Ozzies in Oze

Went hiking on the long weekend at the beginning of October, in the wilds of Oze which is a marsh in the mountains about 3 hours north of Tokyo. The hike was 24kms over two days, up and down mountains and over this 6 km marsh which has a wooden pathway over it (obviously, else you'd get pretty wet).

We stayed in a mountain hut, called 'yama-goya' which are usually pretty rustic, but this one was nice. Matt and I had our own private room, tiny, with futons on tatami matting and it was a way old building which creaked and moaned all night. Just as well we were exhausted. The only way you can get to yama-goya is to walk, so if you get injured you have to flag down a helicopter.

Because there is no way to get out of the marsh besides hike, the mountain huts, have 'gomi-boys' which is Matt and my term for a rubbish-boy. They strap this load of stuff onto their backs and walk the 12 or something kms back to the road. Weird.

I had my first foray into sento bathing, which is the public bath experience. In Japan, its not unusual for locals to head down to their local public bath, strip off and hop in and bathe with strangers.

I'd heard about this strange custom, but had no experience. It was actually pretty cool. You go into the ante-room where you get your gear off and put it in little shelves then you go into the bath room where there are hot taps and small basins to clean yourself with. Then only once you're spit-spoffing clean can you go into the bath.

There were these old biddies in there, who didn't speak much English, who coaxed me into the bath (I was just gonna rinse and run). Having been brought up in a culture where you kept your nobbly and furry bits private, I was a bit reticent, but who can resist a couple of gorgeous old Japanese ducks? I actually didn't feel remotely self-conscious cos its usual for them to bathe with other women so there was no perving or "look at how big the foreigners boobies are." Well, there probably was, but I was out of earshot and hell, I'm proud of my norks. Let them look.