December 15th, 2023

Day 12

Today started at 4 AM. Why 4 AM? I couldn’t sleep! Didn’t exercise that much the day before, plus I was still kinda hungover on the whole strip theater thing. I was too excited to sleep. Plus, I need to wake up by at least 5:30, so putting my head down to sleep now wasn’t the wisest choice.

So I got up, went to the bathhouse to take a shower, dipped myself in Onsen, and went back to my room to get dressed. I knew it’s gonna be cold, so I put on my winter jacket that I bought on Day 2 but never wore even once.

The monk that engaged me yesterday saw me walking to the bathhouse, so he must woke up earlier than I did. When I reached Hondo, the main hall for worshipping, he was there waiting for me. He knelt by the door to wait for the people to come. He greeted me, and opened the door for me to enter. At the entrance, there is a bowl full of incense dust. He asked me to grab a little and smear it evenly over my hand. Then, he told me that I can grab a chair if I am not comfortable kneeling. There are two sizes available, one tall and one short. I picked the tall one at first, then, I decided to pick the short one to blend in.

It also wasn’t as cold as I have imagined it to be. What I wore for the class was comfortable in a room where there is no heater turned on; not at this temple. There is a giant heater in the middle of the room. Since I was the first one there, I sat in the middle right next to the heater. As the heat wore me down, I removed my newly bought winter jacket and reconfigured it back into the small bag that it came with, and set it next to me.

I snapped this picture when no one was around and the monk was outside greeting other guests. I’m not sure if we can take pictures in here, but no one was around to say anything, soooo.

Soon, everyone arrived. The class started at 6 AM sharp, with the monk being the only one there teaching. He got back behind the wooden screen and started to chant in monotone. I’m already not the best Japanese speaker, him speaking in a vernacular completely different from the standardized Japanese did not help. I only understood a few things like when he mentioned “Kongobuji”, a temple here. I believe all temples here on Koyasan belong to the Kongobuji temple complex.

When the monk chanted, a guest came forward to the incense pot in the middle of the room, grabbed a little bit of the incense dust, held it near his forehead, spread it on the pot, and so forth, for three times. Then he prayed. His wife followed suit. After a while, a woman came to the pot, did the incense thing; but she kowtowed, meaning that while the Japanese people prayed by putting their hands together, she prayed by putting her head on the floor. That was not the way Japanese people pray, that’s how Chinese people pray. She’s Chinese, case closed lol.

Soon, everyone prayed with the incense dust, it came to me. Didn’t want to make a fool of myself, so I did exactly what everyone did. I also did my best to sit on my own legs while kneeling, and I am proud of myself that I didn’t scream out of anguish from my knees bending in a way that they haven’t been in years. Much like the time I was in Korea.

When the monk finished chanting, he came to us, and explained what he just chanted in standardized Japanese. He said a lot about being healthy and have a good state of mind, but one thing that he said that I have remembered till this day, was this:

“It is okay to have desire. The desire to eat, the desire to drink, the desire to sleep. We need these desires to survive. It is important that we use our desires in the right way.”

Wow. Wise words. This is completely different from the mainstream buddhism that China has: to not have desires. The Chinese buddhism considers desires to be the product of mankind, and it is only by leaving the desires behind can the person find its way to nirvana. I like this way much better. To have desires is a good thing, just need to focus it in the right direction. Wise words.

After the explanation, the monk took us to the back entrance, a stone garden, visible only to the guests of Fukuchiin. The stone garden isn’t very big, but featured many different colors of zen stones. That’s 6 AM in the morning for you, very dark still.

The monk then took us to walk around the Hondo, with its collection of artifacts of the Buddhist Shingon sect. There were papers hung half way on each doorway, the monk explained that to be a special kind of paper for Koyasan. Didn’t quite get the importance of papers but okay.

