First Bonenkai: A Very Naked Weekend

The Japanese have an end of the year tradition known as bonenkai, which means 'forgetting the old year'. And how does one forget things? By getting massively drunk, of course! (Don't worry Mom, I didn't actually get drunk enough to forget anything). So a bonenkai is a party with a very nice dinner and lots of booze.

One of my friends organized a bonenkai at an onsen in Naruko. An onsen is a Japanese hot spring. We arrived at our ryokan (traditional Japanese inn) before dinner and changed into the yukata they provided. We all made sure to tuck them left-over-right because only corpses are dressed with their kimono right-over-left.

Before dinner, we went in groups to an outdoor onsen that was a few minutes' drive away. (Interestingly enough, that pool is the first photo here.) First the girls went and then the boys. We wore traditional Japanese sandals on the way there, which are incredibly hard to walk in. We got to the changing area, and it was quite cold to take off our clothing. Then we had to rinse off before getting in, but there were only 4 buckets for this purpose and many more of us. So we all doused ourselves very quickly and passed the bucket to the next person. The water was VERY hot. One ALT's girlfriend had come to visit. She had only arrived in Japan the day before and was already getting naked with strangers. Quite the welcome to Japan.

While the boys were at that onsen, we were hanging out in the lobby when two Japanese guys came out of one of the rooms dressed as Santa Claus. They were also having a bonenkai and were much further into their festivities than we were. We were about to check out the onsen that were inside the ryokan, when Santa-san called us back. It appears they had a bag of gifts. So we all got socks...it was quite random.We had a very fancy, tradtional Japanese dinner. We all sat on our knees in the formal Japanese style while the woman of the ryokan started us off. There were many yummy bits (I ate so much sashimi--it's really growing on me) in our dinners. But there were also many strange things that we didn't recognize. After we finished eating, we sang some karaoke until it was time to quiet down.
Then it was onsen time again! We discovered that there was a large mixed-sex onsen, a small women-only onsen, and several small 'family size' onsen, one of which was outside. Somebody brought a beach ball and we played a little seated volleyball in the large onsen! (I think this violated everything an onsen is supposed to be). Later, I and a few others left that one because it was too loud.

The outdoor onsen was small and beautiful. It was decorated with stones and statuettes as well as plants around it. I and a couple others ended up sitting in there for several hours! We had some interesting conversations about all manner of topics, from Ninja Turtles to complex mathematics (yes, a lot of my friends are nerds).

After becoming completely prune-y and getting out, I joined some people who were hanging out in one of the rooms. After a while of that, it was back for some middle-of-the-night onsen!

In the morning, we had a traditional breakfast--rice, miso soup, fish, some other things. Then I took a shower and another quick soak. After I finished and got dressed in my jeans and shirt, it felt odd to be back in my normal clothes after spending so much time either naked or in a yukata. What a good way to get clean, relax, and 'forget the old year'.