Travel Journal – Wednesday 30/4 – 08

Oh brother, that was nice! Hehe, the bath of course! I’ve just been to the weirdest sento ever, but it was great! The morning started with me getting up around 08:00 and I sat by my computer after eating breakfast for about a couple of hours before Simon and Jim got up. When they got up we ate the salad that I’ve bought yesterday and chatted for a while when Miiko knocked on the door. She had a new roommate for us. At the writing moment I don’t remember his name when we only saw him for like about ten minutes. He introduced himself briefly and then went or his way, he was meeting some friends at Roppongi¹. Jim was having lunch with his boss and Miiko so he wanted to go to the Sento, so we all went…

This sento is about 140 yen more expensive than the cheaper one, but according to me this was certainly worth it. First we walked there from here, which took about 15 minutes, we didn’t go straight for it, it was a wonderful weather. It was about 25 degrees and sunny and a really nice wind sweeping through the streets. So we walked all the way talking about this and that. When we arrived we put our shoes in the lockers they have for shoes in most spa-places or baths in Japan. I’ve also seen it in a restaurant or two. You put your shoes in a locker, often for free, and then take the key and sometimes get a pair of slippers on instead. However, this bathhouse didn’t have any slippers so we just took our ticket and went in.

Well, in the bathhouse we bathed and how that is performed I think you know, but the amazing thing about this sento is that it had cool stuff inside. First the showers, well, nothing special, then they had four indoor pools, one sauna, one bench or something where you could sit and relax while water was pouring down on your back, one outdoor pool, and three… big bathing bowls, and one water sauna in a dark cave-like room. The four pools where all different and had their own special things. One was just a regular pool with hot water, the other one thou was really strange… it had some chairs or seats in the pool where you could sit… and relax while your whole body was electrified…

Okay, that sounds weird alright, but it’s true! It was the strangest of sensations I’ve felt since I arrived here, I think. When I first sat down there, oblivious of what it was, I was really schocked,² and jumped up in surprise, thou I’ve been warned that they had such things in here. It took a while to get used to the sensation and repress the urge to jump away but it was really nice, even thou it felt like your whole body was cramping up and it was a little hard to breathe and it felt, for me at least, like my whole body had a third pulse³. Strange but good! Other than this they had a pool with hard pouring water that massaged your body⁴ and a cool pool, with water only about 16 degrees, which is really freezing after you’ve been into the other pools.

Well, after we had finished the bath, which was very, very relaxing, we went outside where Jim had a fish-footbath. They had a special pool where they had lots of small fish and for only 500 yen you could have a footbath for about ten minutes with the fish. I remember doing something similar to this in Malaysia or Lankawi or something but with a lot bigger fishes, these ones where only like a thumb⁵ in their size, thou the biggest one was almost three times as big as the others… However, Simon and I put down our hands just to test it, which felt really funny when they were eating up all the dirt and dead skin that hadn’t already been washed away by the bath or the shower.

Well, after this we went back. Jim and Simon went on their business⁶. So I stayed here, checked the internet out a bit, paid some bills and stuff, took out some money, chatted a little, made the final preparations. I think I have everything planned now, and I’ve put up a final budget. The last five days I’m only going to travel for 6000 yen, and buying stuff for 30000, at most. This is my own money, other than that I may buy some of the things I’ve been asked to buy, it depends on how much space I’ll have over when I’m finished.

This is the things I’m going to do before I leave;
– I’m going to buy some things, maybe a console but most likely not. I’ll see where and what I’ll buy.
– I’m going back to Asakusa to get some things I didn’t get, so far I’ve only seen it there, so I guess I’ll to go there.
– I’m going to the Ghibli Museum this Friday, will probably take up most part of the afternoon…
– During the evning the Friday I’ll probably go to Akihabara or Shinjuku to either play some games or watch a movie in a Japanese cinema. I’ll of course watch something Japanese…
– I’m going back to Yoyogi and Harajuku this Saturday to spend most of my time there. It’s Golden Week now⁷ so the Cosplayers will be there during Saturday too and hopefully there will be less crowded than usual…
– I’m going to go out drinking tonight with Ayaha, Jim and Wolfgang, it’s his last day in Tokyo.
– I’m going to attend to a Tea Room before the drinking today…

That’s the main things I’m going to do but in short I’ll go to Ginza, Shinjuku, Roppongi, Akihabara, Asakusa, Shibuya, Ueno, Harajuku, Shinigawa, Tokyo⁸ and Odaiba before I leave to do various things before I’ll leave on Monday. My plane leaves at pretty early in the morning so I won’t have any time to do anything else other than pack, and get to the airport. I will arrive in Sweden at 16:00 but I’ll be back in Luleå first around 00:00 so I’m practically home the 6th. Well, now I’m hungry… again, so I’ll think I’ll go eat some more curry rice, and get this post posted. Or maybe not post it yet, the clock at the moment is 10:28 Swedish time⁹ and I want to chat to some people if it’s possible so I think I’ll wait until it’s more probable that the ones I want to chat with is online around 14-15, so I’ll probably use the internet after the Tea Room and before we go out.

Now I’m going to work a little on Nianze I think, after some food of course. I really need to warn you… things are going to be a little bit difficult on the role-playing front when we get back home. I’m doing major changes in the history/society/workings so things will need some adjustment. As for the rules I’ve decided to finish the ones I have right now and make sure that stances, techniques and spells work and that everything is pretty balanced in the base-system. This will mean that I’ll put holy addendums out of the question again, I won’t have players play around with such an incomplete system yet, so maybe I’ll do it myself instead, because I won’t complain about the ages it may take for me to finish some rituals, haha. Other than this, prepare to be re-schooled in the history and workings of Nianze when I get back, because if you aren’t interested in the workings and history of Nianze… you’ll get squashed like a bug!

Best regards,
Herid Fel

1. Not for drinking, if that’s what you think ↩

2. Yeah, yeah, bad joke. ↩

3. I felt like my whole body was like echoing to every heartbeat or something. ↩

4. My neck felt really good afterwards as did my back ↩

5. You know, your most important finger… ↩

6. Jim to his lunch party before his last lesson and Simon to a Photograph museum… boooring ↩

7. A holiday of some sort ↩

8. The district ↩

9. 17:28 Japanese ↩