Fuzzy navel
...written on 10.28.01, @ 10:38 p.m.
Sun October 28, 2001
Here I sit, contemplating my navel and other hirsute parts of my body. Now why on earth am I doing that, you ask? Because in less than 24 hours, I will most likely be sitting in a steaming hot spring with a number of my co-workers . . . naked.
You read me . . .
NAKED!
It's called the "Annual Company Trip" and purports to be the ultimate in a corporate (now I'd say corporal, wouldn't you?) bonding experience. So tell me, what ever happened to company volleyball teams?
But I am in Japan after all. The Japanese grow up sitting in baths together. Why, under many a napkin stained with grease from MacDonald's french fries, sits a place mat depicting a father and daughter (she's about 7 or 8) engaging in the bathing ritual together. Why not include unrelated grown-ups that you work with? Logical, right?
I discussed this with my Japanese teacher. I did research on onsen (hot spring bath) etiquette and you know what they both said?
LEAVE YOUR MODESTY AT HOME!
By squirming, blushing and trying to cover all of your privates with the supplied towel, the size of a dinner napkin, you attract even more attention to yourself, besides this is to relax your mind and body. Noone else is interested in you. Yeah right, you chubby-hairy-American-teacher-with-a-gall-bladder-operation-scar you!
I've tried practicing at home. You know, strolling around in the nude, unhurriedly passing in front of the open window curtain. Boisterous shouts and car horns accompany my experiments, but I regret to say that I am still feeling a wee bit reluctant to bare all.
Maybe I should use the public speaker's cure for nervousness with a twist. Instead of imagining everyone naked, I'll imagine everyone with their clothes ON!! Me included, of course. While I must confess to feeling very uncomfortable about this prospect, I also realize the very liberating potential. Think about it. Clothes weigh 3-4 pounds. Take 'em off and it's instant weight reduction!
I know the psychological implications of me participating in this Japanese custom with my co-workers. My Japanese teacher said that if I can do it, they would have a very good feeling towards me and that our communication would be better. She said they also would understand my feeling if I should choose not to go skinnydipping. We are raised to be quite prudish in America on matters of this sort. Let's see, shall we? Ok Americans, all in favor of joining your own nude office onsen, raise your . . .
hands.
Ah hah! See what I mean?
Anyway I haven't packed yet. HA! Like taking clothes is a concern. So I am off to prepare for this two day company trip that involves a twelve hour ride on a bus equipped with an oval table bar in the back and stripping down to the skin to commune nakedly with my fellow teachers a mere three days before my forever-forty birthday.
Yeeehaaa! I can't wait!
P.S. Let me hear from you, loyal readers, would you or wouldn't you get naked with your co-workers?Leave me a note in the comments.