A free hula lesson for all at the Spa Resort Hawaiians in Iwaki. This place was made famous by the movie, "Hula Girls." The former coal mining town was converted into a hotsprings/ spa resort after they ran out of coal in the 1970's. We took a free bus to the Hawaiians from Shinjuku (Tokyo). Even on a weekday, the place was packed by families wanting a cheap escape from the big city. The very reasonable price of our one-night's stay included a Japanese room (sleep on tatami), hula shows, dinner, breakfast and unlimited soaking in the baths. We could have also availed ourselves to the heated swimming pool and water slides but decided not to. We did try out all 4 bath options - a stinky steel tub (rotten pipes?) in our room, a large bath down the hall, a large bath in another wing of the hotel and the outdoors bath above the gift shops. The latter was quite charming, if one endured the cold walk from the changing area to the rocky hotsprings. There was also a smallish wooden building that served as a sauna. The water was hot but felt good in the chilly outdoors. Instead of the traditional yukata (cotton kimonos), we were all given muumuus (women) and Hawaiian shirts & pants (men). Most of us wore these outfits during our stay (see above). My only disappointment was that they didn't have any postcards of the resort or of the hula girls.We had much of the following day to check out the area until the return bus in the afternoon. We took a free shuttle to the town of Yumoto and visited the Joban coal mining & dinosaur museum. It was a modest museum but worth the trip - the first half of the museum is devoted to dinosaur bones found in the region and the second half was a "trip" into the coal mines. One takes an elevator down and when the door opens, one is "underground." There were dioramas of coal miners from the earliest period until the 1960's when mine operations closed down. Just off the giftshop was a small exhibit of the Joban baseball teams (men's and womens). It funny to see "Hawaiian" cheerleaders. We were told that this town was once prosperous but went into decline once the coal was exhausted. Indeed, other than the Spa Resort Hawaiians, there wasn't much to enjoy here.
