Guests at a hotel in Wakasa, Fukui Prefecture, refresh themselves in the bathwater filled with the scent of ume, next to a glass-tank-full of ume fruits.
Takuo Fukumoto
A hotel in Wakasa, Fukui Prefecture, is known for offering baths filled with extract of ume (Japanese apricots). Guests at Kojokan Pamco, a hotel facing the Mikata five lakes near the Sea of Japan, soak in the bathwater and enjoy the fresh scent of ume.
The ume bath is made by circulating hot water between the bathtub and a glass tank filled with 500 kilograms of ume fruits, so that ume extract in the water flows into the bathtub and produces the refreshing scent.
The hotel began offering the ume bath some 20 years ago to appeal Wakasa as an ume-growing district. Kazuhiko Tanabe, a 42-year-old owner of the hotel, is also a farmer who grows ume in a 1-hectare land. Tanabe grows 4 tons of ume every year for two bathtubs, one for men and the other for women, as ume fruits in the glass tank need to be replaced with new ones four times a year.
“(A glass tank filled with) ume fruits is also fun to look at,” said Tanabe. “I hope guests will learn how fascinating ume is.”
(June 26, 2013)