Hot Water

tiffanyintranslation:

In the midst of all the earthquake talk, I want to share a highlight of Allie’s trip here.

Yesterday, we walked to Nobori Gumo onsen.  The onsen here is such a unique, and detoxing experience of relaxation.  Since Allie and I have been at the mercy of earthquakes, potential blackouts, unreliable transportation, and a general sense of being stranded in Yokosuka, she and I were able to put all of that aside and take a few hours to just sit, relax, and get scrubbed down. 

Onsen is a term for the local hot springs that pipe up from underground that the locals have been indulging in for centuries.  These hot springs provide innumerable benefits to the skin through sweating out toxins and conditioning.  It’s one of the reasons, I believe, the Japanese have such beautiful, glowing, healthy skin.  

Allie and I enjoyed a few hours of peace including a wonderful massage that was more chiropractics than rubdown, and a body scrub that made places smooth I didn’t know could be.

Soaking in the indoor hot spring, overlooking nature, was a heaven-sent gift.  Coupled with four other pools made out thick, cozy wood, or a natural rock spring, or a brisk cold dip in another clay tablet pool, all of the tension, suspense, anxiety I have felt seemed to melt away.  I felt relaxed and calm.

On the walk home, Allie and I were talking about how powerful the detox was.  In a mere few hours, we both were able to slip into zen and forget about how terrible all the destruction was here, and care for our minds.  We forgot about the stress of finding Allie a way to the airport on limited trains, and we forgot about the nuclear stress.  Granted all of those things made a way back into my thoughts, but I still feel restored and levelheaded again.  It will be ok.  Humanity is considerate and cooperative.  Especially here.  Japan is love.

theatlantic:

Japan’s Earthquake: Two Weeks Later

Two weeks after northeastern Japan was struck by a massive earthquake and tsunami, the cost of the disaster is becoming clearer. The Japanese government has estimated the direct damage at as much as $310 billion, making it the world’s costliest-ever natural disaster. As of today, more than 10,000 deaths have been confirmed and another 17,000 people remain missing. At Japan’s stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, it raised suspicions of a possible breach when two workers waded into water 10,000 times more radioactive than normal and suffered skin burns. Earthquake survivors return to their homes to collect what they can find, to mourn their losses, and try to find a sense of normalcy in lives that have been ripped apart. Collected here are recent images from northeastern Japan, 14 days after it was rocked by disaster on a historic scale.

See more photos at In Focus

[Image: AP Photo/Yomiuri Shimbun, Tetsuya Kikumasa]

(Source: The Atlantic)

Hot Springs Cove, British Columbia

Photo courtesy David J Laporte (via Flickr). Creative Commons Attribution license.

You can see more of his work on his website, www.footloosiety.com, or his Flickr stream under footloosiety.

An old photo of Peitou hot springs in Taiwan. via

I always feel this way in the presence of a waterfall.

(via celestikka-deactivated20120302)

Japan does it right.

(Source: 13th-robot)

I don’t know what this is, or where, but I like it.

(Source: nynebunnies)