Saturday Dec 9, 3:00 JST
Mukul and I met in the cafeteria and waited for Degushi san, who was going to take us to a nearby hot springs. Promptly at 3, his little grey car drove up to the entrance, and Degushi waved us in. Degushi san is a balding, thin, professorial type, who's part of the Nobeyama "cosmic" staff, as opposed to "Solar" staff, like Shibusaki san. Apparently he's working with one of his students using the 45-m telescope (the biggest in Asia) to observe the mm spectrum of galactic nebulae. While we waited for Mukul, still backin the shoe room, tying his boots, Segushi san asked me my first name.
I said, "Ed. That's short for Edward."
He repeated the nickname and the name, which were both new to him. He's on a first name basis with Mukul, but it takes time for a Japanese person to use a gaigin's first name, so I didn't ask him his first name (which is Shuji; you can google him using deguchi nobeyama).Mukul entered the front passenger seat, and we sped out of the lot.
We drove towards Kiyosato on the same roads I had taken on my snow-biking tour. Just a few 100 m before I had given up and turned back home, we turned right at the "Nokyo" sign (one I recalled as the only English sign in sight.). We drove past hundreds of discreet apartment-like buildings, mostly hidden behind pine trees. Degushi said they were condos. About 15 minutes after we started, we were driving up to Yatkasutake ski area. My ears popped, so we had climbed a lot, and suddenly there was a great view of a spectacular mountain like Mt Adams or pre-eruptive Mt St Helens. I asked Degushi san, "Is that Fuji?", and he said that it was. So one of our objectives had been accomplished. we'd be able to see Fugi san from the baths.
But the baths were not at the ski area any more, so we headed down hill to another town about 15 min away. Behind a parking lot with about 30 micro-minivans and and many non-Toyota-Honda-Nissan, nondescript, blocky cars that would never sell in the USofA), was a flat-topped building like a bowling alley. Inside, there was the mandatory shoe corral, where we dutifully shelved our shoes. We stuck 1000-yen bills into a machine (Y700 apiece), which expectorated 3 tickets. Five m away, we proffered the tickets to a little lady at a desk, and walked through the inviting lobby to another machine that, after some touch-screen finger gymnastics, popped open a locker for our use. We put in our keys and wallets, and proceeded to the men's locker room.
Up to that point, we were about as far as you could get from the ancient steam baths of the Shogun era. But the locker room was partially modern, partially traditional. In the middle of the room were wooden stands with bamboo baskets for your clothes. On one wall were lockers where you could stash your clothes (all of them, no bathing suits allowed) and take the key with you on a bracelet. On the other wall were sinks with modern plumbing and mirrors. But out the door you could see a darkish, steamy room with stone walls and a big pool.
We entered the dim room, each with a towel draped modestly in front. Degushi san scooped up some water from the pool and poured it over his head. He indicated the showers on the left wall where some old guys were industriously washing with soapsuds and sprays. We stepped into the hot pool and looked at the view. A large glass wall on the far side of the pool kept out the wintry winds, but allowed us a good display of Fuji san off in the distance. The pool was just hot enough that you had to go in slowly, but it was wonderfully relaxing. We chatted a bit, and I observed that there was another pool right outside. Maybe we could go out? We waited for Mukul again, and shortly after he arrived, we decamped for the outside pool. After a few minutes of soaking, I told Degushi san that I wanted to take a picture, and went over to the bench where I had left my camera.
With damp hands, I carefully extracted the camera from its little black pouch, and got a good shot of the submerged bathers with Mt Fuji in the background. Deguchi san offered to take a picture of me, so I handed him the camera, and pulled back into the depths. After he took the picture, and verified with me that the picture was good, he put the camera back on the bench, and returned to the pool with us.
We chatted and soaked for about half an hour, and decided to head on back to the lobby for a drink or some ice cream.
DISASTER! END OF JAPAN BLOG PICTURES!
My camera was nowhere to be seen on the bench. It had nominally been in sight all the time we had been bathing, but all of us had been looking at the view, not at the bench. Deguchi san said, "I'll ask at the desk." He donned some shorts and disappeared out of the locker room. It took me a little longer to go out to the lobby, since somehow I had managed to drench my towel in the pools. But when I got out and met him, he downcastedly said that the desk people hadn't heard or seen any camera.
We sat around on one of the benches numbly eating ice cream (a box of chocolate-covered ice cream bonbons for only Y100. Great stuff!) Deguchi san decided we should leave a note at the desk with names and phone numbers, in case someone returned with the camera. "Sure", I said, disconsonantly. My faith in the honesty and reliability of the Japanese had been shattered. But at the desk, Deguchi san wrote up a detailed description of where he put the camera, what it looked like, and all the circumstances, including the blue bag that he had put it in. This was all in Japanese script, so I had no clue what he was writing until he told me afterwards.
We sat some more, and I bought another package of ice cream bon-bons for my dessert back at the dorm. I thanked my lucky stars that I had taken the 512 MB memory card out of the camera this morning, and was running on camera memory, so no pictures were lost--except the two of us in the bath! So I was crossing my fingers. Maybe one of the bath customers would call Deguchi san and say that he had taken the camera accidentally. It was a long shot. I'll tell you later if we get a call. Unless someone calls, this is the end of the Japan pictures.
To be continued
rakkitty/shamaru
That's awful. I'm sorry about your camera. The baths look wonderful with Fuji in the background. At least, as you say, you have your memory card.
Posted by laRad.That's awful. I'm sorry about your camera. The baths look wonderful with Fuji in the background. At least, as you say, you have your memory card.
Posted by: laRadat December 11, 2005 12:45 PM