2010/02/25
Recently I went to a public bath for the second time here in Japan. By now I have created an onsen team which includes William (British), Ivan (Chinese), Hiro (Japanese), and Steele (American). This time we had a special guest joining us, Tomaki. This was actually the first time I met Tomaki and what better way to meet someone than sit naked next to each other with about 10 other men.
When I walked into this onsen, the first thing that I observed was how many woman were in the men’s side of the onsen. They all worked at the onsen, but it did not feel right having them in there. I asked my friend Hiro (just like I asked him last time we were at a different onsen) about why there were women in the men’s side of the onsen. He gave me the same answer as last time, which explained that they probably are cleaning just because they want to see naked men. This made sense, because if I was a women and wanted to see naked men all the time what better place than a public bath to do so.
This onsen had two great things about it that the other one did not have. The first one was called the “freedom bed.” Basically, people would lay down on a few inches of water in a very flat pool naked. This was pretty revealing, but somehow it was comfortable. The water wasn’t to hot and my onsen team could fit perfectly in the five spots the “freedom bed” allowed for us to lay in. The second thing was at the end they had a drink machine with fresh cold milk. When I say fresh, I mean fresh. I even had William (the British man) confirm this for me, because he claims British milk is much fresher than American milk. Although my British friends have been wrong about many things here, like which English words should used in everyday conversation, he was right about this.
Muir arrived 2 days ago and it has been good so far. We have done a lot of bicycle riding and are planning to go to a big graveyard and garden today. I will try and update you with some pictures soon about the places we are exploring. Also, make sure to check out his blog when you have a chance.
http://travel.muiradams.com/
much love,
Steele
