o-furo
Today I saw Kabuki at the Kabuki-za in Tokyo Ginza. This was the real deal... THE Kabuki in THE Kabuki-za. And it was awesome. But there's nothing to say about it other than that it was awesome. You have to know something about Kabuki to appreciate it... and even if you know something about Kabuki, you still have to see it... and even if you see it, you still... anyway, you get my drift. Nothing I can say could do Kabuki justice. It's just rad.

Now then, what I really want to say is that I'm going to be so screwed when I go back to America. Why? Because there won't be any o-furo.

I. Need. My. O. Furo.

There's nothing more relaxing than being able to press a button a bath heat up for you at your convenience. The o-furo is deep enough to cover my knees and shoulders at the same time. It's usually clean (with the exception of a few Japanese body hairs) and treated with some sort of bath salt. It's set to heat to a nice 42C and best of all it does all the heating before I even get in and then maintains it on its own. In fact, I can raise and lower the temperature as I want while I'm in the bath. The thing even fills itself to capacity automatically.

Can you tell I'm not looking forward to coming back to my janky, too-shallow, scummy, wash-yourself-in-dirty-water, tepid American-style bath tub? Ugh, hell NO. When I'm all grown up and a REAL yuppie (not just a yuppie jr.), I'm going to have a house with Japanese-style bathroom. A cedar tub with jets and a heater. And a view.

I'm really... Japanese... about my o-furo. Even though my host family's bath is nothing to be proud of, I know a good bath when I see one. And now I'm seeking out hotels for all my Spring-break travels based quite a bit on what I see about their o-furo. A hotel/ryokan with a nice bath will have nice rooms. Guaranteed. A hotel or ryokan with a nice bath is trying to also cater to Japanese people and won't be full up with retarded tourists. Best of all, a hotel or ryokan with a nice bath has a nice bath that I can use. BINGO. Who needs to go sightseeing when they can sit in a rotenburo all day? Hell, I'd even get up EARLY for that.

Sore wa poka-poka da yo.