Onsen Trip 温泉の旅

So I finally got over my cold/tonsillitis on the weekend. And what happens? Well, one of the students - I'll call her Yamato Nadeshiko, because she acts incredibly traditionally Japanese, like in making food and cleaning up after men needlessly - says she's coming over on Sunday with her friend and they will do something with me. Fine. So they show up early in the morning, around ten - I wasn't even dressed or showered and the apartment was a mess, as usual - and we proceed to debate as to what we should do for the day. See a movie? Nah. How about New Zealand Village? Sorry, I didn't come all the way to Japan to see a New Zealand theme park. Well then, how about an onsen?

I can get behind that.

週 末はやっと風邪・扁桃腺炎が治した。それで何が送る？一人の生徒（とっても伝統的な日本人の女性の男性を世話する行動をするので大和撫子と呼ぼう）が日 曜日に僕のアパートに来て僕に何かをすると宣言した。いいんじゃん。それで、十時ごろ来ちゃって（まだシャワーを浴びてないし服着てなかった、そしてア パートも天災だった）今日はどうすると相談し始めた。映画を見る？断り。ニュージーランド村？すいませんが、ニュージーランドのテーマパークを見るために せっかく日本に来なかった。じゃあ、温泉は如何？

それなら参加するぞ。

So off we went, driven by Tom the insurance guy, with Yamato Nadeshiko, Manga Girl, and Sexy Chibi in the back. Trouble is, since it was a holiday weekend (Sports Day), everyone else had the same idea and the road up the mountain was packed. What should have taken 45 minutes took 3 hours! When we finally arrived at the onsen the trip had been worth it, though. The water is naturally heated and the smell of sulphur is in the air (eggs). After leaving the onsen we all watched a movie at my apartment (The Fully Monty) after which everyone went home.
そ れで出発した。保険のトムが運転手、そして後ろに漫画女と大和撫子とちび魅力が座ってた。問題は、月曜日は体育の日だったので世界中も同じ考えがあった。 山頂行きの道は大変込んでいた。普通の４５分が３時間掛かった。着くのはやっぱりよかったけど。お湯は自然的に温めてあるし空気の匂いは硫黄（卵）が強 かった。温泉を出てから皆が僕のアパートで映画（フール・モンティー）を見た。それで皆が帰った。

On Sunday I went out to a city called Kitakami about halfway between Ichinoseki and Morioka. On the way there I took some pictures that you may or may not find interesting ...
日曜日は一関と盛岡の中地にある北上という市に行った。途中で写真を撮ったのでどうぞご覧下さい。

Here we have a bicycle parking lot. None of these in Canada I can assume. これは自転車の駐車所だ。カナダではないでしょう。

Good ol' kouban police boxes. They've taken to writing police in hiragana on the buildings in Ichinoseki. I guess there were too many strokes in the kanji so little kids couldn't find out where the police were. Police in Japan are useless though. I once saw a group of high school kids making fun of the police officers who just stood there and did nothing. I was actually worried about the guy!
あ、交番だ。何か一関で警察をひらがなで書いてあるそうだ。漢字の画数は多すぎ たので児童が警察はどこに居たか知らなかったのだろう。日本の警察は無理だ けどね。或る夜、僕は高校生の団が警察を馬鹿にしていたのを見た。そして警察さんが何もしなかった！ちょっと心配していたよ、実は！For some reason the bus centre here is inside Crayon, the cheap karaoke place. 変な理由で一関のバス情報中心はクレヨンという安いカラオケ屋の中にある。Ichinoseki is still in Japan though, which means there is a plethora of random hot girls. Exhibit A was just waiting at the station. 一関はまだ日本だからセクシーな女性が無闇に乱発する。こちらの別嬪がただ駅で待っていた。Of course, if you're going to wait by the station, the best place is the Three Heads, of some famous figures to come out of Ichinoseki. ま、駅で待ったら一番いい場所は一関の有名人の三頭だ。Need some money? Contact your local yakuza loan shark front company ... named Dick, for some reason. I might invest some money in the loan companies though ... with the interest they charge it's hard not to make some money off of them. お金欲しい？じゃ、近所やくざ組みのローン会社に連絡して。こっちの会社はディック（ちんちん）と呼ぶ。ローン会社にお金を投資するかな・・・ひどい利率 で僕は確かに将来に金返しがもらえると思う。うーんと誰かその意味がわかる？

So anyway in Kitakami I happened upon a rather large shrine. Very nice hand-washing area with the dragon. とにかく北上で結構大きなな神社を見つけた。龍があるやや綺麗な手洗い所だね。
How about an Evangelion pachinko unit? エヴァンゲリオンのパチンコ台は如何ですか？
What goes better with a movie than beer?
映画を見ながらビールより何がいいだろう。
This morning I was at the School of No Discipline. Now that all the students know me it's actually gotten a bit better. I actually played outside with the kids for the first time in two weeks. The one place where discipline is like iron is at the morning assemblies, where the kids march out to music. Two extremes, perhaps?
今朝は無規律の学校に居た。生徒の殆ど皆が僕を知っているのでやや良くなったけどさ。実は今日二週間振りに外で生徒達と遊んだ。鉄みたい規律ある所は朝会 だけどね。子供が体育館を出る時はいつも音楽で更新する。二つの極かな？
I saw this at a Subaru dealership on the way home. High in iron, I suppose.
アパートに帰ってた時はスバルの店でこれを見た。鉄の味かな。