Eagerly Anticipating the Onsen

In preparation for my trip to Japan, I did the dreaded bikini wax.

There is no way I'm going to an onsen in my birthday suit, looking like the missing link. So, it's t-minus-5 days till take off, time to do some grooming. It's bad enough that I'll be a giant in the onsen, a giant, blond American, but a hairy one would just be nasty.

Yes, of *course* I'm going to go! Onsens are relaxing and quintessentially Japanese. I travel internationally to step out of being American for a while, to leave the comfort zone and remind myself that there are many good ways to live in the world.

An onsen is a public bath, although the term translates to "hot spring." Often they are built on or near natural hot springs (it is a volcanic nation, remember), and you go there to soak in the tub. There is a specific etiquette to using an onsen, and it's not as gross as an American might think. You must bathe before you get in the shared tub. You bathe at these little shower stations (called sento) in full view of everyone, so there is social pressure to do a good job. You scrub yourself well from top to bottom and then rinse off. Now, you can go in the tub, which is something like a hot tub in the US.

Everyone's nude, but yes, they do separate the boys from the girls. Children end up with the women. In my limited experience, there aren't too many children.

The tub is hot, like, really hot. You can't soak for too long or you'll overheat. Some onsens have cold pools, you can heat up, then cool off, and repeat. It's quite a shock stepping into the cold after the hot. I think the Japanese think this is healthy. It's exhilarating.  Some onsen have mineral baths of various types. Some have little waterfalls.

I don't think an onsen would work in America. The necessary social conventions are not present. We Americans are slobs, and yet at the same time, we are rampantly germophobic.

I wonder if our obesity problem would change if we regularly saw each other nude, in a non-sexual community context. I think everyone might end up with better body images and self esteem if we had something like this, because people would know what real human bodies look like. Not the over sexualized, corrected, buffed bodies we are only allowed to see here in America.

Secretly, I would like to have a Japanese soaking tub in my house. Either that or a Swedish sauna. Anything to relax and warm up on a cold winter day.

Coming up

So, our next big vacation is coming up. We are going back to Japan on another tour with Intrepid Travel. This one doesn't seem so exotic, but I am hoping there will be some surprises....the good kind.  We will go a few days before the tour starts to visit friends and also see Tokyo Disney.

At the moment, I'm a bit melancholy. A repeat is nice, but now I'm wondering if we shouldn't have chosen another country this time, just for something different. I'm interested in Portugal, Croatia, Iceland, Germany, Scotland, or even Norway, although, I don't want to go to Norway until June.

Eh, I think it's pre-travel stress.

I need some time away from my husband though, so I'll be able to enjoy our time together on the plane, in Tokyo, etc.

I will bring my Aunt Millie's garden applique work to keep me busy. That, and my Kindle and my iPod. That should keep me occupied during the long flight, in addition to the movies, meals, and hopefully sleeping.

Anyway, I'll have a hiatus from my blogs while I'm traveling.  We leave on 9/21.

Shop Hop Frenzy

I'm becoming more Internet savvy.

Whoa, wait a minute. How is that possible? I've been on the Internet forever (so it seems) and I think I know everything about it. Yeah, right! It's not humanly possible to know everything, with all the decentralized development at the corporate and grassroots level.

This is not a dissertation about the net. The fact is, I don't always use all that's out there, mainly because of my casual use of the net. That, and my ego that thinks I surely know it all.

Somehow, and I can't remember exactly how, I stumbled upon the fabshophop, a virtual shop hop through online quilting shops. Fabshophop is consolidator site. It connects hundreds of small quilt shops around the United States that have a web presence, and provides promotional services for them.

It's all about eyeballs. The more eyes see your site, the more sales you get (roughly).

They have been running a promotion that imitates a live shop hop. You go to each of the participating shop/sites and find the bunny icon. When you click on it, you register for prizes. Most shops have a shop-hop icon on their home page and give a fairly obvious hint where the bunny is located.

Here, I thought I was so cool and wouldn't find anything new in the shops when looking for the bunny icon. Well, no! A few shops totally delighted me - particularly the one called Wilson's Calico Corner that has a Penn State affiliation. Not only do they have Penn State fabric and themed kits, they offer some adorable quilting gifts.

Did I mention I'm a Penn Stater? I do, in fact, bleed blue and white, in a subtle but very loyal way. "For the glory of old State..."

I found a few shops that featured designs I like. And I actually built a favorites list on FabShopHop.com to save all these special shops.

An old dog learns new tricks.

And now I'm in a quilting frenzy. Looking at all the projects, patterns, fabrics, accessories, I've gotten a little dizzy with the excitement of all these projects. I want to quilt, right now!! And, in this treasure hunt you can also find downloadable patterns for a nine-patch sampler. I love nine-patch.

Despite my feverish desire to sew the day away, the weather is awesome today in Kansas City, and dear husband and I really should get out of the house. We'll spend the afternoon at Powell Gardens and having lunch out. It's good practice in the care and feeding of a healthy husband.