When the tour ended, so ended the class itself. There is a section of the Hondo itself that sells souvenirs like Omamoris. Yesterday, when I bought omamoris at Okunoin, since I didn’t know the rules of Kosei at the time, I thought that I need to give the girls bribes in order for me to take the pictures of their below the belt area, so I figured that I’d buy an Omamori for each of the girls, one, as a bribe, and two, as a thank you for letting me finally see what I have been wanting to see but couldn’t. The Omamori at Kongobuji, the main temple that I visited yesterday, costs about 700 Yen per piece, which is rather expensive. So I had in mind that the Omamori at this temple will cost around 700 per piece as well.

However, the price was 500 Yen. That’s when I bought 10 Omamoris, 5 in red and 5 in blue. I figured that I would give it to the 10 girls that I saw two days ago, as a thank you. Of course, for the people at Kosei, it’s more or less a bribe.

The price came to 5,000 Yen, and there is no change at the souvenir stand in Hondo. The monk asked for my room number and told me to get my change at the front desk when I check out. I thanked him, took the Omamoris, and walked out. On the way back to my room, I thought about souvenirs in general. Shouldn’t I buy some more Omamoris not just for the dancers, but for people back home? These Omamoris are only buyable at this temple only, and they don’t look half bad, so why not. With that thought, I returned to the Hondo when the monk was preparing to shut it off, asked him if I can add some more to the shopping cart, and got 10 more.

The thing with this temple and temple lodging in general, is that the check-out time is set at 9 AM. Yes that’s right, 9 AM. I’ve seen 10 AM check-outs in Japan, but 9 AM is a first. I think the logic behind the early check-out time is that you’re going to have to wake up at 5 AM to see the lecture anyways, it’s not like you came to temple lodging just for the hotel part, so after your class, eat your damn breakfast, and get on your merry way.

And so I did. I went back to the dining hall where I had dinner yesterday. Breakfast was vegan as well; and it wasn’t as plentiful as dinner. It also didn’t taste as well; but only because I haven’t eaten meat in a long time and is very hungry. It did its purpose of making me full for a little bit, and only for a little bit, before I went back to my room, packed all the things up, and went for an 8 AM check-out time.

Why did I rush to check-out so early? Today is the 15th, and according to the kind old man who sat next to me last time I was at Kosei, there is something special on the 15th, and perhaps I can take those special pictures then. The theater opens at 11 AM, so I need to get there to secure a good seat. Or else I will be stuck in the back until those people leave.

Anyways, here is a last look at the temple that I stayed for a night. Great experience. I can’t say enough good things about it. It is one of the thing that you must do before you die, and I am glad that I did everything I could to secure the experience even though it wasn’t going to happen. Now I can tell people that, I have lived in a temple once!

Koyasan Fukuchiin Verdict:

★★★★★

When I was going to the bus station with my luggage at a crossroad, there was a car that was supposed to cross. Normally, I wait for the car to go first, so, you know, I won’t risk being crushed to death. Especially in China, if you don’t yield the right of way to the cars, there is a high probability of you being crushed by vengeful drivers. At this specific crossroad, though, the driver stopped completely, and signaled that I walk first. I bowed, and ran across the road.

In California, we yield the right of way to the pedestrians as well; but most of the time we only yield when the pedestrian is already on the pavement. I am not one of those crazy drivers who would stop all the way to yield pedestrians who have not yet made their first step onto the pavement, even though there are cars behind you and didn’t see the pedestrian and would need to come to a screeching halt to avoid a crash. I hate those people.

But the point of this tangent is that, I think it is the specific atmosphere of this religious site, the whole of Koyasan, made that specific driver more pedestrian friendly. I am not saying that all drivers in Japan are nice. In fact, I’ve seen some jerk ones that didn’t yield the right of way to me even though I was already half way across the pedestrian crossing. But, it is nice to be respected by a moving vehicle at a crossroad. Just saying.

The trip back to Osaka was uneventful. By plan, I was supposed to be on my way back to China today after finishing my trip to Koyasan; but after seeing what I’ve seen on Day 11, can you blame me? The return trip was just the reverse of yesterday; take the bus to the cable car station, take the cable car to the train station, take the train station to a transfer hub, and reach Namba Station.

