• Curious and Terrified
    2025/11/08

    Episode from My Social Distancing and Naked Spa in Japan by Hidemi Woods

    HidemiWoods.com

    Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps.

    Apple, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks, 43 available distributors in total.

    Curious and Terrified

    About six months after I moved into the apartment I now live in, I began to see this woman frequently at the communal spa. We just exchanged hellos for weeks and then started chatting about the weather. She is a lively woman who is around sixty years old and laughs a lot. I secretly nicknamed her ‘Aunt Hearty Laugh’ because of her signature laugh. We don’t know each other’s names, don’t talk about personal matters, but have a friendly chat every time we see each other at the communal spa several times a week.

    Since I regularly take a bath with this Aunt Hearty Laugh while I have never done that with my own mother as an adult, she is almost a stranger yet feels so close to me. Two years ago, her pregnant daughter stayed with her for a couple of months. She joined our chatting and I heard about her office work and the relationship between her colleagues that I had no experience of my own. During her stay, her baby was born and Aunt Hearty Laugh became a grandmother. I took a bath with her newborn granddaughter as well. Her daughter visited her with the baby every long holiday and we took a bath together. At every reunion, the baby’s change interested me. She got bigger, taller, started walking and talking, and gave me a high-five the last time I saw her.

    Two weeks ago, Aunt Hearty Laugh told me that she was going to move to other apartment nearby. She has her old friend living there and feels secure because she lives alone and is getting older. She said laughing, “That apartment has a spa with thermal springs. Come to take it with me!” She also added, “I’m a lot older than you are but who knows? We could be friends!” which arose a question in my mind. Do I want a friend? I’m constantly short of time for anything and can I spare any time for friendship? I like being alone and can she be an exception? I realized how perfectly balanced my friendship with her had been. I didn’t know that chatting at the spa several times a week was the best relationship for me. To overstep the threshold by visiting her is an unknown territory. I was both curious and terrified...

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    5 分
  • labels : Talking and Reading from Japan by Hidemi Woods
    2025/10/27
    Episode from An Old Tree in Kyoto by Hidemi Woods

    HidemiWoods.com

    Audiobook: The Family in Kyoto: One Japanese Girl Got Freedom by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps.

    Apple Books, Google Play, Audible 43 available distributors in total.

    Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps.

    Apple Books, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks, 43 available distributors in total.

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    30 分
  • People Go Blind
    2025/10/25

    Episode from My Social Distancing and Naked Spa in Japan by Hidemi Woods

    HidemiWoods.com

    Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps.

    Apple, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks, 43 available distributors in total.

    People Go Blind

    The apartment building I live in is far from the city and only few are permanent residents, among which I am. Others use here as their vacation home. It’s crowded with those vacationers in the summertime and the wintertime. Especially the summertime is the worst for me, as many kids stay here.

    I use the communal spa of the building and encounter too many ill-behaved kids. They and their parents don’t understand the difference between a swimming pool and a spa. Under a big ‘No Swimming’ sticker, they jump into the tub, splash around, dive and swim. Their parents let them do that happily. They turn the usually quiet relaxing spa into hell. It seems parents have lost a concept of discipline and kids’ manners have gotten worse and worse every year.

    I thought their bad manners hit rock bottom last summer, but I was wrong. This summer, they reached a record low. Now they can’t tell a spa and a toilet apart. I saw a boy urinate on the floor beside the tub without hesitation as soon as he rushed into the spa room. Instead of reproaching, his mother watched it smiling delightfully. When I got out and put on my clothes in the locker room, an old woman spoke to me and told me how uncomfortable she was to see that ill-behaved family. We agreed on lack of parents’ discipline.

    A week later, I saw the old woman in the spa again. She had got her grandchild visiting and was taking a bath with him. If not urinating, the boy was shouting and shrieking while swimming and diving. The old woman, who had talked with me about bad manners, was saying nothing to his grandson and was just smiling, playing with him. Other residents who had seemed clearly annoyed by noisy kids also acted in the same way, once they were taking their grandchildren with them. A fact I newly discovered is that people go blind when it comes to their own grandchildren…

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    3 分
  • name : Talking and Reading from Japan by Hidemi Woods
    2025/10/20
    Episode from An Old Tree in Kyoto by Hidemi Woods

    HidemiWoods.com

    Audiobook: The Family in Kyoto: One Japanese Girl Got Freedom by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps.

    Apple Books, Google Play, Audible 43 available distributors in total.

    Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps.

    Apple Books, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks, 43 available distributors in total.

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    31 分
  • Routine Thief
    2025/10/18

    Episode from My Social Distancing and Naked Spa in Japan by Hidemi Woods

    HidemiWoods.com

    Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps.

