Visting the local Public Bath: " And camphor loss you will lose 2000 Yen in the teens wristband."

There is a new public bath/onsen that has been built about 5 minutes drive from our house. We visited it  for the first time this week and it was fabulous. Beautiful tatami-mat corridors, pretty gardens and truly wonderful outside baths.
There are about 6 baths inside and   many  volcanic rockpools outside.

They have different temperatures and the water changes as well depending where they have drilled the well. Some are brown/cloudy with iron, others sulphurous, some crystal clear.
The hottest one is boiling hot, too much for me.

I can show you some photos of the gardens but obviously not inside the baths themelves.













It has two restaurants,  good food, a  hairdresser, massage and a shop selling local produce. Also quiet areas to sleep and others to read. You can even borrow any book that you get hooked by from their library. Such an incredibly civilised  thing the Japanese public bath.

Tofu slad

Fresh tofu and bonito flakes with spring onions.

Cold udon noodles with dipping sauce.

Bamboo shoot tempura













You can spend all day there, it's open from 10 am until midnight every day of the  year. Ther cost for a day is about $10.



An important notice at the entrance warns you that you can't come in if you have a tattoo, are eating a hamburger or are a baby.



But there was one great bonus, in fact it made my week. You may be puzzling over the title of this blog entry. It's a quote from the instructions I was handed  on how to use an onsen for foreigners.
There are marvellous amounts of mangled English in Japan, but this was truly a gift from heaven. It had been wrtitten by translating the Japanese only using a dictionary and by someone who doesn't speak any English at all.  Also, obviously, no one had ever checked it.

Tomono says I should tell them, but I believe  that such treasures are best left undisturbed  for future generations to enjoy. If you can work out what it means please let me know as I'm still scratching my head.

Giant kites

On Sunday near our house there was the giant kite festival. It is held every year on the banks of the Edo River and has been going for hundreds of years.








This giant kite is one of the largest in existence. It weighs 800 kg and takes one hundred men to fly it and hang on for dear life.

About 100,000 people attend this festival over two days and there is a real picnic/carnival atmosphere to the whole thing.

The three men here are making square Japanese omelettes.

A Spring Garden in Japan

Usually the minute we arrive I race around the back to see how the garden is doing after our months of absence. It's usally quite sad to see as we have an old chap who comes and waters occasionally but really doesn't do anything else. As we  are usaully away during the worst of the freezing winter and the boiling summer, quite a lot of damge can happen.

This time it wasn't too bad and after a week of pretty solid work it starting to look just right.

All sorts if plants that are hard or impossible to grow in Adelaide thrive in Japan and are easy to grow. Above a Clemitis that looks after itself.

This Japanese maple now screens our bedroom and keeps it cool in the hot wweather.

Lilac flowers profusely here and is very easy to grow.

The local garden centre has an astonishing range of plants at about 1/2 to 1/3 ther price they are in Australia. The quality is far better too. So it is inexpensive to cram the garden with plants and flowers.

The roses are just starting to come out.

A Funny Welcome, Rakugo

Back in Japan after 4 months of summer in Australia. We left autumn to land in a Japan in the full bloom of spring.

The day after our arrival, in the local village in front of the bakery, we were treated to a Rakugo performance. 

Every two months or so there is a free community event or concert, outside if the weather is good, this time it was a little concert, then Rakugo. 

 Rakugo 落語 is an ancient form of entertainment dating back about a thousand years in Japan. 

Rakugo means "Falling Language".

A usually seated performer, with only a paper fan and a cloth for props, recounts a long funny story with several characters involved. He changes voices and the direction of his his gaze to switch between them.

The performer in red told a long story, they always are, about the locals and the funny names children get given these days.

Blue chap here told an equally long tale of mother-in-laws and the trials of family life.

It was a lovely way to be welcomed back to a place that is just so different from our normal life in Australia.