It’s Difficult to Comprehend How Insane Some People Can Be… Especially When You’re Insane

(Another Friday of accordion music will make anyone crazy)

My tiger, it seems, is running 'round nude.
This fur coat must have him made perspire.
It lies on the floor - should this be construed
As a permanent change of attire?
Perhaps he considers its colors passé,
Or maybe it fit him too snug
Will he want it back? Should I put it away?
Or use it right here as a rug?
- Bill Watterson

So many good titles I could use for today’s blog. I mean, I definitely needed one to do with insanity, but I’m sure it comes as a surprise to nobody that I have a list of a dozen good insanity quotes I could use. I chose this one though, simply because I’m not the only crazy person who thinks adventures are a good idea, no matter what they involve. So if you don’t already know what’s coming, here goes… Anton and I went to the Onsen with Kaitani-san, the man we met on the train last week.

After he wrote Anton a second time, we had to make a choice… we could lie, say we were too busy to go, we could ignore the email and look like rude foreigners, or we could go along with it. After all, gotta try an Onsen at least once, and this way we have a guide so we don’t draw attention to ourselves. (Haha, yeah right, two white naked foreigners in an Onsen, not drawing attention to themselves!) Besides, Japan is very safe, unlike Canada. One guy Anton knows spent 5 weeks hitchhiking Japan and had no problems. And also, we have a great story to blog about.

Anton wrote Kaitani-san (after this point I’ll refer to him as Uncle Masa, just to be consistent with Anton’s blog) to arrange a meeting, then he told me the plan when he got home around 8. Of course this left me 10 minutes to pack and run to the train station in the pouring rain if I was to meet Anton on time. Unfortunately I made the mistake of assuming rain = cold like in Calgary, and brought a jacket; when I got the train station I was wet and sweaty. But no worries, I’d be bathing soon anyway o.O.

Met Anton at 10 to 9 at Takanohara station in Nara. We both couldn’t help laughing at what a weird situation we had gotten ourselves into. It’s pouring rain, 10 at night, work the next day, and we were going with someone we met on the train to a place where we would be bathing naked with other people.

Aah, well, I didn’t come to Japan to work 9 to 5 every day and sit in my dorm the rest of the time. I came to have fun, have an adventure, and experience Japanese culture! And yes, this adventure does turn out for the best, and though I don’t have anything to compare it to, going to an Onsen at night in the rain seems like a really good time to go.

Maybe this is a good spot to describe an Onsen. I’m sure none of you in Canada have been to one, and probably most of the CJP hasn’t yet either. The place we went to was half Onsen, half Sento. Onsen is the outdoor hot springs, basically made out of stone, while the Sento consists of the indoor baths. The shower facilities are indoors as well. The total bathing area would have been about the same as a medium sized swimming pool. The inside baths were interesting, one had magenta colored water, another had seats with water jets shooting at you, another was filled with very cold (17C) water. There’s two sets of baths, one for each gender, and I’ve read that the genders switch every day or so. I mean you switch baths, you stay the same gender!!!

Hahaha…ha… ha… yeah… Lame joke courtesy of “Dave Barry Does Japan”. If you want an educational, informative guide to Japan, this isn’t your book. This is a non-fiction book about him, the Average Joe American guy, going to Japan with his family for three weeks. It’s a funny perspective on Japanese culture, I highly recommend it.
Edit: Managed to find the first chapter of the book online, if ya wanna read it, go here:
http://www.sdss.jhu.edu/~szgyula/szabolcs/davebarr.htm

Anyways, Onsen are extremely popular in Japan. Some cities (Beppo is one, I believe) are known for their Onsen resorts, where people go on vacation… yes… to have baths...

So I should probably mention this now. Everyone who knows me knows I’m rather quiet and shy. I’m also rather skinny, and my friends in Calgary make fun of me lots for looking rather young… so bathing naked with other people is something I would never even thought about back in Canada. I’m remembering a certain party at a cabin last summer, where I was the only one fully clothed, while other people (male, but they’ll remain nameless) were on the trampoline with only a toga on and nothing underneath. Of course, I was completely sober surrounded by people who were far from sober, but still, my point is I’m quite shy. So this was quite the experience for me. And yes, I know this is worthy of another “Cute” comment, grrr…

Continuing on with the story, Uncle Masa met us at the station, and we talked with him on the way to the Onsen. We found out he has a family, with a son (19) and a daughter (20 or 21, he couldn’t remember), so that makes everything quite less creepy. He also told us about Onsen, some of the rules and what it’s like. He asked if we had any tattoos. In Japan, tattoos are a sign of the Yakuza (Japanese gang), and Onsens don’t want gang members hanging about inside.

When we got there, we locked our shoes in a locker, then got a key to another locker upstairs and went to the change rooms. I guess locker room would be more appropriate, not really changing into anything except your birthday suit. Also, apparently you don’t wash before you get into the tubs like I had read, you just rinse yourself off. But perhaps if you’re going yourself it would be safer to wash first before getting in. You can also take a facecloth in with you, but you have to wear it on your head when you’re in the tub, it can’t go in the water.

We go into the Onsen outside first, and sat on a little rock bench in the bath. I was right beside the rock where the hot water comes out of, so it was toasty warm. After talking for a bit, we went inside to actually shower (Uncle Masa offered to wash Anton’s back, which sounds weird, but is actually normal in Japan. Anton politely declined however.), then went into the maroon bath and then the jet baths. I challenged Anton to see who could stay in the cold bath the longest. Anton won I think, I was quite freezing, I have no insulation on me. Masa had to leave for a few minutes so me and Anton went back to the outside Onsen for a bit. After we see some bamboo mats on the side that you can lay on. We decide to try it out, and I must say, it was really nice, with your eyes closed and the warm rain falling on you.

After getting out, Masa tells us it’s customary to have a drink after bathing. Anton offers to pay but Masa refuses, and buys us each a coffee milk. We talk with him for over an hour, about many different things. Finally we head back to Takanohara station, where we say thank you and goodbye to Kaitani-san. By this time it was 11:43, and the only way for me to get home was to fly according to Anton, so I stayed at his place for the night. Nothing else eventful happened, I got up at 7 and took the train back to Kyoto for work. I got to my dorm with about 5 minutes to spare before heading to the office. It was a good thing I had a bath the night before.

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Hmm, other events this week:

Brett vs the Bugs: Round 1
On Wednesday night I had a fight to the death with a mosquito. I wake up at 2:30am from a nightmare about itchy hands, when I realize, it was NO NIGHTMARE!!! 5 bites from one pesky mosquito, it bit my back, chest and hands without me rolling on it and squishing it. I’m allergic to mosquito bites too, I swell up huge and itch for days. I wake up, turn the light on, and spot the sucker… and smash it with my pillow. In its death it still manages to spite me… by staining my sheets with my own blood!

Today had me taking measurements for use with the root canal machine at my company. This meant that I had to work with decayed, extracted human teeth for a few hours, mmm exciting and not creepy. And yes, another Friday afternoon with 3 hours of accordion music.

This week I’ve been doing a lot of soldering as well, working on the production of some of the units at my company, which I spent 3 days doing. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but the soldering iron is hot and it’s quite warm here.

I got my Denshi Jisho today (electronic dictionary). I still gotta figure out how to work it, the instructions are in Japanese, but it has an English interface and a stylus pen, so you can draw Kanji you see and it’ll tell you the translation, how handy!

And finally, the weekend ahead looks quite exciting, I’m meeting with a bunch of Co-op Japaners, we’re exploring Osaka again, perhaps going to the Kaede concert (if we can find our way there). So I’ll have more to blog about in a couple of days!