Ramen is at the height of popularity with foodies jumping on the noodle train, making lists of all the best ramen places in their cities. Well, if you love ramen so much why don’t you take a bath in it!? Now you can, as a spa in Japan is offering full baths in broth, complete with “noodlesâ€.
The Yunessun Spa is located inside a spa-themed park in Hakone, Japan. You read that right, it’s a spa-themed amusement park that has water rides, restaurants and video games. They also offer a number of spa activities, one of which allows you to bath in an over-sized ramen bowl, full of pepper-flavored soup broth. While ramen baths have been around since 2007, they’ve only piqued interest recently due to the boom in ramen popularity that seems to have overtaken the culinary scene.
Sitting in a giant bowl full of broth may seem odd, but it is said to have incredible health benefits. Supposedly the soup stimulates increased metabolism and beautifies your skin. Apparently the collagen in the pork-based broth bath is what will give your skin a healthier glow and will aid in moisture retention. Look, I don’t know about you but when I eat ramen, especially a tonkotsu broth, it can be pretty greasy. If ‘messy eater’ equals beautiful then OK, to each his own.
The Japanese health department has banned the use of edible noodles for bathing (rightly so), therefore a synthetic noodle is used in its place. On any given day, individuals as well as families can take a respite in a soup bowl while giant chopsticks full of fabricated noodles hang overhead. It’s a very ‘Bugs Bunny rabbit stew’ type situation.
The Yunessun seems to love the food baths, because in addition to the ramen bath they also offer a sake bath, green tea bath, coffee bath and wine bath. Let’s just hope none of this is reused for the restaurant side of the spa park.
Would you take a ramen bath? Let us know in the comments!
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HT: Food Beast and Japan Probe
IMAGES: Getty
