Lost In Translation Vol. 4

My little brother sometimes calls me “Stee”. I told him he could call me “Steve” as a nickname…but “Steve” in Japanese would be pronounced “Stee-boo”, which is the same number of syllables as “Stee-bun”. So he decided on “Stee”. It reminds me of cousin look calling me “Stee-gee”.

Anyway....on to some stories.

Another fun-filled, busy weekend. Saturday in the morning I went to the Co-Op Tokyo office to practice English with Japanese housewives. Basically…they are in a group that is trying to learn English, so we went and did a little conversational practice with them. It was basically set up like speed dating…except there were four guys and 20 house wives.

After this, the guys and I went to Yoyogi Park and played beer pong with some friends. It was a lot of fun, but beer is crazy expensive out here because it is basically all good beer. No Milwaukee’s or Keystone available as a cheap option. At any rate, it was a lot of fun and we definitely had some random Japanese people watching us like we were crazy. The Japanese girls who played with us (Azusa and Emi) both thought it was pretty gross that we washed the ping pong balls off with regular water after it fell on the floor. Cousin Marc, his friend Thomas, and my fraternity brother Lance all came out as well. It was a good time.

Sunday, I finally went to an onsen with my host family. An onsen is a Japanese style bath house. I saw way more male genitalia than I would care to remember, but after getting over that, it was a fantastic experience. It was very relaxing to sit there in the giant baths and relax. The area is separate for women and men obviously. I even got to wear this sweet Yukata that had a big design of a Kabuki actor on the back. I think it convinced me that I want to buy one while I'm out here....even if they're a bit expensive. It was really comfortable.

But the onsen (which was located in Odaiba) isn’t just hot springs. It has a huge indoor area made to look like old school Japan. It has festival lanterns up for decorations, a ton of small restaurants, carnival games, and performers. It reminded me of a Japanese style Boomtown (for my family who is reading this), or maybe a giant Japanese Chuck E. Cheese with stuff for kids and adults. I got myself a foot massage for 20 bucks…and it was well worth it.