Keitais and Onsens

Yuka came and went again this weekend. This weekend was nicer cause it was a three day weekend! She'll be back again in two weeks!

While she was here, I got a second cell phone, or keitai!

For people in the States, there may be a pause of confusion, as you begin to work out the logic as to why I would need a second keitai, from a completely different cell phone company. Let me explain to you how the Japanese keitai system works.

I have one phone with AU. The plan is split into two smaller plans, an e-mail plan, and a talking plan. In Japan, you get an e-mail address to text message people with. In America, it's the same thing, just hidden. For example, to text message with a T-mobile phone, what you are really doing is e-mailing someone from 'phonenumber@tmomail.net'.

How does the talking plan work? Simple, about $30 a month for 25 minutes. Yes, that 25 minutes is for the ENTIRE month. See, in Japan, people text message. My crazy American habit of actually talking on my phone gave me an $80 phone bill for the two weeks I had it in August.

Now I have a Yuka-phone with SoftBank. The plan is $10 a month. Since Yuka has SoftBank too, we can talk for free and send each other messages for free. A system that makes it cheaper to have two cell phones is not a good system, in my opinion.

Yuka wasn't able to get on a plane Monday because all the flights were full, so we stayed the night in Naha, the capital. The hotel had an onsen, and since I threw out my back earlier that day, it sounded like a great idea.

An onsen is a public hot bath, separated by sex. Or, a large public spa where a bunch of naked men bathe together. Because of my back, and the fact that it was 11 pm, I figured I could slip in in my robe, disrobe next to the pool and hide myself without being seen.

I walk into the bathroom and there is a few mini lockers and several sinks with a sliding door on the other side. I slide open the door, and view a large room with men sitting on stools in front of mini cubicles either shaving or bathing themselves. In Japan, you clean your body before entering a bath. At the end of the room was the onsen, with more men sitting around it. Even from the distance, I could tell that the water was about two feet deep and very clear. In all, I viewed about ten glistening naked male bodies in the onsen. I realized the room I was currently standing in was the disrobing room. So I would of had to march to the other side of the room in all my gaijin glory. I silently slid the door closed and went back to my room.

I decided Japan isn't quite ready for my debut.