Our day finishing up Osaka began simply enough: Waking up late and being given 5 minutes to gather all our belongings, brush our teeth, and hit the road. David and I were awoken first by Kim, then reminded to vacate the room when one of the cleaning ladies came by. Embarrassing? Just a tad.
After all that commotion finished, we made a short pit-stop at a famous Osakan shopping district nearby that is overseen by a particular deity, Biliken. This opportunity was nice and kind of fun, as the many shops there were adorned with massive advertisement structures above their entrances. Pictures on the flickr will help give you a better idea of what this district was like. While nothing particularly amazing happened during this short trip to do last-minute shopping, I did find it really surprising that there was a pachinko parlor with blatant pornographic posters affixed to it's building on the outside. There were children everywhere around, yet it was no big deal that there were these rather graphic posters being displayed. I wonder if this is just part of a culture difference or if it's even strange/unheard of for Japan. Either way, that threw me for a curveball while perusing the many shops.
Once shopping time had concluded, the group, complete once more, hit the pavement and trekked to the nearby Kobe area. Interestingly, we did not go to Kobe the city, but instead opted to take about 3 train transfers to a remote village called Arima. This town, while tiny in scale, had become a bit famous in the area for being host to a handful of fantastic onsen, public bath houses. As a result, our main focus for this trip was to soak up a totally different atmosphere from the big cities we'd toured the past few days, as well as soaking up some scalding hot water in a bath with 40 other people.
See, for those that don't know, onsen have been a part of the Japanese culture for a very long time. Originally used by the poor, for the lack of available water to shower individually, people would come together, wash themselves outside of the bath, and then use a hot spring to relax in silence or shoot the breeze with other citizens. It became a communal event, if desired, and is still enjoyed to this day in open-air or roofed establishments. What does this bath entail exactly? I'm glad you asked. First, we were divided by sex. Some onsen have co-ed baths, but this particular one was segregated. So I entered the men's section and was greeted by about 20 other men, ages ranging from about 7 to over 60, in varying degrees of nudity. Not a single gaijin, foreigner, like me in sight. Whoo, here we go. After entering the changing area, I used a nearby locker to place my glasses, my pants, and every other bit of clothing in, save for a towel for later use. This marked the first time in my life I'd been completely naked in front of so many unknown, grown individuals. Was it embarrassing? To a degree. But I dug deep and stood my ground. From the changing room, there was a single other room: the wash/onsen room. Lined up on the left side of this massive enclosure were individual showers where one would sit down, use a nozzle to spray one's self, use the provided soap/shampoo to clean, and then rinse thoroughly. The reason for this is because the onsen water is not changed. It's meant to be clean all the time, since everyone showers beforehand, and thus has no reason to be changed. And when I entered that water, I can't even begin to explain how hot it was. I had never, in all my days, experienced such hot water. I thought I would be able to soak and relax and enjoy jacuzzi/hot tub-esque water. NOPE. I sat in that water, sweating rivers, for 15 minutes before I could not take any more for fear of fainting. I rinsed myself with lukewarm water afterwards just to cool down a tad but retain some heat, went out to the changing room, and dried off.
Interestingly, onsen oftentimes have a strict rule against people with tattoos. They will usually say that they do not allow tattoo-bearing patrons due to an age-old belief that those with tattoos are of yakuza affiliation. Luckily, with this onsen, they allowed me in. Perhaps because I'm a foreigner, perhaps because I'm a short kid who wouldn't harm a fly, who knows. Either way, I got to enjoy the stares of dozens of men for three reasons: I was a stark-naked white boy with a big, red tattoo. Truly a unique experience unlike anything else.
From this onsen, we enjoyed the lingering warmth, as it was freezing outside in the cold, autumn mountain village, and explored the streets. At one point, we found a public "ashi onsen", or foot bath. This foot bath, unsurprisingly, held the same heat level of water that the onsen prior had, so I stuck my toesies in for a whopping 10 minutes before taking my leave. We scoured the village some more until around the time we absolutely had to leave in order to make our bus back to Yokohama. Luckily, we reached our station early and allowed us all to grab some food/sit down and rest. Most everyone split into smaller parties, and I had the rather lucky opportunity to share a heart-to-heart with Kim. I've had discussions with a lot of other people here from the UC's, but Kim wasn't one of them at the time, so I was very glad to get that chance and learn more about her. Post-conversation under the Kansai nighttime sky, we went to join up with the others again, as well as purchase BEARD PAPAS CREAM PUFFS! This franchise has had one or two shops in Orange County before, but they closed down, so I had not had their unbelievable cream puffs in a handful of years. Just the right way to end a vacation.
In just a little bit, we hopped over to the overnight bus and did our best to knock out during the 8-hour ride. This time, the seat was much more comfortable (for some reason), and we all sat by each other, so we could interact with one another a little more easily when the lights were still on inside the bus. Sir Francis was shared and got plenty of attention. I actually snagged some hours of sleep. It wasn't nearly as awful as the ride there.
Upon arriving in Yokohama, we took one of the first trains back to Totsuka, and, as quickly as we could manage, raced through the cold back to MISH. Just as I reached my room, the sun came up directly across from my balcony. What a sight it was, coming back home and enjoying a sunrise for the first time in a very long time. The perfect way to cap a grand adventure.
No comments:
Post a Comment