BootsnAll Travel Network



Back to work… if you want to call it that

I’ve really been spoiled as backpacker and before that as a freelance musician.  The idea of staying in one spot and working a nine-to-five job terrifies me.  I grudgingly woke up for work on Wednesday and started laboring.  Not very long into it I remembered how much fun the work is, and the good times that would follow hanging out in the café afterwards.   

On Thursday Kanako and Yuri came down from Tokyo to spend a few days.  We spent the first night hanging out around a fire in the teepee and drinking wine until we all passed out.  The next day I woke covered from head to toe in bug bites but nobody else got a single hit!!  I spent the following day washing my potentially insect-infected clothes and trying to burn the itchiness away at Yurari, the best onsen around.  Two hours spent shifting between hot springs, saunas and mineral baths soothed my pains.  Luckily the skies were clear and Mt. Fuji was visible from every vantage while I soaked.

The next day Adam, the girls and I took a trip to Shojiko to hike and stroll along the beach at sunset.  Afterwards we went to Hitoshi’s wall-less house and enjoyed hours of conversation of the local Sake. 

  

Sunday, we met Jake and Indiana at Kawaguchiko for a small music festival by the lake.  There weren’t as many English speakers there and I finally found a great opportunity to practice the Japanese I’ve been slowly picking up.  Throughout the day we played a few rounds of hackie-sack and frisbee with a few of the local kids.

 

On Monday, it was time to start my last week of work at the Solar Café.  Kanako was heading back to Tokyo tomorrow, so we took a short trip to one of the nicer onsen in the area.   Saiko onsen is a clean, stylish bath house and far enough from the main highway that it was deserted when we arrived.  I’ve already grown accustom to public bathing.   Despite the usual stares that my tattoos and regular skin color draw, I still find it easy to relax and soak in the steaming mineral waters.  But this was a new experience.  Try to imagine a basketball court sized bath-time play area all to your self.  I could run from the steam room and jump into the ice cold water before leaping out and splashing into the outdoor rock garden pool to unwind under the stars while a hot waterfall crashed over my head!  I felt truly free running around having fun in nothing but my birthday suit.  This is what an onsen should be all about… at least for a gaijin who still strange about the stares from businessmen and cleaning ladies walking around while you’re stark naked. 

 

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