This is a conversational travel vlog by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting part of their Tokyo trip. The chunk covers a visit to a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant (sushi train) — reactions to dishes, payment confusion — followed by their attempt to find and visit a traditional Japanese onsen. The onsen portion describes logistics (signs, payment timing), cultural norms (nudity, modesty towels), bathing rituals (pre-wash buckets, communal tubs), and their personal reactions (comfort levels, durations).
Chapters
I'm going to get a donut.
Nate forgot something again.
Day two. It's not that cold out here. It's nice. Look, sunshine.
Glad I hopped back and got my glasses.
All right, plans for today? Sushi train onsen or probably not saying.
Right.
Public bath and ending the night going to play ping pong with some Japanese people.
According to Google maps, the sushi train should be on this road.
What is a cuttlefish?
According to the menu, it is a fresh cuttlefish pie.
She has no clue what she's putting in her cup.
Sitting here for about 10 minutes because we don't know how to tell them that we're done so we can pay.
Sushi go around was a success.
Oh yeah.
Kara least favorite dish at the go.
Round sushi, the fatty bottom sandwich. It's like this big, chewy.
I even smooth these out.
You did?
Sure. That's cracking. All right. Favorite dis.
I really like the one that had the gooey sauce that kind of tasted like steak.
I don't know about that one.
Oh, I love that one.
I think.
Or the one that was shiny was.
The seaweed that had all the stuff coming out of the top that you can barely fit in your mouth with all the eggs and stuff.
That one was good.
It was delicious.
That was good. The rest were great.
Yeah.
Love sushi chain.
Alright, we found an onsen that we want to go to. The plan is to go to the Senjuku station and then from there ride to Itsu Busha.
I think we found it. This is not helpful.
No English only.
Ah, the payment is later. Payment later.
Right now.
But by now. No, no, right now. After. Okay.
Stairs. Front green.
I think she said pink curtain men. Oh, okay.
We hear not allowed to wear anything at all when you go into the bath, which is going to be a little weird, but it's supposed to be an authentic Japanese experience. This is called a modesty towel and.
It'S the only thing that you can.
Take into the bath with you. As one of the blogs that I read put it, you can use it to cover up your wobbly parts.
I'll let you know how it goes.
Well, that will be one of the most memorable experiences of the entire year.
It was awesome.
I saw so many naked Japanese men in the last two hours.
And it.
Was just so normal.
I thought that I would be cautious to take all my clothes off and get in the bath. But as soon as you walk in the locker room, they were like, everybody's doing it. There were like 20 naked men walking around Just take all your clothes off and then go get in bathtubs with a lot of other men. Or women, in Kara's case.
What was your favorite part?
There was this, like, thing. It was like, a stone, and it had, like, 4 inches of water running over it, and you could just lay down. And so, like, the back half of you is warm, and the top half was just, like, exposed to the cool.
Air and exposed to everyone who saw you.
It was the only tub that wasn't too hot. Yeah, it really was enjoyable for, like, the first 15 minutes. And then I was so hot, I was, like, forcing myself to do it the rest of the time.
I enjoyed it the entire two hours.
I gave up in about hour one. So you walk in, and luckily, we read a blog about the onsens before we came. But you walk in, and there's, like, all these buckets that you sit on.
You sit on a bucket, and then.
You have another bucket that you can splash yourself with. And you're supposed to bathe yourself before.
You get in the mineral bath.
But you're also, like, bathing yourself around 20 other people who are bathing themselves.
And nobody tells you what to do. There's no instructions. And anywhere. If we wouldn't have run that vlog, I probably would have just left.
