The place I didn't want to or feel like going to was actually pretty fun. Of course I had my reasons to be afraid. And I was afraid. Geeze, anyone would have been if you're from America or some other place that doesn't know the existence of the word "Public Baths". But before I go into that, I know I'll be rambling on, I wanna say this first: I don't mean to sound perverted or anything when I go into my explanations if it so happens to sound like that. It was just how I was feeling. This is a blog and sorta like a journal so the point is to speak out your feelings and thoughts. So, please, no comments about anything like that. It's your choice to read it or not.
So, this weekend I had to go to a Rotary camp like thing. Left school early on Friday with Pat and then we were off to Mitsukaido. 2 freaking hours away. I didn't want to go in the first place. Public Baths, freaking, stupid squat toilets. The whole bundle. What I knew about this wasn't much at all. I knew there were going to 50 some people there, I was under the impression that most of them were going to be exchange students. It wasn't till later that night I noticed they were all Japanese. Even my roommates were. Pat's host sister Nozomi came with us and counting her and me and Pat there were 6 people in our room. The 7th person came on Saturday. The one girl had the most awesome clothing. She said the style was Japanese punk. And she's the first person I met here who also knew who Kotoko (a jpop artist) is. She was shocked I knew her as well.
It wasn't long that we then went for the bath. Pat was freaking out but I tried to stay calm. I was freaking out in my head. But I'll most likely ramble on, so we'll save all that for last. That night, I just wanted to get some sleep in the beginning. It sucks when everyone else is speaking a language you can't understand. But the night got better, somehow. I just decided to talk to Pat since I knew we weren't going to sleep anytime soon by how much they were talking and somehow we all started talking to each other in easy Japanese and poor Hitomi, we going back and forth at annoying each other. It's fun to steal people's pillows haha. Hitomi's friend was Masako but the other 2 girls I can't remember their names. We slept on a tatami floor and we had to pull out futons from another room to sleep o them. There was no TV and only one plug existed in the room. One. That's difficult to work with when everyone needs to charge their cell phones. But in the end we only got 4 hours of sleep and it was a lot of fun.
Waking up was the problem. Who the hell wakes up at 6:30 am on the weekends? Who still GOES to school? There were morning exercises. Why? I wish I knew myself. Everyone had to gather to the gym and do stupid "waking up" exercises. Has anyone seen the movie Battle Royale? If you have, remember near the very end of the movie before Shogo goes back to the school after he supposedly killed everyone, Sakamochi (the guy in charge) is doing those warm-up exercises outside? That song/whatever it was was the same song I was exercising to. So weird. I guess it really is completely normal here, especally if we have that at gym in school too... So then the day went by. I can't tell you what we were doing. I have no idea what we were doing, everything was in Japanese. But counting me and Pat there were only 4 exchange students here. 2 boys, one from Brazil, the other from Malaysia (sorry if I spelled that wrong). But I think the Malaysian guy was a lot older 'cause I saw him drinking beer with some other guy later that night. And his Japanese seemed pretty fluent. But anyway, most of the day while a movie was playing and when people were giving speeches I ended up falling asleep. I didn't get enough sleep for one thing and plus it was all boring. We had to get in a group later too for some "discussion" that I had no idea what it was about. As for supper we had a BBQ where we made yakisoba. We had to walk up a hill for that. The yakisoba was good haha so I suppose it was all worth it. Then we went back and it was almost time for the ofuro (bath) again.
After that we hung out in some room where snacks and such were. Mm, Mitsuya Cider was there. he first time I tried that a month ago I didn't care for it, now I love it. Not as much as my Milk Tea though of course ^_^ This guy, it was just strange to me, I mean, I HATE how my hair looks, how I look, when I don't get to blowdry or straighten my hair before I go out in front of people. Not that it bothered me to go out with them it's just I know I look like crap. This guy he says to me, "ningyou mitai" (you look like a doll). I... look like a doll? I took that as a complement only because dolls are supposed to be pretty, right, but... huh? It was weird when random people came up to me "hoping" to have a conversation. Sorry, my Japanese sucks. And it's really starting to get annoying when people keep telling you you're beautiful/pretty/cute. Let a Japanese guy my age tell me that then I'll start caring. I understand that pretty much all foriengers to the Japanese are beautiful (so it seems) but seriously. Geeze, if I really want to be beautiful all I do have to do is move here then all your ugly problems are gone haha. But that time in there was all fun. Got some video ^_^ Then we had to leave at midnight but we went to sleep soon after thank god. I was still tired the next day, even after more morning exercises >_<
What ever we were doing yesterday we finished today by making posters about it and then giving a little presentation about it. I still have no idea what it was about. I slept a little more while speeches were given and texted Ayami a bit. I told her I was dying and she took me seriously. She writes back saying she's worried now and to give her a call if I could. Well, there was no way I could call her during the speeches. About three minutes later my phone starts vibrating. I'm thinking, "oh, she's texting me again?". Oh no. It vibrated longer than a normal text. She was CALLING me making sure I was alright. Pat was sitting next to me and we were trying to hold our laughs. I couldn't believe she took me seriously. I texted her back saying I was joking and such and then she's like, "tasha definitely can't die! she has friends and family for her". Wow, Ayami. haha At least I know she cares haha. We said our goodbyes after the speeches and then we left. Now I'm home. And now about public baths.
