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Nar3: Japan

The naked
Posted on Wednesday, October 15th, 2003 at 8:28am by Brett.
(Wednesday, October 15th, 2003 at 9:28pm Japanese Standard Time)

I was telling my friend Chad a couple nights ago about a fit I had in the public showers a couple weeks ago. Not so much a "fit" as much as sudden and acute culture shock.

I walked into the entrance to the showers and bought my ticket. I gave it to the Dirty Old Man that guards the showers and then went into the changing room. I had been pretty busy that evening, so I was getting a shower later than normal, which I had wanted to avoid because it gets so crowded.

And crowded it was.

I walked in, shut the door behind me and stopped. I nearly dropped my clothes and towel...I think I squeaked a little. There was naked everywhere. My eyes scanned the room...right to left, left to right, and then once more around for good measure. Yeup. Definitly naked. I realized I was breaking the cardinal rule of public bathing, and immediately focused my gaze to the really well-constructed floor tiles.

But the damage had been done. There was a nearly impossible number of naked people crammed into the tiny--and growing ever smaller--changing room. The thing is, I was the only one who seemed to notice the naked.

There were people sitting on the benches chatting merrily about...oh that's right, I can't speak their language...but it doesn't matter because anything ever is inappropriate when you're BUTT NAKED!!!

And there were people standing by the sinks and mirrors just...STANDING like that was their job. There were people--naked people--weighing themselves on the scales. There were people making no REAL effort to put on their clothes, but instead just looking at them, as if to will them on. There were, in the main baths, guys sit-laying on the sides of the bath in a very Greek-god-statue kind of way. It was very much like an overly artsy French film...or a really bad porn...I haven't decided which yet...

Anyway, I couldn't take it. In less than 5 seconds I had my fill of the naked (I've heard they prefer to be called "The Nakies"). So I turned around, opened the door, and left. Sans le shower. The Dirty Old Man gave me a weird look as I walked by, but I didn't mind.

At least he had on all of his clothes.