Man, it’s been a whirlwind for the past three days. Two days ago I went to the Best Sento (public bath) I’ve ever been to, and believe me I’ve been to a lot. It’s a more recent entry in Maebashi called “Shichifuku no Yuu” (Waters of the Seven Fortunes). Normally in Japan, in Sento or Onsen, they crank the heat up so that only total maniacs can enjoy the bath. “Foreigners can’t stand the hot waters for long” is a commonly held position (even among foreigners), but the truth is that most Japanese don’t like the water all that hot either (43 degrees, etc). You can’t relax, you can’t stay in the water the whole time, etc.

After that, I went to get a haircut with Orie. The owner of the salon did me up like a Dragonball character in a punk rock show. I love it.
Went to a bookstore/game store (all bookstores seem to sell music, movies and games these days), and there I took a picture of the above: Something that’s been getting popular lately is this whole “Pen Spinning” thing. Basically pen tricks. If you hunt Youtube, you can find some really awesome ones. But there’s a number of books on the subject (in the counterculture section), and it just seemed like an awesome thing to write a how-to guide for. I like the one on the right: “THE SOUL OF PEN-SPINNING”.
Bought an armful of Japan-history themed PS2 games, some novels and manga (more manga, whee), then went to the sento. They had 3 large regular baths (about 41-42 degrees, which is the upper range of what I can enjoy, which in itself is awesome), a sauna (the saunas in Japan have TVs and speakers behind protective covering, so you can watch weird dramas while you are sweating your balls off), a steam bath and pool, 3 “barrel baths”, a jacuzzi bath at about 39 degrees (nice!), a waterfall bath, a bath where you lay completely flat with a rock for a pillow in about an inch of hot water, and of course the cold-water-bath.

I have a  love-hate relationship with the cold water bath. I always end up going in, haitng myself as I do so, but man once you slip in it feels SO good. I literally had a conversation in my head where I was like,

“Andy, fuck you. You are NOT going to go into this bath. You are not going to… OK, ok, fine, up to your knees. But that’s IT. Do NOT sit down. You are not going to sit do…SON OF A BITCH, why did you sit down? OK, whatever. You are not going to slide in up to your neck. You’re just going to stay where you are HOLY CRAP WHAT ARE YOU DOING STOP IT NOW. OK, now you’re in up to your neck. You can bear this. You don’t have to move your arms and legs around in the water, just remain perfectly still and all will be OK, just don’t wave your arms and legs arHOLY FUCK ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME???”

It’s quite painful at first, but it feels so good once you’re in.

That night, we ate a korean-style hotpot (Kimchee Nabe), and afterwards I started prepping for going to Tokyo the next day.

One of the problems with keeping a blog while on a trip, is that you spend more time relaying the few experiences that you have, instead of spending that time experiencing more experiences. Writing about your life rather than living it. To that end, until I have some sit-down time, the next few updates will be brief I think. Not too many details. But if anyone has a question or wants me to talk more about something, hit me up and I’ll dig into more detail.