Land of Tomorrow : Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve. In Japan, Christmas is a couples holiday, perhaps more akin to Valentine's Day than anything family oriented. There are hearts and Santa lingerie in the stores, couple specials and Christmas cakes in restaurants and coffee shops. It's a different sort of tradition from the years that I've spent with my family but I'm very happy to have a number of good friends with whom to create new traditions. As a connection between my past and present, I received a very thoughtful email from my aunt, telling me of her Christmases away from family and the traditions and relationships she made in those times.

My friend and I went to Kobe today and he showed me some of the things that he discovered on his trip there a few days ago. A deserted mall of glass doors and mirrors through which we passed to reach the trailhead of a beautiful hike. We went up a steep incline of waterfalls, mountain shrines and little rest stops to arrive at the top of Mt.Maya. Awaiting us was a beautiful view, a heavenly glass greenhouse and cafe with herb cookies and samples of delicious tea. We managed to descend to Kobe in time to get a bowl of ramen which warmed our hands enough to manage the chopsticks by the time we were finished eating. A quick jaunt home to grab some towels and meet some friends and the bus stop for another culinary adventure and the onsen.

Italian food in a Japanese restaurant on Christmas Eve. They served tea and fish row garlic bread as we waited, deciphering the creative font of kana and kanji on the menu. We returned to the pervasive cold of the day to walk to one of the most magical things in Japan.

Onsen are public baths, divided between male and female. Everyone cleans themselves quite thoroughly and ritualistically before entering the many different pools of water. This evening we were greeted with a ladies special, a pool covered in rose flowers. Outside, in the walled and partially covered area under the stars were multiple hot baths, some with muddy water unfiltered from the natural spring from which it rose, some with jet streams, some stone-lined, some with wood floors. And then the steam room, and the dry sauna with salts to rub over your skin, and the dry sauna with a television. And everywhere, women and children naked and natural, so natural that the presence of clothes became an absurd memory. Children squatting over the water to pick out rose pedals, grabbing their mother's legs, leaning on them, bodies steaming as they walked between the hot pools of water in the cold outdoors, the hot water relaxing the most deeply clenched muscles of the body, allowing a special kind of vulnerability, sharing something with one another. I can't help but feel that this is an essential part of the communal feeling in Japan. That strangers can do this so comfortably and naturally with one another.

Perhaps this will become a new Christmas Eve tradition.