Sunday, August 27, 1989
This evening Murakami-sensei asked that I go with her to a dinner reunion of teachers in the private school association who had chaperoned the summer trip to Austin. Akamine-sensei offers to watch JQS; she has a son the same age that he can play with. She picks us up and drops me off at the hotel on Beppu Bay where the dinner is being held. Murakami-sensei is not in the lobby and after waiting awhile, I ask the receptionist what room the group is in.
Murakami-sensei is not there either. However, three men in hotel yukata (summer kimono) greet me enthusiastically and say that they are on their way to take a bath before dinner. They leave me alone to change and to wonder if we are all going to take a bath together. As the four of us get into the elevator, I think, in the US there's no way I'd get into an elevator with three men I didn't know wearing only a thin, cotton bathrobe. When we get to the third floor, one of the men points me in the direction of the women's bath.
Whew! A separate women's bath. And it's beautiful, overlooking Beppu Bay with a little rotenburo (outside bath) on the balcony. The best part is that the rinsing off station has shower heads with hot running water. (How I wish our apartment had hot water!) I treat myself to a luxurious shampoo before slipping into the tub for a good soak. Murakami-sensei shows up and we bathe and chat together before going down for dinner, drinking, and my first attempt at karaoke.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
August 27, 1989
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Murakami-sensei and I are feeling no pain after bath, dinner, and karaoke.