Onsen Town, Kinosaki

There is a quaint little town on the Northern Hyogo coastline in Japan, called Kinosaki. It is both strange and lovely at the same time. People go there for one reason and one reason only, they go there to soak in expensive public hot baths. In Japan, public hot baths are called 'onsens'.

During winter (and in other seasons as well), many Japanese people prefer to bathe in public bath houses instead of using their private bathrooms. In these public bath houses, there are usually a few Jacuzzi type baths where naked people of the same sex sit in very hot water (40 degrees celsius or more) in absolute silence. Before sitting in the tub though, each person has to stand in the open and take a shower in front of everyone in the room. At the Onsen, there is absolutely no privacy.

Upon first learning of this cultural practice, one might wonder 'who would forsake their private bath tub at home to go shower naked in front of others then share a bath with absolute strangers?' I still don't really know the answer to this question, but since children are brought to Onsens from a very young age and are taught to love it, they grow up and go to places like Kinosaki :).

So, back to Kinosaki.

The town is filled with onsens. That is the only form of entertainment in the town. It is possible to eat eggs boiled in onsen water and stand around this special rock that brings forth water and steam from the underground.

Master or Jack of all trades?

A friend asked a question recently and since then I have been turning over the question in my mind without a solid answer. The question was 'Is it better to have a lot of knowledge about one field or is it better to have knowledge about a lot of fields?'. In essence, is it better to be a 'jack of all trades and master of none' or a master of one field?

Love the money (Dexta Daps)

So Dexta Daps got really popular after his 7eleven song - the one in which he wanted to be  her 11th boyfriend. Now he has a song called 'Love the money'. So in 'love the money' he says the lady knew he had a girlfriend and he knew she had her man, but now he's upset because she didn't love him. Like seriously?? Really?

One interpretation is that the two persons became each others' lovers knowing that they were both attached to other persons. They decided to pursue a relationship on the side, then the woman decided to change the rules of the game. Now she threatens to tell the man's spouse about their illicit relationship as a way to blackmail him into giving her more money. So he's not hurt because she doesn't love him. He's hurt because she wants to blackmail him into giving her more money for keeping his cheating a secret.

What I don't get however, is why he is bringing love into it. There was no love in the beginning and there is no love at the end. It seems maybe he started catching feelings for her along the way and now he's upset that she didn't catch the same train to 'pointless land'.

Anyways, have a listen to the song, after all, Dexta Daps, controversial as he may be, is one of Jamaica's hottest dancehall artistes at the moment. The translated lyrics are provided below.

WARNING: It contains explicit language. 

The more things change the more they remain the same

My driver’s license is nine years old and I am still learning new things about cars to this day. This week I drove a friend’s car and upon moving off I realized that there was no hand brake. Now, this is a car I’ve been in several times in the last few weeks but I never realized that something as common as a hand brake was missing. He kept telling me that the brake was on but I couldn’t, for the life of me, find the hand brake. He laughed at me and said he was rethinking whether or not he should allow me to drive his car.

He then turned on the ceiling light (since it was night) and pointed to the ‘foot’ brake, located to the left of the regular gas and brake pedals. He instructed me to step on it in order to release it. That’s when I realized that my license was old and so was my knowledge of modern cars J. Anyways, apart from the ‘foot’ versus ‘hand’ brake in that car everything else was pretty much standard.

The next day I told my brother about the interesting ‘foot’ brake and he laughed and said, ‘nothing is new under the sun’. He then explained that back in the days when my father drove a Colt van, there was no hand brake. Instead there was a foot brake, pretty much like what I was describing to him.

I know fashion has a way of coming in and out of style, but does that also apply to car brakes? Why was the ‘foot brake’ making a comeback? Is it really making a comeback or was that car just strange?

Just from my experience, I think the hand brake would be easier to access, given that your driving foot will be occupied with the regular pedals. However, since the hand brake is usually just used as an emergency or precautionary brake, maybe its position is not really that important, as long as it is accessible.