Fired Up at the Hot Springs!

"Fired Up at the Hot Springs!" is the twenty sixth episode in Gokinjo Monogatari.

Plot
Akindo group decides to take a two days trip to the hot springs to celebrate Shintaro's graduation from middle school and matriculation into Yazagaku. He is now an official member of Akindo. To express their gratitude for help with the sign they invite Ayumi with them too. Of course, the boys have another secret motive for the trip ― they hope to get into co-ed open-air baths with the girls. Mariko is reluctant about going to the hot spring, she finds it rather boring and something suitable only for old folks. The boys persuade her by promising a ski resort nearby and fancy cuisine from the hotel's café. She gets hope to meet some hot guys from the ski resort and agrees to come. Overall, everyone just wants to have fun.

Mikako is so excited to go on the trip with Tsutomu as a couple, she makes cute colour coordinated closes for both of them. The rocky mountain road leads them to the Takaya Hotel, which in reality looks more like a small countryside inn. The manager of the inn looks just like Noriji, except for his baldness. Soon they find out that there is no ski resort or café, and so-called hotel has no game room or even such a common thing as a ping-pong table. In fact, there is no even the hot spring bath ― the manager tells them to dig a pit in the spot where the spring boils up and fill it with river water by themselves. While the boys spent time digging the open-air bath, the girls enjoy the public bath in the village, so the boys end up enjoying the open-air bath they have dug all by themselves.

At the dinner time, everyone compliments the beautiful green yukata that Ayumi wears. She says her grandmother made it for her. The dinner is not fancy, but the group still gets to try some unusual dishes, which despite simple looks turn out to be actually tasty. After the dinner, they have to suffer the inn's manager's traditional singing as there is no karaoke or anything modern at all.

On the next day, the manager recommends them to visit a couple from Tokyo that lives in the mountain and makes fabrics and earthenware. After an exhausting hike, they finally get to the place. The group has a lot of fun there, looking at the handmade crafts and listening to stories from the couple.

In the evening, tired but inspired the group returns to Tokyo.

Cast and character appearances

 * Ayumi Oikawa
 * Jiro Nishino
 * Mai "P-chan" Oota
 * Mariko Nakasu
 * Mikako Kouda
 * Risa Kanzaki
 * Shintaro Nakasu
 * Tsutomu Yamaguchi
 * Yuusuke Tashiro
 * Takaya Hotel's manager
 * The couple of artisans from the mountain

Trivia
The trip to this rundown countryside hotel never happened in manga, perhaps filler.

The name of the hotel sounds like a words play, meaning they went to the cheapest hotel that ironically had the word "expensive" in the name (takai in Japanese means expensive).