Listening to the chesnut cart drive by

Friday was an easy day with two easy classes, and one of my students gave me strawberries (which are expensive) which was great (she said they were sour, but they were just right so either she got a bad one, or we have different tastes). Saturday, I spent recovering from the cold and getting sleep (which I needed badly enough that I fell asleep in front of the computer at one point).

Today, despite the lingering remenants of the cold (and they better just be remenants!), G. and I bit the bullet and went to a local onsen - one that I had been told about earlier this week and drawn a very crude map too. This has been our biggest problem with onsen around here - finding the damn things. So anyway, we set out around one, and drove off to arrive quite easily less than an hour later at where we were supposed to be, due largely to my reading the hiragana name of the place and not any of the other so called landmarks we'd been given *L* After wandering around the shop and such, we went inside, paid our $4 each (!) and headed into the baths (of doom!... okay, not really. I've just been adding "of doom" to everything today).

We stripped down (whee! nekkid!) and wandered into the main area. There we washed (for those who don't know, you always wash yourself before getting into a Japanese bath), and headed for the pools. They were very hot and comfy with four different pools to chose from. One was ice cold, the other three were hot - one still, one outside and even hotter (also with a very strong shower attached), and another set up with seats to lean back in with very strong water jets (much stronger than anything I've tried in the US). We spent a lot of time going from one pool to another, or just sitting on the stools outside them relaxing. Also tried the salt sauna, in which you basically rubbed salt on yourself then sat there sweating, which was really good except for it aggravates any little cuts you have (from shaving for instance).

After we had baked ourselves to the limit, we headed on out, slightly giddy from our conquering of the Japanese onsen experience. We picked up some snacks and Lawsons and stopped at a park we'd spotted on the way there to eat and enjoy. It was this cliff face of sharp grey rocks that we climbed up and around to end up in a bamboo and pine forest on top of the cliff. Lovely stuff, and we had a great view while we ate. We tried an alternate way down and ended up several minutes in the opposite direction and trespassing on someone's property, but it was a fun walk back and we saw a snake so all is well *L* We then stopped in Ejio park for a quick walk, and I tried to convince G. to go out to diner, but she was falling asleep *L* so I headed off to do some quick shopping and pick up something for my own dinner (eel and rice and mochi), and here I am.

We plan on hitting up at least two or three more onsen during Golden Week, and if not now, then later on since it's ridiculously easy doing a day trip and with the two of us (or more, once the new teachers arrive and we kidnap them). Whee!

Listening to the chesnut cart drive by

Friday was an easy day with two easy classes, and one of my students gave me strawberries (which are expensive) which was great (she said they were sour, but they were just right so either she got a bad one, or we have different tastes). Saturday, I spent recovering from the cold and getting sleep (which I needed badly enough that I fell asleep in front of the computer at one point).

Today, despite the lingering remenants of the cold (and they better just be remenants!), G. and I bit the bullet and went to a local onsen - one that I had been told about earlier this week and drawn a very crude map too. This has been our biggest problem with onsen around here - finding the damn things. So anyway, we set out around one, and drove off to arrive quite easily less than an hour later at where we were supposed to be, due largely to my reading the hiragana name of the place and not any of the other so called landmarks we'd been given *L* After wandering around the shop and such, we went inside, paid our $4 each (!) and headed into the baths (of doom!... okay, not really. I've just been adding "of doom" to everything today).

We stripped down (whee! nekkid!) and wandered into the main area. There we washed (for those who don't know, you always wash yourself before getting into a Japanese bath), and headed for the pools. They were very hot and comfy with four different pools to chose from. One was ice cold, the other three were hot - one still, one outside and even hotter (also with a very strong shower attached), and another set up with seats to lean back in with very strong water jets (much stronger than anything I've tried in the US). We spent a lot of time going from one pool to another, or just sitting on the stools outside them relaxing. Also tried the salt sauna, in which you basically rubbed salt on yourself then sat there sweating, which was really good except for it aggravates any little cuts you have (from shaving for instance).

After we had baked ourselves to the limit, we headed on out, slightly giddy from our conquering of the Japanese onsen experience. We picked up some snacks and Lawsons and stopped at a park we'd spotted on the way there to eat and enjoy. It was this cliff face of sharp grey rocks that we climbed up and around to end up in a bamboo and pine forest on top of the cliff. Lovely stuff, and we had a great view while we ate. We tried an alternate way down and ended up several minutes in the opposite direction and trespassing on someone's property, but it was a fun walk back and we saw a snake so all is well *L* We then stopped in Ejio park for a quick walk, and I tried to convince G. to go out to diner, but she was falling asleep *L* so I headed off to do some quick shopping and pick up something for my own dinner (eel and rice and mochi), and here I am.

We plan on hitting up at least two or three more onsen during Golden Week, and if not now, then later on since it's ridiculously easy doing a day trip and with the two of us (or more, once the new teachers arrive and we kidnap them). Whee!