Woho, I’m an alien. I’m a legal alien I’m a German man in Japan…

To be honest I didn’t find a way to get my foreigner’s registration card without having a permanent address here in Japan. However Jim and Heath were nice enough to use their address to get myself registered. It is once again one of these situations in which I am asking myself how I am supposed to give all this back to the couchsurfing community? Because Jim and Heath asked me if I’d like to do it this way. I did not even ask for it.

It’s Friday, Friday, fun, fun, party, party…

I once again face the challenge of finding my new host’s station. After straying around again my desperate look must have caught the attention of a slightly drunk owner of a recycling company. He is just on his way back home from his work party and once again someone is not only explaining the way to me, but is also guiding me to the right station. However we end up at two wrong stations along the way. Well, this is not his fault. It’s the alcohol’s fault.

I need a Hiro!!!

Hiro is my new host. He works at Japan’s telephone network. I asked him to stay for two nights in his flat. But it will only be one. Why? Originally he wanted to go to an Onsen (hot springs) hotel together with a friend of his and stay there for a night. But since his friend had to call it off a new “victim” had to be found. And this “victim” is me. “It is okay, Simon, you are invited. Of course you don’t have to pay for the hotel!” Slowly Japan is becoming creepy to me. If it goes on this way I will be promoted to a Yakuza boss (Japanese Mafia) after all.

Actually I’m welcomed by Hiro like a Yakuza boss. In his Lexus limousine with integrated TV-Set he’s taking me to a restaurant and of course there’s no chance to pay for the bill by myself! I like the restaurant’s concept. Every table is equipped with a grill in its middle. And the buffet is loaded with bite-sized cuts of meat for everyone to take.

But all this is of course not enough for the Yakuza boss so I’m getting invited to the public bath. This is deeply rooted into Japanese culture. I think it can be compared to the Roman bath culture. The Japanese people enjoy their baths naked and separated by gender. Often it’s mothers with their daughters and fathers with their sons. But even if I didn’t bring my family with me I’m still being granted access :)

Hey, what is the girl doing here in our department? And she’s dressed that’s not fair! She works here. Wait a minute. That gives me an idea. Perhaps the baths here are also offering  jobs for males in the girls section. Hmm…

No matter where you look at you’ll see the man’s best unit everywhere. Many of us might have stumbled over the penis map that recently has been rife on the internet. I wonder how those who have compiled this map took their measurements. Did they really measure the size on about 1.000 People of all their countries each to get a representative result? How did Japan do once again?

Oh… I see. Hm, well yes… Well I didn’t take any measurements personally and really don’t have any interest in doing so here, but well according to sense of proportion I can at least confirm the result for this bath here. Well, … *giggle* I don’t really want to brag but … he he… Okay. I’m going to stop it right here. Because of all of those wonderful things that happened to me here so far I really haven’t earned the right to poke fun. As the saying goes: It’s not about size it’s about the technique. And here the Japanese people are far more advanced than we are. How if not because of this would Japan have made it to one of the largest industrial countries of the world? There! And even in the public baths Japanese people can’t wave the high tech. As there is one bath in which you sit down between two electric diodes. I wonder if this is supposed to be relaxing or something for masochists…

Sometimes it does not even have to be complex technique. It all starts over with such small things like lining up in a queue/line.

queueing with IQ / A line for the Metro line

It works at every platform, every escalator everywhere! Juvenile scrambling as we know it from our western countries is to be sought in vain here. And even in the metro Japanese people don’t have to prove constantly that they can shout the loudest in their cell phones – as many stupid/silly Germans do all the time. Making a phone call in the Metro is prohibited. Epic!

Saturday.

On our way to Kinugawa

Hiro and me packed the car. We’re heading off for Kinugawa to the Onsen hotel. It’s about 100 km (62 miles) north of Tokyo. Fukushima is only 165 km (102 miles) away from there.

During a short break Hiro shows me a 100 Yen shop which are very popular in Japan.

100 Yen Shop

Eyecandy

Our hotel rooms smell like hay. “That’s the Tatami mats on the floor”, Hiro explains to me. When entering the room I’m thinking to myself: “Well done but the guys forgot to put beds into the room.” After a little while Hiro tells me that the beds are being made while you are eating in the restaurant.

Hayhotel

Hotel with history

View from our room

mad mattresses

Fact! When coming back from the Restaurant, two mattresses like entities are lying on the Tatami floor. And this is how I’m spending the first night of my life in Japan in a hotel without a bed. A sacred duty of every hotel room: to have a water heater and of course different sorts of tea. Hiro is pouring me a cup. Hm… I don’t know how they did it but the tea tastes exactly like the floor smells like. Like hay :)

Cool Kimonos

Please don’t get me wrong here. I’m not complaining and don’t want to sound arrogant. I had the best weekend so far in Japan thanks to Hiro! It was simply awesome! Thank you Hiro! For everything!

Also very interesting are the signs on the way back. The in Japan omnipresent raccoon dog tanuki. Ohh how cuuute!

Tanuki

Umbrella savety requirement

And even the fact that umbrellas are required on the highway/motorway seems a bit strange to me.

How may I imagine that? Maybe like on the photo?

Pan Tau in Japan. Photo by Hiroyuki Ochiai

So that I can’t get lost in Tokoy’s metro system once again Hiro is taking me to my next host by car on Sunday straight to one of Saitama‘s outskirts, Kawagoe. Brandon, a 23 year old American who has already lived in Japan for two years and will return in November. He’s showing me very interesting videos he made about Japan. After a late meeting we have an impromptu dinner and it turns out that Hiro is not only a very kind person but also an adept cook.

Brandon also works as an English teacher. But he has no problems leaving his flat to me while he’s heading out for work on Monday. However I’m also heading off for the city soon as I have to register for my work and travel stay at Shibuya city hall to get my