Forgot to mention something awesome

Bathtime

So in Japan, the bathrooms are like...a room with a tub, and the shower is outside the tub. So, you sit down on a stool and shower off completely before going into the bath to relax.

This is so inside homes of Japan.

But my host family does things slightly different.

There is a freaking ONSEN next door to my house. For those of you who are unfamiliar, an onsen is a Japanese hot spring. In the onsen next door (Appleland) there is an outdoor type onsen and an indoor one.

Every night I bathe in the indoor one. Yes, it is a PUBLIC BATH. Luckily this one is not co-ed (co-ed ones exist). But yes...the onsen is like a huge enormous indoor bathe tub and then there are the showers outside of the bath too that you use first. There is also a seperate room with apples floating in the water (hence Appleland). Pretty rad eh? Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that nobody wears a bathingsuit. How foreign eh?

Actually, this weekend was my first orientation! Our Rotary district is pretty small, so there are only 5 inbound students in total. 2 americans, one french, on finnish and one canadian (me). But we stayed in this old traditional japanese house on a farm and there was an onsen INSIDE THE HOUSE! So 4 of us and one of the inbounds bathed together in the onsen. It was so cultural. We also made our own sauseges (like...actually MADE them), dug for potatoes, watched drunken Japanese Rotary members launch fireworks, journeyed to a haunted house inside of a forest, road a pony, milked a cow, and spoke Japanese, English, and Japanglish. It was such a good time!

lots of love from the land of the rising sun...

Jane