Japan: A Country of Baffling Paradoxes

I just had my first day at school! However, I’m not going to write about that until I’ve finished my first week, instead I’m going to be writing about my super duper Japanese weekend involving onsen, karaoke and yakiniku, as well as a few other things that have cropped up in the meantime.

Since my last blog I have done loads of nursery visits, each time being surprised by the fact that the children already seem to know a small amount of English, despite the fact that they are 5 and under. I’m jealous of the fact that the Japanese now get to learn a foreign language right from the beginning of elementary school, a chance that I never got.

One of the nursery visits was particularly memorable as a couple of little boys were yelling out “Kirei” (beautiful) and actually grabbing our hands and kissing them. Well, they’re certainly starting out young. Finishing the nursery visits was rather sad, as they are so young that they are full of curiosity and self-consciousness is a foreign concept to them.

Other highlights in the past week or two include the Uwa lantern festival: a beautiful festival in a small town, with different kinds of lanterns being lit up all around the streets. This included lamps being arranged in the shape of a bear face from a bird’s eye point of view and lamps being hung from a play park.

Another highlight was the cooking class I took. Or rather, that I observed since everyone else seemed to know what they were doing and I would have been a hindrance as the clumsy gaijin. It seemed to be less a cooking class and more like a cooking club for people who already know what they’re doing. One embarrassing moment occurred when everyone in the room started cutting onions at once. My eyes happen to have a very strong reaction to onions, so I basically looked like I was bawling my eyes out for about an hour. Some of the people in the class looked a tad concerned, despite my reassurances that it was just the onions.

I even made actual Japanese friends in the cooking class! (Hannah nae mates) One of them messaged me, saying that her friend who speaks some English is in town and I just have to meet them. So I was taken out to an Indian restaurant (interesting experience, a really small but tasty bowl of curry accompanied by the biggest piece of nan bread I’ve ever seen) and they rather enthusiastically got me to pencil in dates until the end of 2013 as to when they are going to take me to various places around Japan. And when the Japanese make plans, they sure do stick to them, weather permitting of course.

This brings me to the non-existent typhoon that everyone had been fussing over all week. Or rather, the typhoon appeared in the form of lots and lots of rain. Which is nice, because it’s significantly less hot and sweaty. I am typing this without the fan on or without windows open which is a nice change! However, when it rains in Japan, well, it RAINS! So a couple of beach parties had to be cancelled during the last two weekends.

The main thing I want to talk about is my extremely Japanese weekend, and more specifically the onsen part of it, since it’s something that foreigners generally tend to worry and wonder over upon coming to Japan. For those of you who don’t know what an onsen is, it’s basically a Japanese hot spring, also with cold pools that you can jump into. With one catch: you’re completely naked, along with everyone else at the onsen. However, the onsen are at least divided by sex, so if you're a girl there won't be any creepy Japanese men leering at you and vice versa, since I've heard many Japanese girls have a thing for Western boys. 

Now I’m quite a shy girl, so the idea of this did completely freak me out at first, particularly when I thought about the fact that Japanese people stare at me walking down the street and I’m actually fully clothed when this happens. It still freaks me out a little even after having done it, but I suppose the feeling will subside the more I do it. What happens is that you go through a curtain to your changing room and get undressed and put everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) in a locker. Then you walk out (naked) into the room with the hot springs. You then go to the side of the room where they have showers and sit on the little stool and make sure you’re completely clean. Then (still naked) you actually get into the onsen and try to ignore the old Japanese women staring at you. Though once in the water it’s easier to relax since you’re covered up, not to mention the fact that you’re in a traditional Japanese hot spring.

It is very relaxing since you are essentially completely free, but that feeling can shatter for a moment when an old Japanese woman walks towards you stark naked while you’re sitting down in the water so that you just happen to be right at eye level with parts of her that you really don’t want to be eye level with… I suppose Japanese people of this age have been onsening their whole life and don’t really think anything of it, or think about the fact that it might freak the poor Western girl out. However, I have heard stories from both Western males and females about Japanese people commenting on “how big” particular parts of their anatomy are. I have to say, it completely baffles me how a society that is generally seen as very modest and shy has no issue with walking around naked in a hot spring full of strangers. Of course, you just have to keep in mind that everyone else is also naked, and you can bet a lot of the foreigners also feel the same way as you do and so aren’t going to be staring at you. Then there’s the fact that, hey, we were born naked!

Despite various anatomy being alarmingly close to my face at times (and I’ve heard this is a lot worse coming from the men’s side), it was relaxing and I would do it again. Besides, it’s not so scary once you’ve taken the plunge once. It's just a little odd to meet someone for the first time and then them basically say "So hey, wanna get naked together in a hot spring?" Only in Japan... the country of strange paradoxes.

That weekend, before the onsen we (all the JETs from the Nanyo area) took over the café of one very enthusiastic Japanese guy with a great music collection. This resulted in a sweaty midday dance sesh in the middle of the café. Then we all drove to Nametoko Gorge and went “hiking” (a small stroll) amongst some lovely scenery and went paddling in the river. We were even greeted by the sight of a red-faced monkey in the car park. Yep, just a casual monkey in the car park.

This was followed by the aforementioned onsen, which was really great after such a sweaty day. That night we had nomitabehodai yakiniku (all you can drink and all you can eat grilled meat, a combination that would be absolutely lethal in the UK). The spin on yakiniku is that you actually grill the meat yourself on a little grill in the middle of the table. I’ve found that barbeques always seem to bring out that caveman instinct in men (MEAT! FIRE! OOH!), and yakiniku is no different.

We then headed out to karaoke, which is another decidedly Japanese past time. In Japan, you are always given your own private room to do karaoke. I’m not much of a singer myself, and I do prefer dancing in a club, but I did enjoy garbling unintelligibly down the microphone along with everyone else. There were of course actually one or two decent singers who put the rest of us to shame. Just like onsen, karaoke is another Japanese pastime which doesn’t quite fit in my opinion. I also thought it was strange that the Japanese aren’t too self-conscious to sing in front of others since they never seem to like to draw attention to themselves in everyday life, but someone pointed out to me that perhaps karaoke is the only time in Japanese society when it is fully acceptable for someone to be completely self-centered and have all the attention focused on them for a moment.

I’ve waffled enough now, but I hope that sheds a bit of light on onsen for those who are considering doing it for the first time. Next installment will be about my first week at school!