The Naked Gaijin

Friday night Mack and I, and our friends Emily and Josh, headed to the onsen. The onsen is a public bath here in Japan - gender separate, but very very nude. We ate first (still clothed of course, can you imagine slurping ramen in your birthday suit!) then headed into our baths. First things first, Emily and I get to know a whole other side of each other...whilst trying to look totally unaware of the other person's nakedness...and head into the showers. The showers are a sit down affair with 2 long rows of seats, shampoo and Japanese women. About the strangest thing I have to say is that the Japanese women will actually bathe each other. And no, I don't mean in a "Can you get my back" kinda way - in a full on sudsing up adventure kinda way. We passed on this for ourselves (contrary to our husbands wishes) :)
Then its 2 1/2 hours of bliss - hot tubs with jets, hot tubs with minerals for skin, granite chairs with hot water running down the back, and best of all a stone bed with hot water running down it - very easy to fall asleep. This stone bed is actually where the inspiration for my blog comes from. As we are laying there relaxing, drifting away into naked nevernever land, I open my eyes and see a little girl standing at the foot of the beds...staring! No shame I tell you! Amazed at all our foreign glory (and by glory I mean freckles and cellulite, neither of which is seen on the Japanese) she stood there, mouth practically hanging open for minutes on end. Of course, this is when Emily leans over and says "We should charge money for the naked gaijin show!). And thus you have my new blog, born out of someone else's genius. Hey, at least I give credit where credit is due!
To be honest, the most wonderfully amazing, make my week thing that happened was seeing a person with an honest-to-God tail! No I'm not making that up, and to be honest typing that makes me wonder why we were the attraction of the night! Now granted, it was only about 1 inch long, but nevertheless, a legend come true in all its awesome jaw-dropping power!
So all in all a good night, and one we hope to repeat again, maybe without all the staring?