I was scared. No one can prepare for a public bath if you're at least my age and never experienced one before. I don't know how it is with guys but girls definitely can't. It's seriously invasion of privacy. Talk about being nervous. The first night I got lucky. For some reason we didn't realize we were supposed to bathe before supper. So, everyone else already bathed before we did so i was only the 6 of us. Pat was freaking out. I didn't want to look like an idiot in front of them so I made myself look all calm and under control. Just beginning to undress was scary. It's like all you can think in your head is, "don't look, don't look" because you don't want them to think that you want to look at them or anything. And then you have to calm yourself down by thinking, "they don't care that you're naked. It's normal to them." It doesn't work very well. But what bothered me the most was the fact that Pat was there. Now this is what was going through my head: "Great. The only person who I'll see everyday at school who is the only person I can have a real conversation with in English is seeing me naked. I don't like this." That's all that was popping in my head. "Crap, crap, crap."
So, the public baths here have the room where the sinks are and where you undress/dress, then you go into a separate room where the showers are lined aganist the wall and then on the opposite side in that room is the pool-like ofuro. It was literary a pool just with really warm water which was nice. I didn't enjoy it. I ran to the opposite wall to shower. Everyone else except Pat was at the other end, she came sorta near me. Then in the ofuro I sat all the way at the other end. The one girl called down to me, "toui" (you're far away). haha. No. I wasn't moving. Then soon after I got out and changed. Now that I think back on it I feel really stupid for how I acted. This is so normal to the Japanese. And after the fact that we were done with the furo and we all acted the same way afterwards is when I really realized that. Another thing to add on my list of what American things annoy me. There's nothing wrong with being naked among the same gender. We all look the same. And once I realized this, the next night I had no problem going in the ofuro. This time there were more people, it was kinda hard to move around in just the changing area. I undressed without a care because I wasn't scared anymore. And I'm not scared to do it again. But this time I got a little annoyed. I didn't even get to go into the ofuro room yet and I hear the word America come out of someone's mouth. TWICE. I didn't need to know the conversation to know exactly what that meant. It meant that whoever it was noticed I was in the room and was shocked that I was doing this. It annoys me because it's the fact they noticed me. Naked. -sigh- But I got over that pretty fast. I didn't care. But anyway, all I'm saying is that it isn't scary or weird. Since there were more people we even started talking while washing and such. It's not terrible at all. And those squat toilets. I don't mind them anymore. They aren't terrible. Sure, maybe a bit inconvenient and uncomfortable at times but I don't mind them anymore. This weekend was a big Japan reality check for me. And I now understand and I'm comfortable with it all.
I met a lady there as well that second night. She's from Taiwan and now lives in Japan. She was telling me about her job, in English. That's really what her job is. She's an interpreter. She was telling me about how she gets to go to concerts where they need her for whatever and she was telling me about the pay. It sounds really good. She interprets Taiwanese, Japanese, English, AND Chinese. That's incredible. Not that I haven't thought about it before, being an interpreter as a carreer, but when I thought about it there's so many people that do Japanese to English or English to Japanese. Japanese is just popular to learn anymore. Really, you won't get much success if you don't know another. So, I've decided. After I get Japanese down I'm going to study Korean. She was telling me how there's colleges here in Japan just to become an interpreter and that they don't really exist in America, AND that tests aren't neccessarly required to take to get into these schools like all the others as long as you have the money. Works for me ^_^ I wanna live in Japan anyway. She said she'd send me more information about it when she can.
So, in the end, this weekend was great.
Here's the link to the video. It's super short, gomen ne. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQhz9t4ArcA
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