A hot bath in Beaujolais Nouveau delights the Japanese

The Hakone Kowakien Yunessun spa has been offering the bath in a Beaujolais Nouveau in an Open-Air-thermal pool. "It is a unique aromatic event and the soaking in the wine is a wonderful thing to me", says the guest Amagida Eri.

Besides the bath of wine, the spa also offers baths of green tee, coffee or Sake; but the Beaujolais Nouveau-bath is the highlight of the season. "Outside of the hot tub, mixed with the fruity red wine, the interest for the Beaujolais Nouveau has been going down" explains Mika Okitsu, official spokesman of the Spa Hakone and adds: "If we had to sell the wine we would make less money".

It is a fact that in Japan, the sales of the Beaujolais Nouveau have seen better days. In the second-largest national economy, which has also seen the signs of the worldwide credit crunch, sales went down to 8.26 with 12.5 million bottles after the record year and then in 2008 to 6.7 million bottles.

"But we are happy that we are the only spa in Japan that offers baths like this", says Mika Okitsu. "Bathing in wine is almost like a facelift for the whole body and rumor has it that the Egyptian queen Cleopatra used to love taking wine baths. We have been offering regular "re-fillings" with the wine since the Beaujolais Nouveau came out. The feedback from our residents as well as from our tourists has always been good.(aw.yoopress)