A man, a plan, a bath...an

Okay, so my plan is to catch you up in chronological order i.e. writing about the older stuff first and gradually coming up to the present. The only exception to this plan is an event that occurred during the Nagano trip weekend before last.

So, first things first. Japanese society and culture has a number of fundamental pillars which have influenced the development of the country for many hundreds of years. One of these is Shinto, an animistic religion, which I couldn’t possibly being to describe in this blog post. Shinto has a number of tenents, among the most important being cleanliness. There is a strong link there between physical cleanliness and spiritual cleanliness, which is why Japanese people remove their shoes before entering (most) rooms among other practices. Since cleanliness is so important, hot springs and public baths (and more recently, bathtubs) are central to everyday life. There are a few words in Japanese which have an honorific syllable (o- or go-) attached to them to indicate respect. The bath is one of them, being spelled as お風呂(ofuro, “bath”) in polite company. Times during the day to use the bath are usually upon waking, before dinner, or before bed. As I understand it, those are day-to-day times and when you’re vacationing it’s pretty much fine to go whenever and however many times you feel like.

So I’m in the bath at the retreat house in Nagano having a grand old time. The water is very hot and very relaxing. Japan is far less hung up on nudity than the United States (baths were not gender segregated until Christianity was introduced) so the atmosphere is casual. I’m talking about where I’m from with one of the Chinese students, switching between broken Japanese and broken English when I realize that we have to meet in the lobby for dinner fairly soon. I stand up from the bath and start walking over to retrieve my shampoo when I...

PREFACE FOR FAMILY MEMBERS AND OTHERWISE CONCERNED PARTIES: I am at this time okay with 2 very nicely healing wounds. No other residual damage exists. How are you guys doing?

...fainted. Apparently I didn’t realize just how high my body’s core temperature had become in the bath and, well, good night Gracie. I fell remarkably evenly on my right side, suffering small bruises on my right knee, elbow, shoulder, and jaw. On my hip there is an enormous bruise that resembles a Serat painting as well as a cut on my head, the last point to encounter the slate tile floor. Ouch. Luckily for me, the Chinese student and one of the other American students were there to help me gather my things and make sure I was alright. Ironically, I was the calmest one in the room, having ascertained that I didn’t have a concussion and, considering the head wound, I very small amount of bleeding. Quite a few years ago I broke my collarbone when the defective quick-release on my bike saw me traveling quickly forward and even faster downwards, my front wheel rolling just ahead of the part of the bike that it’s normally connected to. When the fork hit the pavement I basically flew straight over the handlebars into the street (was wearing a helmet, didn’t need it. Funny little world, eh?). I would go so far as to use the word “spectacular” to describe the whole affair.

Anyway, the pain of the event and subsequent recovery sans painkillers (which I was allergic to/didn’t work, don’t know why) ended up being pretty good prep for bashing my head into the floor. So now, when I come back and recount my trip for people, I’ll have an actual, physical scar to show off. Neat, huh?

All that being said, you can bet I’ll be back in the bath next chance I have. Now I know my limits, especially the part where you sit there and cool down as opposed to, you know, hurting yourself.

I’m happy to report that in addition to being physically sound, I’m doing much better in all other areas as they relate to culture shock. I realized after a lengthy discussion with Alisha that my expectations for myself were way way too high and that I just need to pace myself and be unapologetic for what I have no control over. She’s right, too. If I’m in this for the next 7 months, I do need to be more respectful of my limitations. I got to laugh at myself a little, too. I remember, going in to the trip, thinking “I’ll probably have come culture shock, but as long as I take it slow, everything should be fine.” Heh, yeah.

Next time: Osu market and temple.