A rolling stone gathers no moss... so I am delightfully moss-free! It's been a busy couple of weeks here and I am now enjoying my one day off-- I'll be working three 6-day weeks this month, so I have to make the most of my free time. I can't complain because I agreed to the overtime, however, I wish I had known at the time how overtime works here! I get paid overtime only on the days I have added to my schedule, so if I were to work 28 days in a row, I would get paid only for the 8 additional days I added to my schedule. The first day of overtime is plus 25% and the second day of overtime is plus 35%. The next five days are regular pay, and then the next day of overtime is plus 25%... and so on. Does that make sense? There's a reason I never studied ecomnomics!

Speaking of economics, a Japanese fellow was chatting me up (unsuccessfully) in Big Brothers this morning. He told me repeatedly that his major in University was economics. I told him repeatedly that I don't really understand economics. Then he told me, with a twinkle in his one good eye, that he is a single man. He divorced his wife. He has two children, one girl, age 15, one boy age 10. He does not work. "Do you work here, English teacher maybe?" Me: "Yes, I work for Nova, in Kitajima. I ride my bike every day over that big bridge, so it's good exersize!" Him: "Oh, I have not car. I ride bicycle also. But, my body not so beautiful, so I think Kitajima is too far. Do you know president of California? Like his movie-- where is big stomach-- baby, like woman. Like is my body!" Of course I laughed. I don't even remember the name of that Arnold Schwartzenegger film, and I don't think I wanted to... Like I said in my last entry, communicating is the most difficult and the most fun part of my day-to-day life here. A couple of days ago, I was talking to one of my students about pets. I asked her if she had a dog or cat-- she responded, "Yes! I have dog... but he is... not so." Hmmm... not so what, I wondered? "Is he dead? Or sick?" I asked. "No! Not dead... he is... little... pyu-pyu-pyu!" While making the 'pyu-pyu' sound she flapped her arms like she was doing the chicken dance. Needless to say, I was baffled. Turns out that her dog is very old-- what this has to do with the flying pyu-pyu, I haven't a clue.

I went to an Onsen on Monday with Norm and Waka in their great big Mystery Machine-- it's a camper van, and by far the largest non-commercial vehicle I have seen in Japan. Most cars here are small and box shaped and come in a variety of ice-cream colours; pinks and lavenders and mint and sea-foam green, salmon and champange and... anyway, I digress. The drive to the Onsen was fun as I learned more about life in Japan-- I could just point and say "what's that?" and either Norm or Waka would have an answer for me. For example, there are searchlights all over the city, and I wanted to know why. Norm told me that they are on the tops of all the Love Hotels, and as long as the searchlights are on, there's still vacancy! Even Waka didn't know that, so we were both surprised. The Onsen was at the end of a road which had three Love Hotels on it in a row-- big giant rainbow-flashing Love Hotels. The onsen in comparison had a sedate and ancient looking entrance, a pebbled path and tamed shrubberies. We took off our shoes as we entered, walked past the cafe and smoking lounge (where you can relax after your soak) and bought our way into the inner corridor. Norm headed off to the men's section, and I followed Waka into the women's section. I should preface my next comment with some info; a day or so before going to the Onsen I was concerned about my- shall we say- nether-regions, and what the Japanese standard of acceptable female bushiness was. I finally decided to not... "mow the lawn". Well, I shouldn't have worried. It was a steamy wilderness of petite Amazon women in there! Many many untamed shrubberies! Anyway, Waka and I stripped down and she led me to the bathing area where we sat in rows with other women and scrubbed and washed our skin and hair and chatted pleasantly. Next she showed me around the interior baths-- most of them little white-tiled deep hot-tubs with various features-- one with bags of stones with 'positive energy', a couple with handle bars and strong jets, one with an electric current(!). Then we went outside to the other baths-- more ancient in styling, some of them looked like giant ceramic pots for trees, others like wooden bath-tubs. The best was the main pool, all done in dark stone-work, and very large. It even had a steamy cave with a hot waterfall. The water was salty and rust-coloured and about 42 degrees C-- even hotter water came up through the cracks in the stones, so I had to be careful where I sat! Waka put her folded white towel on her head like all of the women around us. "Why do we do this?" I asked as I followed suit. "Oh, it's just to keep your towel out of the water." Oh. I had always thought there was something more traditional and ritualistic about it! Like, putting a white towel on your head protected you from demons or something... Once I knew that it was for function and not fantasy, I used my towel to tie up my hair. Waka thought that was cool and did it too. I may have started a new Onsen trend in Japan! Anyway, I spent a while bouncing from bath to bath so that I could try them all, and fooling around by sticking my fingers in the water spouts and trying to overflow my ceramic tub. Lots of fun! Then the lethargy of the heated water began to creep in. I moved back to the super-hot stone bath and sat still and calm for as long as I could stand the heat. Then I made my dizzy way to the cold-bath (19 degrees C) and submerged myself. The throb of my shocked system felt so good that I wallowed there for about five minutes, where I got many surprised glances from the other women. Turns out that most people don't use the cold bath in the winter, instead cooling themselves by sitting out in the open. Crazy Canadian! Anyway, it felt wonderful and I was nearly hallucinating when I dragged myself out with my numb skin. Colours were brighter! Smells were stronger! The floor was undulating! Anyway, I went inside and tried the churro-churro bath and the handle-bar baths although I skipped the electric bath. Waka found me and told me that it was time to go... so we reversed the process, going back to the seated showers for a final wash and rinse and back to the tatami-mat change room full of shining women. There was one small boy there with his mom, and he sure got an eyeful! He was saying 'hi' to me in the changeroom, and then 'bye' over and over in the lounge when we went back out to meet Norm. Norm talked to the little guy in Japanese; the little guy said he watches English cartoons every morning... so I guess I was the first forienger he could practice on! The giant naked blonde at the onsen! There's something he probably won't soon forget!

Anyway, thanks for your email and notes-- it's good to know people are thinking about me. My mom and dad have sent me a couple of letters (and some money... thank you!), and just a couple of days ago Donna and Sarah sent me a package with tapes of Oprah and Grey's Anatomy and Survivor... I could not be happier! I'm watching them little by little, savouring them and trying to make them last... tastes of home! I'll write again as soon as I can-- please email me and let me know if there's anything you're curious about or would like to know more about, and I can theme my blogs accordingly!

Namaste

Endrene