Rockin the Onsen Part Deux: ...

So last night my host mom gave me a warning "We're going to the Onsen again! hee hee hee." Come 7 o' Clock, my host dad is no where to be found. While it may have been awkward going with my host dad...at least I got street cred for going with an older Japanese man. This time, I was told, would be different. I was going by myself. My host mom and host sister were going, but obviously they were going to be in a separate bath. I figured, I'd been in the onsen with my host dad, with my newly-made American friends...how bad could alone be? Answer: Bad. (Well, mostly just awkward.)

Getting undressed wasn't bad to start with. I get undressed and walked away from my little locker and turn the corner (you get a small hand towel to cover yourself with while walking to the bath/shower area) and run into, making full contact with a small Japanese woman. I stress WOMAN because I was completely naked. Luckily, she was fully clothed or it would have made it more awkward. I was so surprised and embrassed that I kind of muttered "oh my god" and started laughing. She too started laughing. This was a new thing I learned: The entire cleaning staff at the Onsen is female.

I walked on over to the shower area. This wasn't too awkward, it wasn't that crowded this time, though since it was a new Onsen, I got a lot of looks again. (I don't think this will ever change so I'm not too worried/upset by it). I sat down in the large, very hot bath and began to try to relax. (You must imagine, running into an old lady while naked doesn't just "go away" from your nerves in a few minutes). I moved over to another bath, this one was bubbling and there were two people in it. I sat down in it, within fifteen seconds both men had stared at me, and left the bath with dirty looks. They didn't seem like nice people anyway. This bath was easily the hottest water I'd ever been submerged in. It hurt but felt good at the same time. It was a very strange feeling. I got out and I don't think Japan had ever seen something so red before. People stared again, most likely because they were surprised at the range of colors my skin was showing. Super blinding white to bright pink-red. Anyway...

I walked back to the first bath and sat down. In jumps two naked eight-ish year old girls with their dad. They stare directly at me, whisper to their dad. he giggles. They mosey over to me and start talking to me, asking me why I am so red, asking me where I am from, if I know Japanese. This was easily the most awkward and uncomfortable feeling I've ever felt in my entire life. Taking a bath with two naked girls who I didn't know while a bunch of old Japanese men watched me. I kept my eyes fixed straight ahead as I didn't want to make the mistake of looking the wrong way. The whole time I couldn't stop thinking "Girls! I AM NAKED. I am RIGHT HERE! I would be arrested for this so fast in my country." It lasted for only thirty seconds seconds or so, but in "awkward-situation-time" that's close 2 minutes and 47.3 seconds.

I got up and walked to the outside bath to seek refuge from the girls. I sat outside in the bath for a while and walked back inside because the clock said 8:05 and I was meeting my host mom and host sister in the lobby at 8:15.

I don't think I'll have to write any more entries about Onsens because nothing will get as weird as this. Seriously. I probably shouldn't have even shared this story. And to be honest, the Onsens are awesome, they are so relaxing. Just not when there are little kids near you.

Lunch.

Satoshi is the guy who sets up all the stuff for us IES folks in Japan. He's hilarious, he's really nice, and likes to take advantage of the fact that IES will spend good money on us. Whenever we have a meeting or a place we have to meet for sometihng, he picks a nice nice restaurant and lets us eat a ton. Today we had our "IES Welcome Lunch" (even though we arrived almost a month ago). He picked this really nice place downtown and ordered all of us a Nomihodai (All you can drink). My table included myself, three other students, and occasionally Satoshi. We ripped up the food and drinks. We ate two smallish pieces of fried fish, a piece of tofu, a ton of edamame, followed by one spring roll each then we went through two Nabe (a giant pot filled with tons of veggies and meat), then two giant plates of Sweet and Sour Chicken, a giant pot of spaghetti and fish, dessert. I've never been so close to vomiting just from eating... yet I felt so great at the same time.

I can't wait to see how the rest of this trip unfolds.


(Nabe #1 - Completed!!)


The Next Post: Rockin the Onsen Part Deux: Back with a Blinding Vengence!

The B's!

My host dad's band "The B's" (A Beatles Cover Band) rehearsed yesterday. I was pleasently impressed with their skills. Though, they have been practicing for 4 decades...so I guess they've had time to get good. They ripped through two hours of tunes, songs from their earliest stuff to their abbey road days. It was pretty great. One of the guys didn't seem to like me. He kind of gave me dirty looks a lot, but he was new in a band and I don't thinkt hey like him much anyway.

(My dad is the drummer. And the loudest drummer I've ever heard at that.)

Perfect...

So let's take a short break from Japan so I can give you a brief history of the relationship I've had with construction...

Starting in the summer after I graduated I high school, they started doing construction on block. Most of this was cutting down trees. They'd start at about 6:30 or 7:00 am and work til about noon. The trees weren't just little trees, those huge hundred-year-old fifty footers. It was noisy, it drove me crazy. I remember one evening I really wanted to get sleep so I slept at my friends house where there was no construction in site. At 6:00 am, a tree got cut down right outside the window of the room I was in.

