Today I went for a second massage with the same therapist I’d had before at Mouton Spa. My first massage with her was great, one of my top two massages in Japan without a doubt. This second massage was outstanding. Without a doubt the best of my life. It was the same aroma oil style massage with the same person and just two days later so I’m not sure exactly why it felt so much better. On the surface, it was a very similar massage to the first one, but somehow it had been tweaked to spend more time on things I like, and certain strokes and techniques seemed to have been embellished to a new level.
I guess good massage therapists learn their customers’ likes and needs and are able to personalize the massage over time. Perhaps there is also a level of comfort that develops with repeated sessions together and the therapist is able to execute their craft more fluently while the customer is able to relax more deeply knowing they are in good hands. In any event, I’ve never felt this good after a massage. Walking home I felt two inches taller and like my body was young and strong.
At our pre-massage check-in, the therapist followed up on her previous recommendation for targeting my head which she’d noted was a particularly tense part of my body. She mentioned they have a 30 minute, focused head massage treatment using a special cream that might be helpful for me. She made it clear that just doing the regular massage as planned was totally fine and that if I wanted to do the extra head massage I could use some of the regular massage time or add it onto the end, lengthening the massage. I chose the latter because I didn’t want to miss out on the full experience of the regular massage. I’d signed up for a 120 minute session already, so this, now 150 minute massage, was kind of ridiculous… but I decided to treat myself since the previous one had been so good and it was my last week in Japan. Some may pessimistically think this was an “upsell,” and maybe it was, but it certainly didn’t feel like that to me. She wasn’t pushy at all and seemed to genuinely be trying to just gently encourage me to do things that are going to benefit me based on her previous experience with me.
Once in the treatment room, I had a lot of trouble changing into the paper shorts. They just felt really awkward and like they were messed up. Turns out I had put my legs into one leg hole and the waste opening instead of two leg holes because you can barely tell the difference between the openings. I did it twice. I finally figured it out and was able to call down to let them know I was ready but I felt like I’d wasted some time. Damn you paper shorts!
Similar to last time, we chatted a little before starting the massage while she was preparing things and washing my feet. I got a good recommendation for a tempura place and learned a bit about a festival that had happened the night before.
The massage itself was similar to the first one.so I won’t go into much detail but I will mention a few things that stood out. First is that she massaged my inside upper arms. I don’t remember if she did that the first time but it felt really good. She also did something where she rubbed from my neck down the upper half of my back with one hand that was pretty forceful and at the same time, in between each stroke, she used the other hand to do what felt like a quick little light twist touch on the upper back or neck. It felt incredible. She also spent more time on my upper, outer legs and the sides of my glutes which apparently are also trouble areas for me given she seemed to find and try to crush some sizable knots in the area.
This time after the massage the therapist was waiting for me when I came down from the upper floor treatment room. She kindly guided me to the couch in a very Japanese way with an outstretched hand and a big smile. I sat and tried to come out of my dreamy state enough to talk with her and to get myself alert enough to walk home through the busy streets of Osaka. As had started to feel customary, she let me sit alone on the couch for a minute to enjoy the tea another staff member had brought. She came back shortly to chat briefly and to give me another nice card with a personal handwritten note. This time she also brought a card with her availability for the rest of the week written on it. I’d mentioned I was leaving Osaka at the end of the week and might want to come back so this was a nice and thoughtful touch.
When I was walking home, I remember thinking how lucky I was to be able to afford such a long massage, to have found such a good therapist, and to have such a wonderful wife who is ok with me going on a massage spree during my last days in Japan.
Copyright Fuzl LLC