Greetings friends!
I know I have been absent recently, but I have had a very busy month…. I guess I should start with my visit to the magical land of Hakone. Hakone is a mystical land near Mt. Fuji that has hot springs. So while my friends and classmates were off exploring the Kansai region of Japan and having worlds of fun, I went with my family to this magical place. It took us about 4 hours to get there and we stayed at a place called Yunessun. This was a nice hotel that was also a spa. We started our hot springs adventure with Dr. Fish. For those of you who do not know, Dr. Fish is where you sit with your feet in a pool and tiny fish eat you. It was weird and an experience I hope to never experience again. Then we moved on to the hot springs. The first was just a really big and really hot pool that had a waterfall in it. That was nice, but very very hot and my host dad and I were finished with it very quickly. The next one we went to was the tofu tub. It smelled weird and was slimy… Then we hit the seasonal tub! Since it was before Halloween, we got the privilege of bathing in Pumpkin. The water was green but it was not an off-putting experience. Then we went to the Turkish baths and the steam rooms. After we finished our inside exploration, we decided to head outside and explore the hard-core tubs. The first tub was the coffee tub. I do not like Japanese coffee to begin with (I believe that Brazilian coffee is inferior) so this experience was a little wasted on me. The water looked like coffee does so I felt uncomfortable getting into what looked like a boiling tub of coffee, but in the end it was not a totally negative experience. The next tub we hit was the wine tub. This was fun, it smelled like red wine and the water was purple. Nozumi, my host brother, was the first one in and seemed to really enjoy the purple water. Then we went to the traditional onsen portion of the spa. It was boring and lame. From what I was able to read on the sign and what my host dad told me, it is a regular bath with some sort of charcoal like incense in the water. Lame. So we moved on. The next tub was the Green Tea tub. My host family was particularly looking forward to this one because of the health benefits of bathing in this miracle concoction. When we got there we were surprised and disappointed to see that although the sign and all the maps said, “Green Tea,” it was, in fact, Oolong tea. Lame. So we continued on to the next tub conveniently located less than 5 feet away, the sake bath. We all entered sans my pregnant host mom and enjoyed a quick soak in the other miracle bath. So now we had bathed in all the tubs. Our auras were probably all rainbowy in happiness and being made healthy-ness. So we decided to eat and head to bed. After dinner Nozumi and my host dad and I went to the onsen, or public bath. Throughout the day, although we were considered to be at an onsen, we were wearing bathing suits. There is not a lot of things more frightening that public nudity. I was pleased to see that we were the only people there. Immediately my host dad started whipping off his clothes. Looking back now I can see that this was probably to help me feel more comfortable and not perceive this experience as scary of something that I should be ashamed of. Then Nozumi and I got naked as well and moved from the locker area armed only with our small towels into the shower and bath part of the onsen. I proceeded to take a shower and get into the tub that was a cozy 33 degrees Celsius. After I while I had enough and decided I was done being naked with my family and got out and got dressed. We then all went back to the room for some well deserved rest. That night I learned that the Japanese people are all a bunch of whiners that refused to take action. We all laid in the same big room in our futons slowly drifting off to sleep. I was uncomfortably warm, but I didn’t feel that my physical concerns were as important as my pregnant host mom’s so I didn’t say anything and suffered through it. Then Nozumi exclaimed his warmth and demanded action to be taken. This sentiment was echoed by my host mom and then my host dad. But no action was taken. The air-conditioner remote was located about 3 feet from my host mom’s futon but there was no movement coming from her. So we spent the part of the night just before we fell asleep all saying how hot it was in the room……
The next day we headed out into the city of Hakone. It was another exciting adventure and we rode on a real live-fake-pirate ship across the Hakone Lake which I was told by my host dad is actually 5 lakes. I was not impressed I was all like, “This is nice, but I know what a lake is, I’m from Minnesota!” My family and I laughed and continued on our way. We stopped again at another touristy area. There was this hill that people were walking up. We got out and started walking up it. About halfway to the top, a good 15 minutes in, my host mom said, “fuck this!” and went back down the hill. I thought to myself, “Oh, I guess she had already seen what is up here and doesn’t feel like finishing the climb in her condition.” We then reached the top. It had been a 30 minute climb. I looked down and saw that the hills looked to be on fire with magical golden flames. The sun was setting and the reeds to either side of the road we had walked up were lit by the soft red and gold glow of the setting sun. Then we went down the hill. We then departed and returned home at about 10 that night.
After my friends returned from their adventure, we resumed classes and everything was going smoothly. My friend Chris started looking at housing and we found a nice apartment that is located about 10 minutes from Ueno and about 30 minutes from Akihabara. The rent is 120000 yen split between 3 people so it is about 40000 yen plus 20000 yen for utilities and internet, again split between 3 people so about 46600 per person, so about 500 us dollars a month. That’s the budget I had set for myself for rent during the break that’s exciting!
Then we started getting set up for the Hapiokai. This was the mini-event where our host families came to the school and we either preformed a skit or a speech for their pleasure. I had at first decided to do a skit with my classmates. Then the skit became less fun and more what one guy’s religion/morals would allow us to perform in a skit. So I bailed and decided to write a speech. At first I was told my speech had to be 10 minutes. That was a long time… So I started my speech. Then because the skit people broke into 2 groups, my speech was reduced to 6 minutes. Then we found out that the other class’s skits might be a little longer, so my speech was reduced to 5 minutes. Then the teachers decided to streamline the process to help move the speeches and skits along. Now my speech was to be 4 minutes. So I changed my topic and re-wrote my speech. I finished and practiced my speech with my teachers. Then I was told that I needed to reduce my skit to 3.5 minutes. So I was kind of rushed….. In the end, I wrote a speech in Japanese that talked of my love of the Gundam game I play and the new Pokémon game I had bought here. During the Hapiokai I received applause in the middle of my speech after I had told the audience that I was almost finished catching all 493 Pokémon. I’m only 5 off! So that was a validating experience, having a bunch of old people applaud you for wasting over 500 hours of game play in the last 2 years on catching one of every Pokémon….
So that finished last weekend and I have been working on some other projects as well. Now I am studying for some more tests and I have a paper to write….
