japanlog 1
This will be short and sweet. We are into day 2 of the trip to Japan and its been an excercise in adjusting to time difference so far. Good times had, of course, but nothing huge to speak of besides three quick events.
1. The night we got there, (not being counted as a full day) we went to a restaurant called Popeye, because the owner, who used to be a professional baseball player in japan, looks exactly like popeye the sailor-man. He served us a traditional autumn soup which beats, hands down at that, any other food thats supposed to taste warm and atumn-y. This soup is basically stock, chicken, and a special mushroom (no, not that type of special) all put into a special clay pot (YES, that type of special!) which is heated directly over a flame. the pot has very little ventilation, but the aromas of the smoke and flame are directed into the pot, giving it its, well, smokey flavor. This was incredible. I cant think of the name at the moment, so that will follow in a later post.
2. We had lunch with two of Mrs. architecturefootballandfood's high school friends - one guy who i already knew, toru-san, and one girl who i only knew OF, the one and only, Ando Yuko. If you arent familiar with this girl, please get so because in my opinion she is putting out some of the best music from the island of japan. She is basically a pop-rock singer but incredibly creative and musical. the lunch started as this weird `you're ando yuko and i listen to your stuff more than i listen to oasis` vibe, mixed with a `you're white and bigger than i expected and married to my high school friend' vibe. i felt like i was sitting with this big star. but as usual, yuko-san eventually turned into just another nice, normal japanese friend of mrs. architecturefootballandfood's, and we had a great time over katsu, cabbage salad and beer. As usual, Toru-san was the life of the party, and it turns out he was recently in Aurora, on business. And he didn't even call.
3. Today we went to the local ohn-sen, or public bath. It was amazing and relaxing - just what i have needed for a while. This excursion is quickly becoming my favorite things about this culture, and I look forward to hitting the ohn-sen a few more times before we leave. Sitting there, naked, with about 40-50 other naked japanese men in 2-foot deep pools of red water (it has to do with minerals added so that your skin doesnt dry out after sitting in water for an hour straight), it struck me how different our two cultures were. I realized that, no matter how wonderful and logical and necessary a place like this was for humans, a place where you could go and relax and let the stress fall away, we as Americans could probably never appreciate or accept it. Certain people would think its somehow `too gay` or `evil` and ruin it for those of us who had graduated the fourth grade and could handle being in a natural state with other mature, civilized people who could appreciate the difference between nudity and pornography (John Ashcroft, anyone??)
I know it isn't everybody's cup of tea, and I'm fine with that. Anyway, see what a keyboard does to a guy with good intentions? Somebody take this soapbox away. I had a sweet time bathing with a bunch of other dudes today. End of story.
So hopefully I'll be able to write a bit more soon. Otsukaresamadeshita!!!
1. The night we got there, (not being counted as a full day) we went to a restaurant called Popeye, because the owner, who used to be a professional baseball player in japan, looks exactly like popeye the sailor-man. He served us a traditional autumn soup which beats, hands down at that, any other food thats supposed to taste warm and atumn-y. This soup is basically stock, chicken, and a special mushroom (no, not that type of special) all put into a special clay pot (YES, that type of special!) which is heated directly over a flame. the pot has very little ventilation, but the aromas of the smoke and flame are directed into the pot, giving it its, well, smokey flavor. This was incredible. I cant think of the name at the moment, so that will follow in a later post.
2. We had lunch with two of Mrs. architecturefootballandfood's high school friends - one guy who i already knew, toru-san, and one girl who i only knew OF, the one and only, Ando Yuko. If you arent familiar with this girl, please get so because in my opinion she is putting out some of the best music from the island of japan. She is basically a pop-rock singer but incredibly creative and musical. the lunch started as this weird `you're ando yuko and i listen to your stuff more than i listen to oasis` vibe, mixed with a `you're white and bigger than i expected and married to my high school friend' vibe. i felt like i was sitting with this big star. but as usual, yuko-san eventually turned into just another nice, normal japanese friend of mrs. architecturefootballandfood's, and we had a great time over katsu, cabbage salad and beer. As usual, Toru-san was the life of the party, and it turns out he was recently in Aurora, on business. And he didn't even call.
3. Today we went to the local ohn-sen, or public bath. It was amazing and relaxing - just what i have needed for a while. This excursion is quickly becoming my favorite things about this culture, and I look forward to hitting the ohn-sen a few more times before we leave. Sitting there, naked, with about 40-50 other naked japanese men in 2-foot deep pools of red water (it has to do with minerals added so that your skin doesnt dry out after sitting in water for an hour straight), it struck me how different our two cultures were. I realized that, no matter how wonderful and logical and necessary a place like this was for humans, a place where you could go and relax and let the stress fall away, we as Americans could probably never appreciate or accept it. Certain people would think its somehow `too gay` or `evil` and ruin it for those of us who had graduated the fourth grade and could handle being in a natural state with other mature, civilized people who could appreciate the difference between nudity and pornography (John Ashcroft, anyone??)
I know it isn't everybody's cup of tea, and I'm fine with that. Anyway, see what a keyboard does to a guy with good intentions? Somebody take this soapbox away. I had a sweet time bathing with a bunch of other dudes today. End of story.
So hopefully I'll be able to write a bit more soon. Otsukaresamadeshita!!!
posted by darkred at 1:40 AM
1 Comments:
Come to think of it, I dont think I have ever seen any pics of any of your trips over to Japan like the general layout of the country...I dont need pics inside the spa though. :)
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