Kawaguchiko aka GETTING NEKKID

Since last Monday was a holiday, we had a 3-day weekend. My host family took me to a ryokan in Kawaguchiko, which is near Mount Fuji, for a night.

What is a ryokan, you ask? It's a Japanese-style inn where one eats and soaks in the onsen. Yep, that's basically it. Oh yeah, and the national passttime of drinking beer.

After we checked into our room, we walked to the lake, which was just a minute's walk from the ryokan. Some man flagged us down and convinced us to ride on his motorboat. It was an, um, eventful ride. It felt more like I was on some scary ride at an amusement park. In retrospect, I guess it was fun, once I got over the shock of the crazy man's antics.



We went back and rested for a bit in our room. Then it was time for my first onsen experience. An onsen isn't just limited to an outdoor hot spring, as I discovered, but also includes an indoor bath, which was the type the ryokan had. I didn't understand the appeal of submerging myself in scorching hot water when it was even hotter outside. And the thought of getting butt naked around strangers was beyond uncomfortable. But since I want to live the nihonjin life, I threw my doubts aside and jumped in.



It was nicer than I expected. It was big and deep enough for my 8-year-old host niece to swim in. On the way back to our room, I felt really calm and relaxed. Now I understand how my host mom went back 3 more times after that.

Me in my yukata after the onsen. I felt so Japanese.


Dinner was a surprisingly grand event. We had it in our room, and a woman brought in plates upon plates of food. This was just the first of four courses.



I felt like I was going to burst at the end of it. Like post-Thanksgiving dinner burst. So as soon as a man came in to move the tables and set up our futons, I got in and passed out.



The women's World Cup final between Japan and the U.S. began that morning, around 3:30 am, which my host family naturally woke up for. I awoke around three hours later to my host mom telling me that America had lost. I managed a sleepy "Omedetou (congratulations)," and promptly fell back asleep. Haha, I'm such a bad American.

We had our breakfast in a big room (after another dip in the onsen of course), this time with other guests.



*drool*

Despite the fact that most of the time, I don't know the names of half the things I put in my mouth, I feel like it's impossible for me to have a bad meal here. The presentation, the taste, the variety just makes everything that much better.

We checked out and drove a ways to take a shuttle to the halfway point of Mount Fuji, where those brave souls begin their journey to the top of the highest mountain in Japan.



I swear, Hello Kitty is everywhere in this country. You can't escape her, even 3776 meters off the ground.

I hope I'm brave enough to actually climb to the top one day and see the sun rise. That would be amaaaaazing.

My weekend with my host family helped me realize how much I've improved in my language ability. Since Sun Academy can't enforce the language pledge when it's just us Yalies out on the town, we speak in English (sometimes Japlish hehe). Yet being surrounded by Japanese, and only Japanese, my ability to speak and understand skyrockets. I've found that Japanese rolls off my tongue easier than ever, a far cry from classes at Yale, when I would struggle to answer a simple question, because I only used Japanese an hour a day, five days a week. But here, I'm surrounded by it.

But one thing I would like to work harder at is to make my Japanese more natural. They say your personality changes when your speak another language. I don't think I have that problem. Our Japanese buddies have been a valuable source of knowledge for slang and the things we can't learn in a classroom.

ONLY 3 MORE WEEKS LEFT IN TOKYO =[