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Published: November 15th 2007
Onsen
Surprisingly the picture with the flash on is darker than the one without.. go figureI would like to start off this entry by letting you know that in no way was it my intention to mislead you, the reader, in any way. What I have written in the past is what I truly believed to be the truth and I, in no way, meant any disrespect to anyone or any culture by the things that I can only say that I misinterpreted or was misinformed. That being said, it has come to my attention that most Japanese people do NOT brush their teeth while they are showering. I apologize if this misconception that I instigated in your life. Upon receiving this information I was stuck in an awkward situation, do I shake off the bad news and pretend that I was never interested in the idea in the first place or do I proudly show my colours and convince my informant that he/she (I do not want to reveal my source) must change their ways for this is the dawn of a revolution. As you may have guessed I hung my head in shame and hid my fascination. To this day I am still ashamed.
With that being said I have also told my
Onsen
The brighter not flash picture.. hmm one adult class about my blog, so as you read this, they may be reading it as well, but thats not really the point. I merely wanted to let you know that this blog is not only for my writing pleasure and your reading pleasure but also it is now a fine English learning tool for foreign students. I'm pretty much a published author at this point.
Anyways onto the good stuff. This entry is really more of a bunch of random thoughts than a story about what I've done over the last week. I went back to the Onsen because it was honestly very relaxing. As i was lying head deep in water, I'd been pondering this smaller poor with the colour of blood.
"Theres no way they would have a pond of blood here.
You are in Japan. That doesn't mean they have ponds of blood.
Its a different culture, you don't want to judge, that pond was rather soothing on your eyes. hmm you're right.. .OMG that guy has just stepped into the pond of blood. It can't be a pond of blood, they wouldn't bath in blood.
Its a different culture, you've been raised not to judge. Have you ever bathed in blood? hmmm, it could be relaxing.. but it can't be blood.. hmm I wonder what it is...
Ever so carefully I meandered over to this pond... hmmm theres a sign... that deep red sure is nice on my eyes. hmmm the sign is in Japanese. what does that say.. oh wait theres some English. Oh I see.. it is a pond of bl.. no just wine.. red wine.. hmm that would be nice.. why have I never done this... hmm, now.. .if I get in it.. will i have to shower after? what is the proper procedure.. is this only something you do at the beginning of your bathing or at the end... oh crap, you've been here to long, you might look like you dont' know what to do.. back to the other pools.
now before I proceed with this I would just genuinely like to point out that I'm don't, at least I don't think I do and please correct me if I'm wrong, have a hairy body by Canadian/North American standards. But as I lay in the bathing pools pretending not to watch people in the pond
A tree at the onsen
its a tree, what can I say but its brighter because theres no flash of wine, I notice two things.... The first being that there really seemed to be no rituals for this bathing of the wine. The second being that Japanese men are pretty much hairless. Actually I have a theory that they shave their bottoms. Now I wasn't trying to look at their hairless bottoms but it was the result of the research of the bathing of the wine. As I lay their thinking about this new theory, I wondered what I should do. I do not believe my bottom is hairy, but there is hair... if I am correct that Japanese men shave their bottoms, does this mean that I am justified if not required to shave bottom as to experience their culture. Are they offended by my hair? As their is no polling system on this site, please send me a email or facebook message as to your vote: should Geoff shave his bottom? and if so is it justified as a cultural experience.
At this point I would like to remind all my readers that I have given out my blog to my adult class. Have I gone to far with this last paragraph? Should I be censoring
The building
This is where I previously saw the hornet.. crazy my blog? I have laid awake many a night tossing and turning over this dilemma, but this blog is merely a representation of who I am. To deny that these thoughts went through my head would be to deny who I am. I do not write this to offend, but to give you, the reader, a glimpse into the mind that is Geoff.
On a sightly more appropriate note, there was a scooter chase outside my apartment. It was wicked. i could hear it getting closer so I went to my window just to see the scooter go by at 40km/h (most of them max out that, I believe) and a cop car close behind. Sorry I didn't get the camera, I really should just have the camera glued to my hand. Maybe next time.
As some of you know, I'm a rather savvy grocery shopper, i'm always looking for deals, so it probably wouldn't surprise you that I was drawn like a mosquito to a bright light when I found out that the local grocery store has a sales rack. My first purchase was a bunch of bananas 30% off. What a steal. Or was it? when
The Onsen
This is the main building I brought them home I found out that two of the 5 bananas were rotten. I'm not sure if this was merely a mistake by the sales staff (placing rotten food on the sale rack) or Japanese culture, but be warned I was not impressed. Later that week I was found scavenging the sale rack. There were no rotten bananas.
I have been on a number of runs since I've been here and usually along the same path. There is a walking bridge that I have to pass over which is rather narrow. As I approach it, I notice theres a crow on the railing. First off when a Japanese crow is flying in the air it looks a lot bigger than our North American crows, but as you approach one that you know you'll have to pass it looks huge. Now the reason I'm telling you this is that the first thing that popped into my mind when I saw the crow was not "ok, maybe I won't go over the bridge" or "maybe I should make some loud noises to make the crow fly away" but rather "alright, if the crow attacks me I'm going to give
Onsen
I'm not sure what this is, but it looks cool up my left arm as bait (I'm right handed) and then when he gets close enough I'm going to uppercut him with my right" Just stop and think about that... who thinks about uppercutting a bird. Needless to say the bird flew off when i approached.. he could probably read minds and was scared.. thats my theory and I'm sticking to it.
You may notice a video I posted about sushi. i went out for sushi with three lovely Japanese Branch managers and another foreign teacher he is lovely as well. It was good times. They have sushi that comes by your table on a conveyor belt. It was great. I left my camera on the table when we left to go pay for the meal. It was a test for my newly found friends to see if they would bring it for me. They passed the test. When i told them it was a test they didn't believe me. Apparently they think I'm just forgetful.
I must say, one thing I have been impressed with was that Japanese people always reverse park into stalls. Its quiet remarkable. I'm not sure how they find the motivation for this,
Onsen
Are you allowed to walk in the water.. I'm not really sure.. i'd assume you can cause theres a chair on the other side.. or maybe i just missed the path.. gawd why is everything so confusing but they do and they're all quite amazing at it too. However one thing that does worry me a little, was while I was getting a ride with one of my Japanese friends, she/he mentioned in passing that Japanese people were such good drivers they didn't need to wear seat belts. At this point I looked down and notice that he/she was wearing a seat belt. I'm not really sure what their last comment meant in combination with my observation, but I double checked my seat belt and started figuring out how I was going to brace myself if we were in an accident.
I know this has dragged on for way too long and I hope I didn't often anyone. Hope you enjoyed this. Cheers Geoff
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Tom
non-member comment
Flash
Just a note on the flash/brightness issue. When the flash is on the camera lets in less light to compensate for the intensity of the flash, but since the objects in the picture are so far away the flash has very little effect, resulting in a darker image.