I don’t work until 1 pm.
So, usually once a week on Wednesday mornings I go for an onsen (hotbath) at a place that’s a 40 minute drive away.
Probably 75% of the ideas I get for this blog come while I am driving to this place: ideas float through my head at irregular intervals regularly for some reason. I jot them down when I am at stoplights. I don’t know why I think of such stupid things; I just do.
It’s all quite normal if you live here.
This is what I saw and thought on the way to where I was going this week:
Oh! I like driving behind these trucks. It’s like having a massive rearview mirror!
“I guess technically a person that has their legs amputated is delapitated.”
There are a lot of ski resorts in that direction … and in all the other directions as well.
“Do people wear jean belts with leather pants?”
The drive to the onsen takes me up in to the mountains through little sleepy communities with sleepy pockets of people living in them.
“I’m wearing an irreversible sweater!”
There are a lot of houses I notice as I pass by them unnoticed. I like this one for some reason. Sorry my air-freshner got in to the picture: it’s stale cigarette scented.
I put up a new one after I took this photo. Now my van smells like a giant coconut!
“It must be tough being Brad Pitt. What a crappy name really. I choose to pity him. He could never name his daughter ‘Cherry’. That must suck.”
This is the only thatched roof house I see on the way.
“Can throwing up vegetables be classified as re-producing?”
This building always makes me think of English architecture for some reason; it’s a bit out of place.
“Anorexics should start 2nd helping themselves.”
I pass convenience stores and small restaurants; open skidoo shops and closed apple markets; small wood factories and smaller car lots; open rice fields and closed businesses.
“Spoonlifts are needed to empty swimming pools.”
The fields are pretty quiet and brown this time of year, but at other times they are very busy and green.
“Aquaduct tape! I bet the Romans would have paid big money for that stuff.”
And finally I arrive at the onsen’s parking lot. It’s usually pretty quiet since everyone normal is at work. It’s just me and some old guys usually.
“There should be a parking lottery.”
(hey that one kind of goes with the picture!)
I enter the lobby, put my shoes in a locker, pay my money, and flirt with the ladies behind the counter with incredibly witty lines like: “I have a pre-paid ticket” and ” Good morning” and “Thank you”.
“Edible Pizza Boxes: Money Making Scheme ????”
This is the locker room. It was pretty empty today; usually I wouldn’t venture a picture. The shower room and the inside onsen are through those doors at the end.
“Cartoon character are pretty typecast usually.”
These are the pools where I always sit and think “if I built a house over there and bought a good quality telescope, I could check out the ladies bath!”
But usually I’m just thinking that a lot of the old guys who come at the same time as me are really not following the onsen rules. I don’t think they can read pictures!
The “top left hand corner” rule is seriously being broken repeatedly again and again.
Easily followable guidelines for the onsen.
After the onsen I get back into my van and make the trip back home. I always have to wait too long at this intersection.
I live on a bypass around the city. They keep sticking new sets of traffic lights in which tends to slow traffic down for some reason. The city should think about building a double bypass maybe.
My house is just through the lights on the left. I usually just go in for a few minutes and then head to work for the day … where I will write up some ideas and throw out other ones.
Not everything makes the cut on planetross.
note: I even started drawing a little illustration to accompany the “Can throwing up vegetables be classified as re-producing?” before I realized that one was a bit nasty.
double note: I’ll put on the one I thought was the best of the bunch next.
I Am The Cheese 