Did take a few photos inside the cable car though. It’s just cool.

After arriving at Namba Station, I headed straight to my hotel, which is not only cheap, but is basically right next to the station. It’s not the first time that I booked a hotel this cheap; I also did that on my second day in Kyoto, Day 7. The price was about the same, and so I figured that the hotel quality must be about the same. Oh boy.

Hotel name: Grampus Inn Osaka

Address: Namba Naka 1-13-18

Price: 306.45 RMB (43 USD)

Verdict: ★★☆☆☆

I got in at around 10 AM, so not close to the 3 PM check-in time that this hotel has. It also was raining for a bit, made the inside of the hotel look really dark. Correction, it’s not a hotel, it’s an inn. Did not know that when I booked on Ctrip, which called it a hotel in Chinese.

The translation confusion might be justified because in Chinese, we call “inns” as “旅馆”, which is “Ryokan” in Japanese. The app didn’t want to confuse Japanese Ryokans with the “inns”, so the app just called it a hotel.

When I walked in, I could almost smell something. It did not smell like cleanliness. I approached the front desk, told him that I will be staying for the night and wanted to leave my stuff here. When the staff took my passport, he copied it, returned my passport to me, and started to type on his cellphone. I knew what he was doing. He was using a translator; but I didn’t want to disturb him while he types on his phone. After a full 2 minutes, he showed his phone to me, and yes, he was on a translator. He was translating that the check-in time is at 3 PM so he will take my luggage and put it in my room when it is ready.

I told him that Japanese is fine, he smiled awkwardly, and gave me the key, an actual key, which requires you to insert it into the keyhole and turn it clockwise. The key was connected to a key holder that is the length of a cellphone, and heavy as well. He told me that the room will not be ready until 3 PM, so only use it then. I thanked him and walked out.

My next stop is Kosei Show Theater, after all, it’s the reason why I came all the way from Koyasan so early in the morning. I started to walk towards Namba Station, then it hit me: I am extremely hungry.

No shit, the vegan breakfast did not fill my stomach like I hoped it would. No meat, no meal, no deal. With breakfast being only rice and some vegetable, it’s only 10:30 AM and I was starving like crazy. Again, it’s 10:30 AM in the morning, so most restaurants aren’t open at that time. As I walked towards the shopping district near the station, I started to search for food but I could not find a single restaurant. The best I could do was a fried food on a stick. I walked past it, but couldn’t find anything else, so I had to walk back and get one.

It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t bad. It’s just average. It’s fish cakes, what more can you expect from fish cakes. After I finished with the food, I needed to find a place to dispose my trash. Japan is a wonderful country, with one slightly big downfall: there are no trashcans. I could not find a single trashcan along the way, so I had to walk back to the store where I bought the stick from and threw it there.

After handing the trash back to the staff, I started to make my way to Kosei. I arrived by 11 AM, and when I did, I asked the staff member downstairs if I can buy the prepaid ticket that I read on their website. The staff, who always wore a hat and a grey mask and is always in black, told me that they sell it haphazardly and I would need to purchase a normal ticket first, which is 1,000 Yen off right now (for entries before 12 PM).

So after I paid 5,000 Yen cash for entrance, I got upstairs and got a front row seat. I have finally got a front row seat that’s literally right next to the stage. I can keep that seat for the entire day, but I didn’t plan to. Why would I sit there for the entire day? Just see one of the four shows is enough for me. Or so I’ve thought.

Soon, the show started, and it was the same girls in the same order that I’ve seen the from two days ago. Their dances were different from the previous day, which was a sigh of relief; except Ayame. She had the exact same dance as two days ago, which was fine. Didn’t think the dance before the strip show was that important anyways. When it’s time to take pictures, though, I took pictures of the girls themselves, because I’ve got enough two-shots from two days ago. The first one was Yuki, and she remembered me from two days ago. I asked her if I could take pictures of her below the belt area, and she said no, but since I was here last time, she could cover it with her hand. So she did, and I snapped the picture. I told her that I will be taking the pictures home, and she gave me an exchange ticket.

