I have a confession to make: I love to be slathered with mud. I also love to be rubbed with Dead Sea salts and mummified with seaweed. And there's nothing I find more exhilarating than knowing that I have just emerged victorious from a hair-raising bikini-wax session, ready to look my finest at the beach.
In short, I am a spa addict -- the more exotic, the better.
In Tokyo, however, birthplace of exotic products such as the now-popular sumi (black charcoal) face masks which reportedly draw out impurities with a paste that makes you look like a creature from the tar pits, it can actually be a challenge simply to find skilled estheticians for something as simple as a facial.