JAPAN: Japanese soak themselves in chocolate bath in new form of Valentine's Day celebration

Record ID: 465618

  • Title: JAPAN: Japanese soak themselves in chocolate bath in new form of Valentine's Day celebration
  • Date: 17th February 2007
  • Summary: OLD LADY SPREADING CHOCOLATE ALL OVER HER FACE AND NECK "CHOCOLATE" AND "VALENTINE'S DAY" SIGNS GROUP OF GIRLS BATHING IN CHOCOLATE BUBBLES
  • Embargoed: 4th March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Japan
  • Country: Japan
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment / Showbiz,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVA6RHAXCUCU9ADQSKZT1QXHF1OZ
  • Story Text: A Japanese spa resort offers a "chocolate bath" as an ultimate Valentine's Day pleasure for men and women of all ages.
    This is not just another therapeutic mud bath - It's sweet and addictive. In Japan, where it's customary for girls to give chocolates to boys on Valentine's Day, one spa resort started celebrating Valentine's Day their own way - by offering a "chocolate bath." The bath water is mixed with cacao and other sweet-smelling bath powders. And twice a day, a spa resort staffer shows up to pour real creamy chocolate - edible, of course - over the bathers. Young couples frolic in the chocolate mud, sharing romantic, sweet moments. "This bath is my Valentine's Day gift for him this year," said Mayumi Uekusa, who travelled more than two hours with her boyfriend to visit the Yunessun (pronounced you-NES-sun) spa resort in Japan's hot spring town of Hakone (pronounced hah-KOH-nay). But was it a good decision? After having been pampered in the chocolate, her boy friend seemed a little flirty. "Life ain't as sweet as this bath, darling," said her boyfriend, Yuichi Omata. Jumping on the Valentine's Day bandwagon, other bathers - men and women of all ages, and even a baby - also enjoyed the creamy sweet bath. And for most of them, it was probably a fantasy-come-true. Some kept licking their hands, while others spread chocolate all over their bodies. Spa officials say cacao and other ingredients in chocolate help keep the skin moist and help improve blood circulation. The spa resort offers dozens of other "amusement" baths, including a wine bath, a coffee bath, and a sake bath. In the past, it even offered a seasonal "curry" bath. A ticket that allows a dip in all these baths is about 30 US dollars or 3,500 yen.
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