Although I've never been too keen on Valentine's day, that was before I was with Natalie. "Valentine's day is just another stupid hoax of a holiday that is for evil companies like Hall Mark to steal our hard earned pennies and to make us single people feel worse about ourselves" are words that have come out of my mind. And people that are in a relationship take advantage of this holiday as a way to celebrate their love for one another and by stressing over what to get their significant other. Overall, it just seems to be a stressful holiday for everyone. People either end up loving this day, hating this day, or just dreading it's inevitable arrival. So this year, Natalie and I decided to skip all of that and treat ourselves to one amazing weekend together. Spending Valentine's day with her is all I could ever ask for as she is the most wonderful, caring, and beautiful person I could ever ask to have by my side on a day to celebrate love. After much consideration on what to do, we decided to splurge big time, spoil ourselves and book a room in a fancy hot spring luxury Japanese hotel.
On Sunday morning, we headed out to Shikoku Island again and finally arrived where we headed. The whole train ride there was long but ultimately enjoyable as it wound it's way through some amazing mountainous terrain. When we got to the station, we were treated to some splendid views of the surrounding mountain valley. Tall mountain peaks on either side. A river with crystal clear blue water below us. A quaint mountain village. This area had it all as far as peaceful retreats go. After some difficulty figuring out which bus to take and trying to avoid the lying (by Japanese standards) taxi driver, we were finally on our way to the hotel. Along the way, we stopped by a really nice Japanese restaurant that offered fresh Soba noodles and more incredible views of the valley. After a very winding bus ride, we finally arrived at our hotel and man, we were not disappointed. When we were shown our rooms, our jaws simply dropped. It was a large modern room with traditional Japanese style. It had large windows with an absolutely breathtaking view of the mountains and the river below. The room also had a private outdoor hot tub and a massage chair. It's hard to describe just how awesome it was but it was literally more than I had ever dreamed of. But hey, we were paying for it. The hotel was also famous for having a really awesome Onsen, or natural hot spring baths. To get there, we had to take a cable car down into the river valley and then we were treated to a really nice outdoor bath with more brilliant views of the surrounding area. The water in the hot spring was naturally heated and was also silky smooth. It was complete relaxing experience. So yeah, we spend the rest of our day in this manner; Bathing and relaxing.
We were also treated to our first Kaiseki in Japan. A Kaiseki is a traditional luxury Japanese course meal. Although Natalie was feeling sick, It was simply a ton of fun to what each course would bring us. The food was delicious, fresh, and impeccably presented. It was the epitome of Japanese aesthetics and perfection. Although the food was more geared towards a Japanese person's taste buds, it was still a wonderful experience. A similar breakfast awaited us the next day. So yeah, we spent the day relaxing and being pampered in an incredible environment. Overall, it was a very memorable night's stay. RYOKAN!!
So that was the romantic part of my weekend. Before ever going to the hotel, we spent Saturday cooking some really awesome Mexican food, which is something we've been craving hard. Natalie whipped up some amazing Spanish rice and guacamole while I whipped up some fresh salsa and pico de gallo. We cooked the ground beef together, heated the tortillas, and had ourselves a really nice company with Gene and Yui that night. We had a great time laughing and sipping on some Corona's. It felt like Summer more than Winter; always a good thing.
And then there was the weird...So last week, on a particular train ride, an older woman struck up a conversation with me. She said that she had seen me around and had wanted to practice her English with me. Overall, she was quite nice and polite so I didn't think much of it after a brief 10 minute conversation. So this morning, she came up to me again struck up another conversation. Nothing to see here, except that she busted out some pictures of her vacation in Switzerland and was showing them to me. That was the first sign that she was being weird. I mean, who carries hard copies of their travel pictures around with them? She was obviously trying to show me these pictures specifically. I went along with it anyways. So when it was almost time for me to get off, she reminded me that it was Valentine's day and proceeded to reach into her bag. While she was reaching into her bag, I was thinking, "uh oh...I know where this is going. How am I going to get myself out of this one?" So yeah, she had wanted to give me a Valentine's day present which she had bought at a foreign goods store. Yeah, so I declined the gift as politely as I could, said my good byes, and left the train. I felt bad, but what else should I have done? In my culture, receiving a Valentine's day means that you're good friends with someone, someone's mom, someone's lover, or that someone likes you. I had only spoken to this woman for what probably amounted to a total of 15 to 20 minutes. In Japan, women often give V day gifts to everyone in their lives but I mean come on, I had just met her. I thought that it was really creepy and that accepting the gift would be very insincere and would have misled her into thinking that our short conversation was more than it was. It was just a weird encounter and I definitely count on bumping into her. Just creepy, and very Japanese.
Happy Valentine's day!
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