    Apple, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks, 43 available distributors in total

    Routine Thief

    I’m particular about almost anything. That’s why my daily routine is inevitably quite precise, especially for details in it. My routine includes taking a bath at the communal spa and exercising at the communal gym both located inside my apartment complex for the residents.

    One night, I found an unfamiliar woman in the Jacuzzi of the spa. This Jacuzzi has eight spots to sit inside and I have my particular spot I usually sit in. The spot isn’t popular, as other residents prefer different ones. But this woman was sitting right in my spot, which made me move to the other.

    The spa has a sauna that stops being operated early in the evening. I take it after its operating hour in the late evening as a low-temperature sauna since heat remains. No residents use it that way and I can monopolize it. One night, I found the same woman in the sauna, using it as a low-temperature sauna like I do. My days of a sauna monopoly are over.

    I’ve seen her more and more and it seemed she is a new resident in this apartment complex. I bring a big hook to the spa and put it on the wall of the shower booth to hang my bag of amenities from it. No other residents do something like that as they put their amenities on the booth floor directly. And one night, I noticed that new woman began to use a big hook on the wall of her booth. Now I was convinced it was no coincidence. She apparently imitates me.

    There are four tubs in total in the spa with different water temperatures and different tub sizes. I take every one of them. Other residents don’t take all, just taking a couple according to their liking. One night, the mimic woman began to take all tubs like I do.

    I exercise inside the hot tub while I’m submerged in the bath water, which no other residents do. And one night, the mimic woman even started exercising in the hot tub just as I always do.

    I sometimes have a chat with other residents when we share the locker room. And as she has become familiar to them, she also began to have a chat with them intimately and impudently while I still talk to them modestly.

    Before taking a bath, I exercise at the gym next to the spa, which is also one of my daily routines. The other night, I went in the gym as usual and, look, who was there, the mimic woman! She has started exercising at the gym and then begun to bring her husband there. They had used different machines beside me for several days, but her husband began to use the exercise bike I regularly use.


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    6 分
  • old woman : Talking and Reading from Japan by Hidemi Woods
    2025/10/13
    Episode from An Old Tree in Kyoto by Hidemi Woods

    HidemiWoods.com

    Audiobook: The Family in Kyoto: One Japanese Girl Got Freedom by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps.

    Apple Books, Google Play, Audible 43 available distributors in total.

    Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps.

    Apple Books, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks, 43 available distributors in total.

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    34 分
  • A Fear of Having Heart Attack
    2025/10/11

    Episode from My Social Distancing and Naked Spa in Japan by Hidemi Woods

    HidemiWoods.com

    Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps.

    Apple, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks, 43 available distributors in total


    A Fear of Having Heart Attack

    I had a nightmare last night that a room flooded and I drowned in the cold water. The sense of water was so real and I actually passed out in the dream when I gulped in too much water instead of air. I think the nightmare has something to do with my new custom. The communal spa in my apartment building has a sauna. While I love to take a sauna, I had never stepped in a cold plunge sitting next to it. Running water is pouring into the small bathtub and icy water is overflowing. I looked with wonder at some residents jump into the cold plunge after getting out of a sauna. One woman soaked herself in icy water completely from head to toe. I didn’t understand how they could do so without having a heart attack. I tested the water with the tip of my toe once, and almost screamed with its coldness. But as I regularly saw someone sink in the cold plunge, my curiosity had grown bigger. And three weeks ago, I finally summoned the courage to give it a try. I gingerly put my leg into it and found that the small bathtub was much deeper than I had thought. I lost my balance and my other leg splashed in. Although I was just out of a sauna and very hot, the extremely cold water froze my legs instantly. I tried to get out but the tub was too deep for my height. The fear that I could never get out of freezing water seized me and I began to panic. Swashing water clumsily, I struggled to climb out. I sincerely wished nobody was watching. Strangely enough, I couldn’t forget the sensation afterward and wanted to try again for some reason. Next time in the spa, I dipped my legs in the cold plunge again. Then, I tried to soak up to my chest. In a few days, I found myself submerge to my neck. Now, taking a cold plunge has become my custom. Every time though, a fear of having a heart attack crosses my mind. It seems I’m attracted with a narrow escape from death. I imagine I might be dead in a cold plunge someday…

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    4 分
  • parental affection : Talking and Reading from Japan by Hidemi Woods
    2025/10/06
    Episode from An Old Tree in Kyoto by Hidemi Woods

    HidemiWoods.com

    Audiobook: The Family in Kyoto: One Japanese Girl Got Freedom by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps.

    Apple Books, Google Play, Audible 43 available distributors in total.

    Audiobook : Japanese Dream by Hidemi Woods On Sale at online stores or apps.

    Apple Books, Audible, Google Play, Nook Audiobooks, 43 available distributors in total.

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    25 分