Sara Amon LIBR 500: Foundations of Information Technology

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Sara Amon LIBR 500 Foundations of Information
Technology
Navigating Japan from Spring to Spring

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For 3 years we lived in Yokote Citya rather
small town up north in Akita Prefecture.
Yokote
me
Aaron
We taught our crazy Canadian ways (and a little
English) to all the high school students in town.
While we were there
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We watched the rice grow
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And we played in the snow
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We learnt a lot about festivals
Many summer festivals involve fire, lanterns or
dancing.
Many winter festivals involve cold water,
nakedness and drinking.
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And we ate a lot of food
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We looked for patterns
We looked for patterns
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And I followed a lot of people

• (Im a cowardly photographer)

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But we didnt really start to enjoy our life in
Japan
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??
Until we decided to be very brave
and go to an
on
sen

• (Hot Spring)

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
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For 8 months, Aaron and I feared onsen

• Complex Rules
• No clothing
• No soap
• No towels
• No foreigners allowed?

• Horror stories
• Leering men
• Light-headedness
• Grannies who grab
• Legionnaires disease?

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After a little hike on a volcano one day, we
tried an ashi-yu - a foot bath.
And we liked it.
So with friends to walk us though the difficult
steps, we tried our first public bath!
And we loved it.
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Get comfortable with the rules, and theres no
reason to worry.
This is a Doro-yu (muddy hotspring)

• Learn the difference between ? and ?. (man and
  woman)
• Wash, scrub and rinse thoroughly.
• Cover yourself up with a little towel.
• Get in the bath (without the towel).
• Put the towel on your head or the side of the
  bath.
• Hop in and out to regulate temperature.
• Relax, soak and enjoy the mineral goodness

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• For the next 2 years weekends
• and holidays were spent seeking
• out the oldest, remotest, sulfuric
• springs.

• We camped (its often free!) all over
• Japan, bathing in hot springs and
• seeing the sights.

Ancient castle wall

• We learnt that theres nothing better
• than an outdoor bath in a storm.

• Except for beer and noodles afterwards.

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But here are some of the onsen weve been to
As you can imagine, it can be a little difficult
to take photos
?
?
?
?
And one we missed.
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JR Poster
JR Poster
Can you see us in this picture?
No?
Well, were not there. This is an old
Japan Rail poster for a 1000 person bath, a
famous mixed onsen.
Arent these two cute, though?
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Weve tried to find some Northwest Hotsprings

• (they have a lot to live up to)

Mostly theyre murky, dangerous, or excessively
chlorinated and theres nowhere to wash. Yuck.
This one in California would have been perfect,
but signs threatened huge fines to anyone who
got too close.
Terwilliger (Cougar) Hotspring in Oregon is the
only one Id go back to.
The Onsen Snobs search continues
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All photos from our personal collection. Please
contact amon.sara_at_gmail.com for permission to
use.
Exceptions
Map of Japan taken from Wikimedia
Commons http//commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ImageJa
pan_prefectures.png
Jigokudani Onsen in Nagano taken by Yosemite from
Wikimedia Commonshttp//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ima
geJigokudani_hotspring_in_Nagano_Japan_001.jpg
Tsurunoyu Onsen in Akita taken by our friend
Nick McCullen, used with permission
February 8, 2008