One of my favorite weekend activities is hitting an onsen, or hot springs bath, and I’m fortunate that J-List is about fifteen minutes by car away from several. These aren’t quite the same as the 100% natural volcano-fed hot springs in famous towns like Kusatsu or Atami, but I still love them just the same. I often ask my daughter if she wants to go to the bath with me, but she’s at that age where she’d rather do angsty teenager things like watching Katekyo Hitman Reborn on YouTube (she’s turning into quite a little otaku) rather than hanging out with her Dad. This time she surprised me by coming with me, though, and we had a nice father-daughter day together. (Of course the men and women’s baths are separated. Kids bathe with either parent while they’re very small, then from around the third grade of elementary school start going into the proper bath on their own.) Driving home, were talking about the newest videos on Nico Nico Douga and I happened to mention the indie game and subculture meme generator Touhou, wondering if she knew what it was. She said, “No, I don’t know that. I’m not that ‘rotten,’ yet, you know.” This choice of words amused me — it was a reference to fujoshi, lit. “rotten girl,” which is what female otaku call themselves.
I am always down with hitting an onsen.
