Mud Baths and Rice Cookers

To begin, I will challenge you with an ancient Japanese riddle:
What do you get when you combine 100 naked Japanese, some hot water, some dirt, and 2 gaijin (foreigners)?

A fun-filled day of traditional Japanese hot spring bathing!!!

Saturday morning Burger and I struck out to the nearby city of Beppu to take a dip in their famous hot water springs and rejuvenate our travel-worn bodies. After taking the advice of an information desk attendant at Beppu station, we headed to Onsen Hoyoland, a somewhat out of the way hot spring with a wide offering of mud and sulpher baths. It was truly an experience I will never forget, mainly, of course, because I seem to be emanating a rather unpleasant sulphureous aroma that soap does not seem to cure. But anyhow, any Japanese hot spring experience, regardless of any olfactory discontenment, is a thing to be remembered. For those unuanced in proper Japanese hot spring ettiquette, I will lay out the basics in 12 easy steps:

1) Walk into a room with cubbies on the wall.
2) Take off all your clothes and put them in said cubby
4) Grab a handtowel for the sake of "modesty" and walk/strut (whichever you prefer) into a room with showers on the wall about waist high.
5) Attempt to ignore the blatant stares of Japanese people curious as to the nature of this fair-skinned abomination
6) Sit on a small stool under said showers and rinse your body of all defiling dirt
7) Walk/strut into the nearest pool of hot spring water (whilst still ignoring stares)
9) Sit in said pool of water between 5 and 10 minutes
10) Stand up (whilst still ignoring these increasingly discomforting, genitals-oriented stares)
11) Walk/strut to the next pool of hot spring water
12) Repeat as necessary to feel invigorated anew.

Being just a basic guide, I did not include such minor details as wittily remarking to your bathing companions on such topics as the quality of the water on this particular day or how you most enjoy the texture and consistency of the mud this time of year. However, the above-mentioned guidelines amply describe the most fundamental aspects of the hot spring experience.

On the domestic front, Burger and I bought a used rice cooker!!! Though it is really no more than a glorified crockpot, see its goodness in the pic up top.