Rain, Onsen, Shibuya, and Shoes

Last night: an adventure. Breaking away from the Temple University group that was going back to the dorms, my newly found exploration companions here in Tokyo, Josh and Dan, left for Josh's mom's house in an upscale section of Tokyo near Roppongi Hills called Hiro-o. Through the rain, we traversed our way through the streets of Tokyo, myself in a daze from all of the shops and lights.

To put it simply, Josh's place in Tokyo is quite an abode indeed. For a house that nice, Josh was very humble about its amenities, and graciously offered me and Dan a place to sleep for the night, considering the pouring rain outside. It's not that dorms at Ontakesan are inadequate, its just that Josh's place truly trumps and of the luxuries provided for by the dorms :) I had a chance to use his parent's private Japanese Onsen, which is a traditional heated bath. Thanks Josh!

Before stepping into the Onsen itself, which was a large wooden box that fills with water, one must heat the tub and the water to a very, very hot temperature. Then, after showering, one basically just steps into the steaming bath and relaxes. I'll tell you now, once I stepped in, time itself seemed to stop, turn around, and say it was coming back later. Everything stood still; Everything my mind was thinking about held its breath; Everything became...nothing. I found myself taking deep breaths, savoring the scent of the wood and watching the steam swirl around the bath. It was difficult to have a sense of how much time actually passed, every breath lasted a lifetime and my consciousness slowly started to slip away from my body. I somehow managed to muster enough energy to regain my strength and get up. BEST EXPERIENCE EVER.

Today, shopping at Shibuya. Oogles and Oogles of ridiculously good-looking and well-dressed Japanese people. I don't think I've ever seen so many people before in my life. I gave in and bought shoes for a pricey amount :)