Awesome

Woke up early today to head to an onsen in the mountains with two gaikokujin and the really cool Japanese lady from my cooking workshop. She took us on a scenic tour of the mountain back roads on our way there, which was really nice. I think I'd prefer to live up in the mountains; it's just so much prettier, and nature still exists there, to boot.

Anyway, the onsen turned out to be this awesome converted Japanese mountain house that I'd passed many times before without ever knowing what it was. We met the other six Japanese ladies in a waiting room, where I got to play flute and pennywhistle for them. The accoustics were just awesome, and everyone really seemed to enjoy it.

Then on to lunch. The food was plentiful and fabulous, and the conversation was excellent. I started explaining to one of the ALTs what I did and did not like about teaching elementary school midway through the meal. Everyone got really quiet before the lady next to me suddenly piped up with, "ジリアン先生、you speak English really well."

"Well, I've been studying for several decades," I told her. There was a brief pause while everyone absorbed this before erupting into gales of laughter. My sense of humor was praised repeatedly throughout the rest of the meal.

The onsen actually turned out to be an old-fashioned Japanese cedar bath, which smelled lovely and left me feeling very relaxed and happy.

So all in all, a good afternoon.

That will be all.

And In Today's OMFG News...

I knew about ten minutes of film were cut from The King and the Clown. What I did not know is that that includes a scene (and oh my god WHY wasn't it in the movie) in which Jang-sang MOUNTS Kong-gil.

THUD.

Forget the kiss with the king (which was so clumsily unerotic that the editor snapped away from it as fast as he could), this is where the money's at. Dayum.

That will be all.