At the end, since I am going to give her an omamori, I asked her would she prefer red or blue. She said red. Of course. So I got back to my seat, and waited in line and gave it to her.

The next one was Ake, and she said no to the below the belt pictures too. Though, when I asked for her color preference, she told me blue. She was the only person that I’ve asked out of the five to prefer blue. The one that I bought from Fukuchiin is actually not blue, it’s a very deep kinda purple. On the sign it wrote red and blue and that’s why I went with it. So it’s red, and purple. I didn’t know later that Ake’s favorite color is purple, but I am glad that she got her favorite color. This is in hindsight, of course. Ake, like Yuki, remembered me.

The next one was Kingyo, the Goldfish. Her performance was Latin themed, a dance with pink fans that is what I would consider to be South American. I remember the order of her dances very well; this is the one where she did not do the dildo play. She remembered me as well, because I was the guy that she thought was weird for having 3 two-shots taken at the same time last time. Her preference was red. She gave me an exchange ticket for her photos after I told her that I would be bringing them home, and she stopped me, asked for the ticket back, saying something was wrong with the ticket. Then, she kissed the ticket and returned it to me. That’s new.

After Kingyo, it was Ayame. Like I said, her dance was the same, and still wasn’t very good because there were not a lot of movements. Her preference was red, and no, she did not remember me. She was the only person that didn’t remember me that day, and I was kinda bummed. Anyways, I didn’t even bother asking her if I could take those kinda pictures, because I already know the answer.

Lastly, it was Yui. I don’t think she remembered me, although she claimed that she did. I think she mistook me as someone else, and was like: “Oh I remember you, you were here three times right?” I didn’t ask for her preference, since her fictitious last name is “Aoyama”, which translates to “Blue Mountain”, I just gave her a blue one. If she didn’t like blue, why wouldn’t she just call her self “Red Mountain”, or “Akayama”.

There was this one guy who sat on the left of me who always took pictures with me, I started to talk to him. I always enjoy talking in Japanese with people, and to be completely honest here, I’ve got the chance to do more talking in strip theaters than at any other places where it’s more or less just me asking for food or directions. I talked about where I’m from, how shocked I am seeing all these stuff for the first time a few days ago, and the fact that I went to the super religious buddhist mountain, Koyasan, the day after first seeing this stuff, and the fact that I literally got back from Koyasan this morning to be here.

He told me that he is on a tour to see all the strip theaters in Japan, and he just got here from Tokyo. The dedication. The one thing I’ve noticed with all these guys who’s seeing these shows, is that they are all very nice and talkative guys when you have conversations with them, they don’t seem weird at all; but when they start to engage with the girls, they act all weird. I don’t know how to describe the weirdness; it’s like, their personality changed. I can see why, because they want to be nice to the girls and one way to be nice is to become super tentative and act all weird; but I don’t feel like doing that myself. I would rather just be myself.

The first show ended with a finale, where all the dancers went on stage one by one and thanked the audience. At Toyo, the finale was a simple yet thoughtfully choreographed dance with all five girls; at Kosei, it was just bowing and waving. There was also a donation collection round, where they ask for donation for something. I didn’t remember what it was, but since I didn’t donate anything last time, I donated a couple hundred Yens this time.

When the first show ended, I was about to leave. The old guy from two days ago said that there was going to be something special about today, and when I checked, it was something called “Panties Present”. That didn’t happen in the first show, and I thought that one show was enough. I was preparing to leave, and then I saw the guy sitting next to me to be still sitting there. I asked him if he is going to leave, and he said no. He told me that he will stay till the end. I was shocked. Again.

By then, I didn’t understand the logic behind staying all day at a strip theater. I understand the thrill, of course, from seeing a woman naked; but once you’ve seen them naked, what’s the point of dragging this on all night? But the better point, the reason that I chose to stay, is that since I’ve already paid for the ticket, 5,000 Yen, I might as well stay for a few more shows so the ticket price doesn’t go to waste. So yes, I chose to stay for another show.

