On Saturday, October 2, Katie surprised me with a day trip to the I+Land Resort in Nagasaki, Japan to celebrate my 27th birthday. She purchased the trip through Sasebo’s MWR during my last underway, knowing she isn’t good at planning relaxing vacations on her own. (Just look back on how packed our Northern Honshu trip was- it was fun, but we were running around the entire time!) This spa day was outside of my comfort zone, but it was nice!
On Saturday morning, we met the MWR bus at the Hario Food Court at 10:45 am. With assigned seats onboard the MWR’s charter bus, we proceeded to nap during the two-hour trip down to Nagasaki. About halfway there, we made a pit stop at a rest area with a 7/11. Katie and I bought a light lunch to hold us over until dinner time and then continued on our bus ride.
We arrived at the Ark Land Spa around 1:00 pm, where our tour guide left us for the afternoon. After storing our shoes in lockers at the front door, we then headed back to the main locker rooms to change into our bathing suits. These gender-separated locker rooms had open shower areas with spa baths and showers for communal use and were very relaxing. After a quick change (we planned ahead and showed up with our bathing suits already on,) I met Katie in the lobby and we headed to the pool area.
The main spa area had multiple pools and “baths” with ranging temperatures and themes. The first area of pools was indoors and decorated with beautiful green tiles and had a plant theme. Once outside, there were multiple other pools and baths that looked out on the East China Sea! Katie and I spent the next three hours going from pool to pool, enjoying our surroundings, and even dozing off some! Together we enjoyed some time in the hot rock bath that was sourced from a natural hot spring. The natural spring water was really hot, so neither of us lasted very long in it. We spent most of our time in one of the outdoor couples baths, where Katie could sit in the sun and I could nap in the shade. It really was the most relaxing birthday ever! Katie even took an hour nap at the end of our relaxing afternoon.
After changing out of our swimsuits, we spent a few minutes walking through the terrace room, where there were tons of Japanese manga books available to read. Unfortunately for us, we can't read Japanese, so we just enjoyed walking through the quiet space. Katie also took note of the cool bookshelves that looked like giant books and the cool seating options...I'm sure they are on her list of "must-buys" for her next library!
We eventually joined back up with the rest of our tour group and took a short shuttle ride over to dinner! Upon arriving at the Seaside BBQ restaurant, we realized it was a yakiniku
(yah-keh-nee-koo) restaurant, where you get to cook your own meal on gas-powered grills set into each table. Once you sit down, you have 90 minutes to cook and eat as much food as you want. This restaurant was set up so that you go to a main, refrigerated section to pick out the meats and vegetables you want and then you take them back to your table to grill. Luckily for us, we had gone with some friends to a local yakiniku restaurant back in Sasebo, so we knew what to do!
Katie was, we will say, adventurous, and picked out a ton of different types of meat for us to try. The couple we sat with and shared a grill with, informed us that some of our “mystery meats” included chicken skin on a stick, chicken necks & Gyutan (beef tongue). I have to say, the Gyutan was great, but I did not love the chicken necks or the stick of chicken skins. Katie is officially fired from being our meat-chooser. She did make up for it when she brought me a popsicle for dessert because I’m just a large child. Katie enjoyed some grilled pineapple as her dessert, but I will argue mine was better!
Near the end of our dinner, there was a Nagasaki dragon dance. Six men came out carrying a giant, colorful puppet-dragon, and in front of them was one person carrying a golden ball. While the story was all in Japanese, the essence of the dance is that the dragon is attempting to catch the golden ball, called a Tamamochi, that represents youth immortality. We aren’t sure if he caught it in the end, but Katie did capture some videos of the dance and we were able to take a few pictures with the dragon!
Once the sun completely set, we took another shuttle to Island Lumina, an interactive hike and light show around the island. The show told the story of a little girl, Yura, whose town is covered in darkness, so she goes on a mission to hunt down an enchanted gem that will bring the light back to her home. The gem is guarded by an ancient dragon, Zoch, and it’s up to Yura to find a way to retrieve it and save her town.
The hike took about 40 minutes and had lanterns, string lights, and colorful spotlights along the path to light our way. Throughout the hike, there were videos projected onto cliff faces and trees that helped tell the story and some interactive parts that really brought the story alive. We had to jump over lit-up lily pads as we followed Yura through the ocean, and then we had to help beat the dragon by banging a drum that shot lights into the trees that guarded the dragon. It was a really unique experience and unlike anything we’ve done before. Following our walk, I grabbed a Cold Stone ice cream bar from the store as a final little birthday treat to myself!
After the Island Lumina interactive light-show hike, we headed back to the bus for our ride home. We arrived back in Hario about two hours after departing Nagasaki, around 10:15; Katie took a nap the entire time. It was an awesome trip and a great surprise. My 27th birthday was relaxing and unique, and I can’t wait to continue exploring this beautiful area.
--Bryan
Happy Birthday B! Looks like a great trip! The light show seems very unique! Glad you two were able to relax a bit! Too bad they don’t allow dogs in the spa. Reynolds would love all the pampering… just not the water 😂