Japan in Retrospect 2 : Conveyor Belts, Tattoos, Onsens & Bullet Trains

Well it's been yet another leisurely morning consisting of yoga on the beach, an amazingly tasty & filling 120Rs (~$3Cdn) breakfast, a nap in the shade of the blistering hot Indian sun and plenty of time to write down memories of Brad & Mere's time in Japan where they rarely had time, money, or internet access to keep their blog up to date.

I humbly submit to you, our reading audience, "Conveyor Belts, Tattoos, Onsens & Bullet Trains"...

We have finally arrived in the lap of luxury.  Mere and I are being very well taken of courtesy of friends Teruyo and Rodney, who I've mentioned previously as they're living in Japan(again) for a year with Teruyo's parents in their lovely home not far South of Tokyo near Shizuoka.  They've picked us up from the train station and immediately leaped to our aid by helping us take care of a very overdue need for doing laundry. 
After quickly meeting Teruyo's parents and seeing their 3 ever-growing kids again (Brooke, Jay, & Cady), we played taiko on their Wii and washed every dirty article of clothing we had (which was pretty much all of them).  Afterwards we were treated a rare night out with Rod & Teruyo with Grandma & Grandpa babysitting.
So off the mall the four of us went because we were hitting their favourite conveyor belt sushi restaurant where we were hard pressed to not grab every delicious looking plate that rolled by.  Finally, however , the plates we'd emptied were piling up and even I had to declare I was full and could eat no more.
But the highlight of our visit awaited as Teruyo had booked us in for a decadent night at the exclusive health club/spa they belong to which is like an all-inclusive members-only kind of wellness resort with gyms, onsens, massage, acupuncture and more ways to indulge yourself than we'd have time for.
On checking in, Mere and I dropped our back packs off in our room, grabbed the pajamas that all guests (almost all of them Japanese) were encouraged to lounge around the resort in, and  headed down with Rod & Teruyo to hit the onsens where Teruyo's sister would join us.
Boys and girls went their separate ways and as I was staying at the resort I was given a different locker than Rod and headed off to strip naked and hit the showers with my "modesty towel" (used for covering your private parts if you need to and applying hot water to your head while soaking).  So I'm heading back to where I'd left Rod and suddenly I hear a woman's voice calling out something in Japanese which, as usual, I don't understand so I just keep walking and start using my modesty towel as I'm not wearing anything else.  I'm sure I'm in the men's locker room and a woman in the resort's uniform appears so I assume she's letting everyone know she's there to get towels or something.  I find Rod, who's very conversant in Japanese even though he's white because he's worked in Japan several times as a academic at some universities here (and of course, his wife is Japanese). I ask him what she's saying as it now appears like she's following me and he says "She saying these lockers are for people using the onsens", and we shrug as I say, " I know" so we both shrug, he talks to her and she leaves. 
So we hit the showers and I'm done before Rod and slip into my first bath of gorgeously hot water when another attendant who works there (this one male) comes over and starts telling me something in Japanese, which, as usual, I don't understand.  But the attendant's not smiling politely like they normally do and he's pointing at the tattoo on my left arm, so I'm thinking something must be amiss.  Fortuantely, I'm able to tell him in Japanese that I don't understand and gesture for him to follow me as we look for Rod to translate.  We find him and Rod's puzzled by what the attendant is saying, translating it as "This tatoo is okay in New York, but not here".  So we both shrug and the attendant leaves to find someone who works there that speaks better English.
Rod & I are thoroughly enjoying our second hot pool, this one with jets working out any tensions in my lower back, and he's explaining his work at Nagoya University to me.  There he's applying his research and development work on electron microscopes to a way that he believes (and will eventually prove) will allow them to scan and diagnose soft tissue in the body (along with many other applications).  This is real Star Trek stuff he's talking about but Rod's a lot smarter than your average Canadian so I'm struggling through the soothing steam and relaxing jets to keep up with his big fancy science words like "holograms" and "phase" and phrases like "measuring the atomic signature of a particle" and "using sound or laser beams to gather phase data as opposed to xrays".   But as my head starts to hurt from trying to follow what he's telling me, another resort employee appears, and sure enough, he's better dressed, and fluent in English.
He explains that we are more than welcome to use the shower facilities of the onsen area (which we just did) but to avoid members complaining about "foreigners with tattoos", I wouldn't be able to use the onsens because of the tattoo on my arm.  I wisely didn't bring up the one on my chest or back of my shoulder).  So I tell him I understand but want to know if I would be reimbursed since we've spent a lot of money to stay there and use all the facilities.  He asks if I have a room there, which we do, and he uncomfortably says that he wouldn't  be able to. So I say, well how about we cover it up with my good ole modesty towel just for now as we were only there one night.  Reluctantly he agrees and Rod and I awkwardly wrap a towel around my arm and head off to try out more of the onsens they have.  Little did I realize though, that Mere was getting similar "customer service" over in the Ladies area and they had come to the same solution although with Mere's tatoo being on her lower back, it was more technically challenging to cover up. 
Awkward and a little embarassing though it all was, we definitely got our money's worth out of the onsen and before bidding Rod & Teruyo a good night, spent some quality time in the free massage chairs where we swapped tales of tattooed gaijin persecution.
After a great sleep Mere and I woke up, threw on our resort pajamas, put bandages over our tattoos and got ourselves great massage and acupuncture treatments before hitting the onsens once more, this time with far fewer hassles but still feeling a bit self conscious.
Anyways, it was all entertaining with no harm done and Rod & Teruyo picked us up and took us to lunch at a place that served us the local specialty of "Sakura Ebi" which is "Cherry Blossom Shrimp" since it is pink when raw unlike all other shrimp which are white.  Here's a shot of us outside the restaurant:

Rod was taking the Bullet train back to Nagoya and to avoid a 3-4 hour slow train epic journey back to Tokyo Mere & I decided to spend the money and take a one hour bullet train as well, but to Tokyo in the opposite direction.  So Teruyo droped us all off at the station and after a hurried good-bye to Rod with our packs on, we jumped onto our train which, of course was pretty full and no else seemed to have luggage, much less monster back packs.  After walking through every car on the train and having every pair of eyes staring at us as we went, Mere and I found 2 aisle seats, one in front of the other so we were somewhat together.
Fortunately, I sat next to 2 lovely middle aged women returning from Nagoya & Kyoto who I wisely offered a couple of mandarin oranges since we had plenty and offering gifts is rarely a bad idea in Japan.  Of course, this got us talking and one of them could speak enough English for us to dialog.  Before I knew it however, I was handed some pickled daikon radish and a bag of cocoa covered beans they'd picked up in Kyoto as "just a small gesture".  To further demonstrate the lengths of their courtesy, after hearing about our honeymoon adventure, the ladies insisted on moving seats so Mere & I could sit next to each other.  Anyways, it was amazing to see what you get for offering a couple of oranges!
And so it was that Mere & I returned triumphantly to Tokyo, having left 7 weeks previously.  We'd been pampered, hassled a bit for being outsiders, and treated once again to the kindness of friends we hadn't met before.  It was a great finishing leg of a journey that's been amazing!  Big thanks go out to Rod & Teruyo for taking such great care of us during our time with them!