Just Keep Swimming

My next little adventure in Japan was going back to Nagano City the weekend following orientation for a welcome event for my block (the area of Nagano I’m in). The event was held at a nice indoor pool/water park called Nagano Sun Marine. I was luckily able to hitch a ride with some other ALTs to the city, which made it a lot easier than taking the train and then a bus to the pool.

The event itself was pretty fun. Our tickets gave us 3 hours to enjoy ourselves in the pool. Luckily, the pool did not force us tattooed people to cover up our tattoos. Japan is a pretty reserved culture, and tattoos are often associated with criminals. Many pools and hot springs will make you cover up your tattoos or won’t allow you in if you have them, so it was nice that I didn’t have to worry about covering mine up. I did bring a shirt with me to cover the tattoo on my back, but I was glad I didn’t need to use it. Maybe they just didn’t want to bother coming up to foreigners. Either way, it made life for several of us easier.

The pool was pretty nice. They had two slides you could go on, as well as a sort of lazy river. Aside from children, no one floated on tubes in this river though, so you were free to walk or float along in it. There was also a pretty nice wave pool, as well as a pool for people who wanted to swim laps. They had a nice hot tub that overlooked the whole park, and even had some saunas. After we swam, we also had the chance to enjoy the onsen, which are hot springs, though this one was artificial.

After we left the pool we all went to go get food together at a ramen restaurant. It was pretty good ramen, but nothing has compared yet to the ramen I had in Tokyo. That was freaking delicious. While we were eating, the restaurant was also playing Ponyo on a large screen. I’m not a fan. I tend to not like Studio Gibli films, and this one was too weird for me. Maybe one day I’ll try watching another one of their less weird films.

Once dinner was over we sought out some quick dessert, then headed back towards Matsumoto. All in all, it was a really fun day, and I got to hang out with some cool people. They have definitely helped to make my experience here an enjoyable one, and I’m excited for future events. Stay tuned for some more posts!