Getting naked with a bunch of Japanese guys.
Onsen
Towards the end of a japan trip, my friends and I went to stay at an onsen south of Tokyo. Nothing in my entire life has made me feel like more of an alien and a caveman at the same time.
We had a long week of walking 25k+ steps every day just sight seeing and taking the train. Shrines rock, kombinis rock, the country rocks. I'll never look at western 7 elevens the same. Also, Japanese summers are no fuckin joke. True jungle heat and humidity.
We got to the onsen (bath house) looking and smelling like tourists; drenched in sweat and wearing shorts. Everyone in there was wearing yukatas and walking around in sandals. We got our room key and our yukatas and headed up stairs to unpack.
We signed up for a hot pot dinner that came with the room. We got to the dinner still dressed in our day clothes.
Wasn't a hot pot. It was a trad-Japanese dinner.
It was too late to go and change into the trad clothes, so we sat with a bunch of Japanese families who were properly dressed for the occasion. Luckily a Korean family sat next to us who also didn't get the memo to change first.
Dinner went as well as it could've. My two friends were extremely embarrassed. I accepted that I looked like a goofy foreigner and tried to enjoy the meal.
No idea what I ate. Lots of glop and strange boogery foods.
The egg in a bowl was to be used as dipping sauce; I didn't know this and poured that hoe into the meat that was cooking, with my friends following my lead.
Ate some white glop that was fantastic, but I had no idea what it was, and I still don't. It was like a super thin tofu jelly maybe...
Final dish was sashimi - some of the best I've ever had in my life.
It was as if we were children trying grown-up food for the first time.
After our beautifully-prepared and retardedly-eaten dinner, we debated on actually getting naked.
Bush
One of my friends chickened out, and tried to convince us to do the same. I was onboard with bailing, but the last friend was determined to experience the onsen. So fuck it, I went too.
We watched tutorials, read rules, and made absolute sure that we weren't going to be too clueless when we got to the bath.
Here's how this shit goes:
Take off your sandals and get into the changing room.
Get butt-ass naked, and put your clothes in a little basket.
Cover your cock and balls with a really small towel. (chad move to just walk out with your cock out, as I learned...)
Take a shower on a little wooden bench before getting in the bath.
Once clean, get in one of the baths, and put your penis towel on your head.
Enter zen mode, and try not to look at the other wieners floating around next to you.
No talking.
Honestly, it was fantastic. It was a very human, down to earth experience.
The whole thing was outside at night in the mountains. The pre-shower was quiet and felt good (even though my bare ass was on a little stool that other bare asses were on).
That bath was burning fuckin hot. It was hot spring water from the ground.
Ignoring the fact that I'm a 6'4" pasty, hairy guy with glasses sitting naked with a bunch of asian guys, it was great.
Eventually, I got my fill of sitting in the soup and hopped out.
The entire week of travelling was hard on my body. After getting out of that bath, I felt nothing.
Total bliss. No pain.
Need to clean my bath tub and start doing this shit more often. I understand the bath now... I felt like a cooked noodle.
Walked in nervous, walked out fantastic.