Onsen and Fukubukuro

It has been a few months since I last posted a blog. Why? I didn't feel like posting a blog. But now I feel I have material and pictures worth the time and limited effort. My winter break in Japan consisted of being naked outside and spending far too much money inside. That's right. Onsen and Fukubukuro are truly treasures of Japan.

The onsen doesn't take much explanation, the one I went to was in Kumamoto. The ryokan (Japanese-Inn) I stayed in was over 75 years old. What made this onsen unique, was that it was in the river, just separate by a layer of poured concrete. Right, so built into the side of the river. No problem, just like any other outside bath, it will have a fence and cover and trees and...NO. It is built in the FRONT of the ryokan and on the other side of the MAIN road that goes through town. The guys I went with decided we were tired and sore and needed to take a dip as soon as we arrived. That meant getting naked in front of the inn and sitting naked in a bath that was 20 feet from the main road. Granted, most people in the town were used to seeing folks taking a dip in the bath... folks with darker features than my pale, pasty self. So there I was stuck between the front entrance of an inn and a public road sitting in a natural hotsprings with a teacher and former graduates of the school I teach at. I hid behind my towel as an old lady slowly scraped by behind her tennis ball-less(?) walker, and a young mother/aunt/baby-sitter walked a child by.... I am pretty sure I didn't traumatize too many people, I did my fair share of damage at the yamakasa festival in July.

FUKUBUKURO. Translation = Happy/Lucky Bag!!! That is about all I need to say. Department stores, specialty shops, electronics stores, even doughnut shops make them to celebrate the new year. The only rule: set a price for the bags and make sure that what you put in them is worth on average twice as much as the price of the bag, if not more. Seriously. I paid the equivalent of $100 for one bag, and inside was a $190 parka, a $100 jacket, a $50 fleece jacket, a sweat suit, 2 long sleeved shirts, a polo shirt, and matching hat and gloves. I rest my case. Next year I will search for the big prize....the $300 dollar electronic store bag that is said to have at LEAST $900 worth of stuff in it. Forget the sugar plums, visions of DVD's and I-pod's will be dancing in this boy's head. Good night to all and to all: Get over here and get you some Fukubukuro!! Wee HaW!!