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Got the chance to hang out with my favourite metal couple last night for dinner and onsen-ing.

We had a fabulous time at the Hotel De Marronnier in Yunoyama Onsen. It was exactly what I pictured an onsen to be like - natural stone everywhere, lots of steam, waterfalls of water, saunas, outdoor hot tubs, and naked Japanese woman galore hahaha It cost $10 to go in but it was totally worth it. They have the shower section all set up with free shampoo, hair conditioning treatments and body and face wash. All of it was really good quality too. I especially loved the face wash! Apparently if you book in advance you can get a salt scrub, acupuncture or a massage, too. Awesome :) I can't wait to take the boy! The onsen hotels are all booked up for New Years, of course, but I hope we can get there in the summer when it's really nice out (and warm!) According to Lacey Yunoyama Lodge is really nice to stay at and decently priced so I'll have to check it out for the future.

So anyway it was bath time and Lacey and I were both feeling deprived of girl talk so had a good chat about the current boys and exes. The girl has lived a very exciting life and lived just about everywhere (or at least, it feels like that anyway). I'm definitely jealous of some of the places she's been. We took our sweet ass time so the boys ended up having to wait for us, but it was totally worth it. You just feel SOOO relaxed when you leave, it's like your limbs are made of jelly. They had even more beauty products in the change room - collagen moisturizers for your face, leave in conditioner for your hair, and this moisturizer that you could put everywhere so I used it on my body. First time I've ever seen a gel one, but it felt nice and made my skin super soft.

So today I kind of took it easy. Went to the grocery store, put together a lesson plan, and then headed to Yokkaichi for 3 to see Twilight: New Moon in the theatre. It was really interesting seeing a movie in Japan. The movies here are crazy expensive. The average cost of a movie ticket for an adult is $17. I got in on a student ticket and it was $15... so basically minimum $5 more than you'd pay at home (if you don't convert for exchange).

When you buy your ticket they also ask you to select your seat. I was like "Sorry, what?" hahahaha Apparently that's how they do it here - almost like booking a concert ticket or something. She even showed me a seating chart! The theatre wasn't busy so I basically sat wherever I wanted in my row. I think I was sitting in the premium seats that you're supposed to pay more for, but oh well ;)

The movie was in English, thank god, with Japanese subtitles which wasn't so bad, really. I was trying to follow along to see how much I could figure out. All I could tell for sure was that whenever someone said 'Charlie' they changed it to "Papa", Bella became "Be-ra" and Edward was "E-du-wa-do". So...Twilight meets Italy? Fitting I guess...

Sadly, because it wasn't playing in Nagoya I wound up going by myself. I was the only one laughing at the jokes, which was kind of funny to me in its own way, but the experience was still totally worth it. I made the mistake of telling Jim I saw it and he was like "Oh, so I guess we don't need to see it when you're here after all!" Damn... gonna try and see if I can still swing a second viewing :D

Was feeling pretty motivated today so moseyed on over to the Daiso (the dollar store) in JUSCO and got some props for my upcoming Christmas lessons and some stocking stuffers for the folks back home. Nothing says Christmas like a Santa hat with bells :) I might end up doing a Christmas lesson with Jim in one of his classes while I'm there which would be incredibly fun! I haven't had the chance to step into a jr. high class yet so it'd be really interesting for me to meet some of his students. That's not till Thursday though so I won't know till later in the week.

Anyway, I should get to bed or something. It's pretty cold here at night now, but my kotatsu is keeping me warm. Hope you guys aren't too cold in Canada! I'll update again after my trip up north.

XO

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