The other day I took some time off to hit one of the onsen hot springs located near J-List. My hair had gotten a bit long, so I opted for Yasuragi no Yu (“Hot Water of Tranquility”) because it has a barber shop located on the premises, and I consider getting your hair cut then taking a long bath immediately afterwards to be the pinnacle of human civilization. I was pleased to see that they were having a “thank you sale,” lowering the admission price of 500 yen down to 390 yen. The number 390 wasn’t just a random number they’d come up with — the pronunciation of the English words “thank you” are rendered as san kyu in Japanese, which happens to correspond to the numbers 3 and 9, forever linking these concepts in the minds of Japanese speakers. There are some other numbers that have special meanings, too. The number 29 sounds like the word niku meaning “meat,” and if you go to a Korean BBQ restaurant on the 29th day of the month you can expect a discount. Similarly, the sound of a dog barking is wan wan! which is also how the number “one” is pronounced, and as a result, it’s not hard to find advertisements of a dog holding up his finger, boasting about being “number one.”
These onsen style public baths are everywhere in my city, and visit once a week or so.
