On trips and trains

Trip time!

 

Hello Mt. Fuji!

Hello, Tensan hot springs resort!

Hello purdy architecture!

Hello snazzy snowman with a bow tie!

Hello friend with a complete unability to have your picture taken without making a face!

Today T and I went to Hakone for some hot springs chill out time. In a way it's pretty pointless going with someone of the opposite gender - you'll only end up chilling in completely different areas, but it was a really nice day. We got up early, spent the hour and a half on the train by playing word association games, walked the three kilometres of icy slopes to the hot spring (stopping to buy delicious bread at a tiny tiny roadside bakery), arriving at the hot spring (and then eating said bread in a small resting area in front of it in the sun), bathing, taking a nap in the resting area, and then going home. My kind of relaxing activity to wrap up a rather eventful vacation and get me feeling less crappy about starting work again tomorrow.

One thing I found especially interesting about the hot springs was people's view on body hair. I know of girls shaving even their arms here, but in the hot springs, it was pretty much all bush. I saw two younger girls who had less, but it was still there. A similar situation in Sweden would've presented a lot more shaved people, I'm sure. I have this theory in general about personal grooming and norms about appearance in Japan - it's restricting in a lot of ways that the West isn't, but also a lot freer than the West in other aspects, especially around (straight) sexuality. I wonder if others would agree.

It's interesting to see what becomes the norm, and how radically different it can be just through geography. Relationships, ideals, tabus - they're all incredibly different from what I've experienced before. This is both extremely exciting and confusing for me. Some of it I love. Some of it quite frankly scares me a little. Then again, I did have an idea before I came here about mixing from home and taking new things from here. At that point I was thinking about architecture, but I guess it's applicable to life all the same, right?

I'll never understand why they're so into trains though. Seriously, people were forming a small crowd around the front, snapping away. It's cute and ultimately completely confusing.