Japan Is Doomed

After a morning of being treated far too nicely by people we barely knew, we were escorted to the local Atami primary school. This is why we were officially here - to sing some songs with the children, play a few language games and generally let them know that other countries exist. Last year as part of their foreign education they had a pair of singers from Trinidad and Tobago. Quite an act to follow.

It turned out we didn't have to do anything to impress these children other than be white, which is something I've been doing for some time now. As soon as we arrived we were greeted with choruses of Amerikajin Desu! ("It's some American people!"), and once we told them we were English they were entirely nonplussed. I can tell you now that at least 40% of those students think England is a state of America.

Grabbing the microphone, we introduced ourselves as best we could and gave our Japanese speeches about Atami, about how great Atami is in comparison to Tokyo and how much we want to come back and other incredibly positive, diplomatic statements. Then we talked (in English) about our hometowns. Once we had buttered all the students up sufficiently, we began the introduction game. The idea behind this game was Matt or I would throw a Rubik's Cube into the mass of giggling children, and one of them would catch it, stand up and give a little speech about themselves. It was a good game. In theory.

What we weren't aware of is that a Rubik's cube is the most desirable object ever. Poor little girls were being crushed under the raging torrent of overexcited pubescent monsters. I think we threw out 15 Rubik's cubes altogether, and every time there was a surge of children towards wherever it landed. The strangest thing? The adults all found this hilarious. We decided not to take any photos incase they appear on crime watch one day.

After that it was time for nursery rhymes. They had been practicing Heads, Shoulders, Knees & Toes and veritable classic Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. Mr Nakahara who came with us from Tokyo took some excellent photos of me making an utter fool of myself. (As if photos of that are rare…)

Feel free to blackmail me with those.

After that we gave a (very boring) talk to the Teachers and Parents of students. Here's a picture of the crew.

We spent maybe an hour and a half in the school overall. Personally I don't see how this justifies having a two day all expenses paid trip but I'm not complaining. Anyway, after that we checked into our bed and breakfast. It was a traditional Japanese Ryokan (Bed & Breakfast) which had it's own hot springs bath. Below is a picture of the room and a few pictures of the view from our window.

Of all the things we were planning to do in Atami, I think I was looking forward to Onsen the most. It's a roasting hot bath, with water brought up directly from the hot spring itself. There was one twist though - you do it naked. Aside from a small towel there is nothing between you and the elements. I decided not to take my camera with me as some of the other users of the onsen might not appreciate it. The one in this ryokan was men only until 8pm, then women only until 11pm, but in some places there are mixed gender onsen.

Another interesting rule of the ryokan is what you wear. Traditionally, men and women should wear Yukata, which is basically a simple Kimono. So, please enjoy these photos of me and Matt looking daft in Yukata which were too short for us.

Needless to say, all the Japanese people found this hilarious. Anyway, after getting far too naked at 5pm we were taken to dinner. Again, this was a traditional Japanese seafood dinner. I didn't get a photo of it, but the most interesting thing we ate was this shellfish that was covered in alcohol then cooked. The interesting twist? It was alive when we cooked it. I felt quite bad about eating something we just saw alive but it tasted really good so I didn't worry about it too much.

This update is becoming a bit too long so I'm going to stop it here. In the final Atami update I will tell you all about learning Japanese drumming, seeing Mt. Fuji and sleeping on the most comfortable bed I've ever seen.