Onsen is Japanese for Being Naked in Public

So I woke up today and hopped on my computer to check my e-mails like I normally do first thing in the morning. While I was doing that I noticed "HOLY CRAP I WOKE UP TWO HOURS LATE FOR CLASS!" And in the midst of that I notice "HOLY CRAP I NEED TO GO PICK UP MY ALIEN REGISTRATION CARD IN THE NEXT TEN MINUTES!" So I figured at the very least this was a good excuse for missing class. Went and did that so I dont' need to carry around my Passport anymore (thank God) and went to class to...remember...that.... it was cancelled. Well hey, being panicky got me my card so whatever. And I slept in an extra 4 hours anyways, so that's good as well.

Anyways, basically did nothing until time to go to Onsen at 3pm. Watched the Nostalgia Chick. She's funny. Google her or something. Or whatever, here's the link. http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thedudette/87-nostalgiachick

So go through the trouble of getting a new bus ticket set cause I forgot mine and mental math proved it to be more cost efficient to just buy a new one and cut my losses than to spend the money I had on my on bus travel. Then I found out that the bus we're taking doesn't use the bus tickets I bought so...yeah, that's super. Blaugh.

Get there, and did some sightseeing. Took pictures of stuff that I'm too lazy to upload at the moment because I'm studying hardcore, but I'll retcon them to make them look like they were always in the article tomorrow night. Even though I won't remove this paragraph. So everyone will know how much of a failure I am. Nyoro~n :3

Wandered around for a while, saw a bunch of cats, one who's picture I am submitting to Catswholooklikehitler.com. Shaw-san went around chasing EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Girl is insane. And everyone spoke to me in a broken gibberish mixture of Japanese and English. Shibuya-san spoke primarily in Japanese, and he was the only other guy in the group ( I...I got switched again. Somehow) so that was weird being in the Onsen with him. I followed his example when we go there, which involved stripping completely naked, dousing ourselves with water, and then just getting in the spring(No pictures of this). Which turned out to pretty much be a big bathtub that smelled funny and already had a naked old guy in it (no pictures of this either).

When I got into the spring it was...odd? For some reason it didn't feel like normal hot water. My head got all tingly and I sort of lost equilibrium and thought for a moment? It was really weird. Got sort of tingly. Then your body adjusts to it all and it really is extremely relaxing, aside from the fact that being the prude American that I am I spent the entire time covering my shame. And the old guy just kept...staring at me. He had a folded washcloth sitting on his head, and he kept getting in and out of the onsen, and just looked disgusted the whole time. My apologies for being American.

Afterwards we wandered around Beppu, looking for some "megane (glasses)" clue that nobody told me any details of. Bought some chicken which tasted REALLY good. I don't know why all the fast food here is so good, but it is. America needs to learn about this. Anyways, we eventually figured out the clue (no thanks to me) and wound up at Junko-chan's house (the Senjinkai leader). She made us dinner, and there was candy and stuff, and one of the girls in my group (I don't know her name. I was too ashamed to ask and I got switched too many times between groups to guess) clung to me and just spoke to me in broken English the whole time. It was cute but I felt awkward because I literally ran out of things to say. Your topics are limited when you're speaking to someone who barely understands what it is you are saying.

Afterwards I discovered the best kept secret in Japan: Discount grocery stores have even greater discounts later at night. And by at night I mean after 5 pm. And by greater discounts I mean pretty much 60% of the things in the store are FIFTY PERCENT OFF. How they even stay in business doing that is beyond me. Granted it's only to perishables, but by perishables this includes bread and stuff that is actually in a package, not just fruits and fish. It's insane, and I bought a few meals, some daigaku imo (which is candied sweet potatoes AND DELICIOUS), and some sake. I don't like sake. We're not going to get into this.

Anyways, the day was a whole lot of fun. I made friends with a whole bunch of people whose names I don't know at all, and I got to practice my Japanese a bunch. You remember things better when it's based on people being able to understand anything you're trying to say.

Basically, if you're learning a language, thrust yourself into a situation where you HAVE to use it, as often as you can. It'll be good for you.

I'm still not used to being naked in public though.