Soft serve ice cream eaten during Golden Week holidays is the best.

This is Spa Hills, a relaxation resort in Osaka Sayama City. Spa Hills offers a variety of facilities such as restaurants, cafes, studios, karaoke rooms, body massages, summer limited pools, and hot stone baths. First, you can sweat it out in the hot stone baths, which come in many types for you to enjoy. After that, you can go around and try different types of baths before relaxing in the outdoor hot spring bath. And finally... the moment you've been waiting for - beer time! What a blissful time after the bath.

I recently got hooked on it! After all, a beer after taking a bath is the best. I drank one cup in one go! I ended up drinking two more cups in a row. I also couldn't resist ordering eggs and hiraten with my oden. Since there is a bus from the nearby Kongou Station where our restaurant is located, there is no need to worry about drunk driving, which is reassuring. This is an important point. Also, we have been conserving electricity in consideration of the earthquake, which is also good! Timely actions like these are very important.

It's getting cold outside, but I'm still enjoying mango kakigori after sweating in the rock bath. I've been craving it a lot lately. I love going to various rock bath facilities, like Spa Hills in Osaka Sayama, where they now offer a mango kakigori menu. It's not the typical condensed milk kakigori, but a regular shaved ice topped with condensed milk and mango sauce, with plenty of mango chunks. It has a fluffy texture and tastes delicious. To enjoy the mango kakigori, you need to pay the entrance fee for bathing and rock bathing, but the facility offers various options for different prices. Apart from the rock baths, they also have a restaurant and an Italian eatery where you can dine without paying the entrance fee. My favorite original mango kakigori spot used to be in Neyagawa at Mizuharu, but now I enjoy the one at Shofuku no Yu in Sakai (Hamadera). Another place I like for mango kakigori is Bing Bing Hua in Honmachi.

There are no meals available in the rock bathing corner, but for drinks, water is the main option. You can choose from a 300 yen bottle of beauty oxygen water <OXY (I think)> which has won the Monde Selection gold award, or a 150 yen <Irohasu> by Coca-Cola. The beauty oxygen water may not have proven effects, but it is easy to drink as it is not hard water. For those who are not particular about mineral water, <Irohasu> might be a good choice (slightly larger at 555ml than usual). There is no vending machine, so drinks are sold at the counter corner. If you want a variety of drinks like sports drinks, you will need to purchase them on a different floor. In the corner, besides mineral water, soft serve ice cream, and on a recent occasion, chilled cucumbers and tomatoes were being sold. The prices are relatively reasonable (not marked up). After purchasing mineral water, mark it with a magic marker provided at the counter to avoid mixing it up with other customers' drinks, then store it in the cooler box near the entrance to the rock bathing area. The corner floor also serves as a resting area for rock bathing, so it may be crowded and seating space could be limited at times.