So, if you're a beginning public-bather,
the one that you're gonna wanna try out
is this one, Hakoyu.
You know how I know?
That English map that I picked up right there said
this one is the introductory level public bath.
It has a 1200 year history,
but it was actually rebuilt in 2011.
This one costs an extra 100 Yen, it's 300 Yen.
And you'll find this just beyond the train station.
So, in addition to using the public baths Isaka Onsen town
is a great town to just stroll around an explore.
So if you wanna find the center of town,
just look for the big water tower
that's a source where they store the water
for the public baths.
And this is the spot of the original Onsen.
There's actually a shrine to the Onsen Gods, right here.
And something else you can see,
when we're shooting this there's flags here
for the 2020 Olympics
and baseball with this cute little bunny
that's going to be played here in Fukushima city.
This town, in addition to the public baths,
has three free foot baths.
And you'll see them on the signs as Ashiyuteyu,
foot bath and hand bath.
These are pretty special.
We've done a few foot baths across Fukushima prefecture
on this trip, but this one's really quite big.
It has a seated bath here, that you can sit and enjoy.
It also has a standing bath right here
that you could stand in and the water,
I wanna show you here on this sign
they've got four different sections.
So they actually tell you the water temperature
in the four different sections of the bath.
This is in the former Horiki Family residence.
So if you're looking for this bath,
the water tower was just down there,
you come up a set of stairs you'll find this kind of
yellow-ish wall and these double doors.
Come on in through these double doors.
And this entire grounds of this residence is free to enter
and the foot bath is just to the right,
over there.
There's a big map that says Ashiyutetu
when you're walking around this town
just look for that sign to find the foot baths.
You know what, try 'em all, they're free.
Just make sure when you're walking around here
that you bring your towel.
Now, all that bathing and strolling around
is likely gonna make you hungry.
Well, check out something that I found really tasty
when we were there.
Gyoza Terui.
They specialize in Enban Gyoza,
which is gyoza that's made in a disk shape
they're really crunchy
and they're really delicious,
but best of all they have a foot bath outside.
If you'd like to know more about Gyoza Terui,
or other great place to eat in Fukushia,
well make sure to check out my video
that you see there on the left all about the best
must-eat foods in Fukushima prefecture.