Saturday 6th August:
Saturday was weird. So very weird.
Only 4 hours after getting back in from Shibuya, I left the apartment for Odaiba.
Maria had already provided me with the best train route to get there, so I set off pretty promptly. I arrived early afternoon.
The weather was boiling. M
y legs were destroyed even further by some nasty ass mosquitoes. I was hungover. This is not a good combination.
Regardless, I had a great time. First I went to the Seaside mall. After a brief look-see, and nothing bought, I moved on and started walking along the decking overlooking the sea. It was really nice, and the view was awesome.
I managed to find the Statue of Liberty replica along the seafront, which was cool! It looks much smaller in the pictures for some reason. 
I then went to Aquacity mall, which was deceptively massive on the inside! Everything seemed to be kind of surfer themed, and I had trouble finding something I wanted to buy because it really wasn’t my kind of fashion, and there was nothing that could get as a souvenir for others. Eventually I came across a shoe shop though (Shoeezzzzzzz!!!! :-o) and found a really nice pair of flip flops for only 2000 yen on sale! They are Giselle Bundchen ones, and really nice, and fit me perfectly! So I treated myself. I’ve needed flip flops since I arrived because of the godawful heat, so it was justifiable.
I then went for an iced coffee and a sit down. Heat is exhausting. Massively.
I texted Maria to see what time she was due to arrive but because of an accident with the tracks, she was running late.
I made my way towards Palette town to look at the massive Ferris wheel and shops, and met her there shortly after. As usual, she looked absolutely beautiful!
We did a bit of shopping, and Maria bought a new skirt for work. She told me she can make the equivalent of £90 a day at her part time job – I’m so jealous! Money doesn’t go quite so far here though, with everything being so damn expensive.
After that, we went to Starbucks for a Frappuccino and some cakes (I am aware how much time I seem to be spending in Western chain food places. It’s just so convenient and the only place I can buy something without having to read a Japanese menu – I swear it’s impossible!). We chatted about life and love and everything inbetween, and then started walking towards the Onsen to meet up with my friends.
[A quick aside – an Onsen is a Japanese hot spring resort. The water is pumped in from naturally occurring hot springs, and you then sit in them to relax. Apparantly it’s very beneficial to your health, and a big part of Japanese culture. Unfortunately, it is an enforced requirement by tradition that swimming costumes are not allowed. You are provided with a small towel that you can hold infront of yourself for modesty, but it won’t cover your back too, and isn’t allowed in the water. The Japanese people typically don’t use the towels.]
Maria was nervous about meeting my friends. I was nervous about being naked in public. Overall, it was a day filled with anxiety.
It took a while to walk there – maybe 25 minutes from Palette town, but the exercise was good after binging on cakes again.
When we arrived, we were joined by Till, Kyle, Anet and Kyle’s friend Yoshi. We took some group photos outside, and then went inside.
It was so surreal. The whole place was decked out like an Edo street, and was nothing like anything I’ve ever seen back at home. We went to pay (Maria had a voucher for us, so it cost only 1,200 yen each instead of like 3,000!) and then went to the changing rooms to get into our Yukata.
We met the guys in the main communal area, and had a quick walk around while they bought icecream. Then, we we went to the baths. Obviously, it’s single-sex, so we arranged a time to meet up with the guys outside.
It was incredibly awkward: I am modest and shy even by English standards, and my towel was effectively clamped to my body. First we had to wash, and then we went outside to the open air pool. We all got into a little wooden hot-tub-type thing, and hung out there for a little while, before moving on to the main outdoor bath.
Once we relaxed a bit, it was a lot of fun, and it was nice to just chat and enjoy the hot water. It was a little too hot though actually, so I had to keep getting out so I wouldn’t faint, and went to buy some water.
We hopped around the baths, using ones of different temperatures and mineral contents, and then sat in the sauna for a little while. I was by far the most awkward looking person in the Onsen, and I think a big part of that was, 1) going with Maria who is essentially my sister, and 2) the fact that most of my body is covered in big, red, swollen mosquito bites so I look like I have some sort of skin disease. Attractive.
After about an hour and a half I came out, washed my hair (you’re not supposed to wash your body after because the salts from the hot spring are good for your skin) and got back into my yukata. We went back to the communal area and waited for everyone to arrive. By this point we were pretty starving, and so we started looking around the stalls and restaurants for something good to eat.
Maria, Anet, Yoshi and I had sushi. It was amazing. I’m going to miss proper sushi so much when I come back home. Till and Kyle both had udon instead. I then had an icecream too, being the porker that I am.
After dinner, we made our way to the footbath area. This is an outdoor unisex area where you can walk through a small river with rocks and stones at the bottom. It’s supposed to stimulate certain areas in your feet and be relaxing, but I just found it incredibly painful. It seemed that Yoshi did too, but the others were all okay.
We then found a fish-pedicure area in a little hut to the side of the foot bath. Till, Anet, Maria and myself went in for a 15 minute session.
OH MY GOD IT TICKLED. So incredibly badly. I’ve never felt anything like it in my life, and as soon as you think what about why it tickles, it’s even worse! I’m not sure if I enjoyed having my feet nibbled by fish. I spent most of the session squeeling like a child (as did Maria) and came out in a great mood.
We hung around by the foot baths for about 20 minutes, and then Maria, Yoshi and myself headed back to the changing rooms so we could get the train. Unlike the others, I wasn’t willing to risk missing the last train and getting stuck in Odaiba after staying up all of the night before. I needed my sleep!
After a short issue regarding the shoe locker key, we left the Onsen and walked to the train station. I was exhausted.
I got back home at maybe 11.30pm, and stayed up a short while talking to friends on Facebook and Skype. At about midnight, I got a message from Till saying that he’d got the wrong day for his flight, and was actually leaving tomorrow morning (Sunday) rather than on Monday! It was really lucky that he checked or he would have been stuck in Tokyo. So he came up to my room to say goodbye. I’m really sad about it actually, because I realise that all the people I get on best with on the program are leaving in the next few days and I might never see them again. It’s really depressing. I hope people keep in contact!
Overall, I had an amazing day. One of the best since I’ve been in Tokyo I think. There was something very liberating about being the flabbiest, whitest, most awkward naked woman in the Onsen, haha. I’m so glad I went.
I am writing this on Sunday the 7th August and it is around 3pm now. It is my penultimate weekend in Tokyo and so I really should be out sightseeing but I’m glad of the rest. I think I’ll take a shower now and head to Akihabara for a little while.
Sayonara!
pseudopsience 