Posted on Tuesday, April 03, 2007 5:24 PM
As the third week of this holiday is well on its way, I decided to take things easy; visit things and places that are within a few hours of train travel.
Today, I went to Hakoneyumoto with Martijn, Niels and Robert for a good soak in an onsen.
At first, I wasn't very happy, as I was tired to begin with (and my Japanese deteriorates rapidly when I'm tired), so I was kind of miffed when I couldn't figure out what was where (almost ran into the wrong door as well), but once I got nekkid and into the bath, things got better.
I talked (more or less) with a father and his two kids about fluff, and it's nice to see once again that both adults and kids over here are less shy about the human body compared to the west. Hey, it's a body; men and women basically have different plumbing, that's all. Yes, I'm generalising, but when you're in a bath, that's all there is to it. For all you know, you're sharing the bath with the CEO of some large company, or talking to a girl who works at Yoshinoya. That's right, you don't. ;)
I also got a few requests of people wanting some special stuff you can only get here in Japan, so I spent a few hours in Nakano and Akihabara checking out the second-hand stores and some specialty shops.
No idea yet of what I'm going to do tomorrow, but as the rain has washed the sakrua away, repeating last night's Hanami will be difficult.
But I got to see and experience it, and that was one of the objectives of this trip.
Cheers, K.