(First year of college...over)

Next summer we moved into a new townhome. All of the unit were basically finished but the street outside of them needed a lot of work done. That whole summer they cut bricks for the sidewalk, tore up the street, put in a new watermane (spelling?), and tore out the old curb and put a new one in. I rarely slept past 7:45. Jump to next summer...

The following summer (this past summer) I moved back home so I could prep myself for my trip to Africa and my trip to Japan. The "new" watermane that was put in the past summer, needed to be replaced. This took most of the summer. The tore up the street, dug 7 foot deep holes, ripped up chunks of curb, the whole deal again. It drove me crazy. When they dug the really deep holes, they would jackhammer with the truck-jackhammer type things. This caused the house to shake so hard that it broke the tiles in my moms bathroom.

(Are you starting to see the pattern?)

Jump to thanksgiving break...It's finally the end of school for me for a while. I am going to catch up on sleep and get ready for Japan....wrong. Construction on my moms damaged bathroom starts every morning at 7:00. Luckily this only takes a few days but it's still ridiculous.

So I get on a plane, fly to Japan and here I am now. I woke up this morning (Saturday) at 7:00 am... why? you ask. Because they are doing construction on the street outside of my house. That's why.

It's tough being stuck in an old vaudeville routine.



P.S. Dear "Unclejohnny" the Sumie Painting is not mine. I am way better than that painting. WAY better. My teacher did that one.

Goal...

Every morning I see the same group of kids walking to school. They walk in two lines with bright yellow hats and matching backpacks. Each morning I say, "Good morning!" or "Ohayou!" to them and each morning they have more courage to say hello back to me. By the end of this trip I want be getting high fives from all of them every morning. I won't leave until it happens.

Class

I've now had the opportunity to experience all of my classes here at Nanzan University. I will make a brief comment on each of them.

IJ300 (Intensive Japanese) - This is currently a very easy course, it promises to get harder by the end of the quarter, I believe it will, but it's currently pretty simple but fun. The homework usually consists of a few pages in a workbook, kanji practice, and an occasional short writing assignment.

Japanese Writing IIs - This is, so far, pretty fun. The teacher is really nice, though I was truly afraid of her for the first class. She looks very intense but is super laid back and funny. The first ten minutes of class are for writing. We are given a topic and we write on it for ten minutes then turn it in. After that, the past two classes we've just gone over 200 kanji we "should know" though it was pretty difficult for everyone in the class.

Japanese Religions II - There is no textbook for the class, we only write two papers and the teahcer (an Indian Priest) told us he's bad at English so he can't tell if the papers are bad anyway. Being the only Jew in the class is a little weird. Judaism is the only religion the teacher seems to know nothing about so he consults me on everything.

Sumie - Chinese Black Ink Painting. This is not calligraphy. The teacher (Ritsuo Sugiyama) is apparently a pretty famous dude, he has an entire book of his work published that we are using as a textbook. (http://www.world-egg.com/sumie/hanainxe.html here are samples from the textbook). In the one class we had, he showed us how to disperse the ink, showed us one stroke and then said "Paint what ever you want". I painted a banana, an apple, and a kiwi. I don't think he liked it, but he probably liked it better than one students painting of Nebraska (A large outline of the state, essentially a box, with a cow in the middle, a line drawn for where the interstate goes and "Nebraska" written across the top).

Oh. Yes.

So, I did it. I bought tickets to the Stevie Wonder concert. I just had to do it. My amazing host mom actually helped me out a lot. The ticket window (which is in the giant trainstation near my house) didn't open til 10 and it closes at 3. My classes are from 9:20 - 3:35 + an hour train ride home. She went to one station, they were out of tickets, then called a different station that still had tickets left and got them for me. I have to pay her back, but it's still so nice of her.


No matter how hard I try (with exception for one day.) I can't get to school "on time." No, I am not late, I am always extremely early. In our student center type area, there's a bunch of computers where you can use the internet so I usually go there to try and check email. Everytime, there's this annoying Japanese girls who just sit in front of the computers and don't use them. Then they put their bags at the other ones next to them so you can't get to them. They also do this in the computer labs. It's hard to tell if they are that persons, or someone elses stuff so it's always awkward asking if someone is sitting there. It's so annoying! Also, whenever I am going to a train, people walk so slow! This is partially my fault as I tend to walk "swiftly" but seriously, they go at a snails pace. Every morning there's a huge hill I walk up to get to school and since all the girls here wear ridiculous boot-high-heels (not to mention how every girl here is extremely pigeon toed and bow legged), they not only walk slow, but they can't walk straight. They kind of just wobble from side to side, kind of like they are weaving through cones that aren't really there. This results in my crashing into them frequently. It's not just me, in case you were wondering. All the exchange students seem to have this problem.

Other than that, everything is still really fun, really exciting, and really "new". This is definitely a trip that I needed.