One thing that I didn’t think I mentioned last time was with the seating arrangement at Kosei and Toyo. Toyo has movie theater seats, which folds when nobody sits there and has back support; Kosei doesn’t. Kosei has swiveling seats that’s nailed onto the floor, and these swiveling seats do not have a solid back to them. When you try to get to your seat in the front, you will need to squeeze yourself past the seats in the back by turning the back of the seat away from your legs so you could move in. The thing with this kinda seats is that they are a pain to sit on. It was fine for the first show, but starting from the second show, your back hurts.

So yes, once I soldiered on for the second show, my back didn’t feel very good. My original plan was to check out Kosei in the morning, and then go hit up Toyo again sometime in the afternoon; but that plan went to hell when I stayed at Kosei.

The second show featured the dancers in the same order, and they had the same dance as the last time I saw them two days ago. This is what hit me; for the 1st show and the 3rd show, they have the same dance; and at the 2nd show and the 4th show, they have another dance. In other words, they only need to prepare for 2 dances and just need to rotate them between shows. That’s not as bad as needing to prepare for 4 different dances.

After Yuki danced, it was picture time. I asked her this time if I could take those kinda pictures, she said no; but she said that she can cover it with just one finger. Got my exchange ticket after that. I saw that she was handing somethings to the guys who took pictures, and the guy sitting on the left of me didn’t get an exchange ticket. I asked him about this situation, and he explained to me that the girls will keep the pictures and return them to him at the next show with messages written on them.

So when it was Ake’s turn, I let the guy take pictures before me, and when Ake handed him his pictures from the first show, I asked Ake what it was, and she explained it to me. I told her I want that, and I was glad that I found that out soon enough. She asked me for my name, so she could write a message for that. I just gave her my real name, Brian, in Katakana (Japanese lettering system used mainly for Latin and Germanic languages), which is the way that I have been called in Japanese classes. Ake knew I am not Japanese, and when I was writing down my name on her picture sheet, she asked me to write in something that she could read. Lol. When she learned my name, she asked me where I’m from, I said America, and she was shocked (more or less just pretending) that I speak such good Japanese.

It was basically uneventful until the end, where the finale took place. After Yui finished with her dance, all the dancers came on stage like they did during the first finale. And, like last time, they collected donations for something I forgot, and I donated a handsome amount of coins (in 10 Yens). After the donation part, I thought the show was going to finish. Spoiler alert, no. This is the panties present part!

I had no idea what was going on, but the dancers did not return to the backstage. The MC asked people to raise hands if they wanted Yuki’s panties. For real, you get to keep her panties if you win a theater-wide rock-paper-scissors game. Basically everyone raised their hand in the air and participated in the game, and the game was played as whoever beats the girl’s hand will move onto the next round; even if you have the same hand as the girl, you lose.

To make things easier, I didn’t win any. I was kinda relieved, because I didn’t know what I would do with the panties if I won one. It seemed gross. It was still fun to be part of the experience, though. The guy sitting next to me got Ake’s panties. Ake put it on his head like a hat, and he seemed to enjoy it.

After the panties-present part, the second show ended, and the staff who’s always in black started to sell prepaid-tickets. These babies sell for 11,000 a piece, and they are good for 3 entrances, splitting the cost down to 3666.66 Yen per entry. That’s a lot lower than the 5,000 I paid for this morning, and a shit ton lower than the 6,000 Yen I paid for two days ago. I ran to the guy as soon as he announced that he was selling them, and I didn’t have a 1,000 bill on hand. He told me there’s no rush, and I just gave him two 10,000 bills and he gave me 9,000 back. In a way, he split the change for me.

The pre-paid ticket itself looked rather simple; it was laminated printed colored paper with three boxes on it. It could easily be forged, to be honest; but we’re in Japan, people don’t tend to do that lol.

After I bought my ticket, I asked the guy sitting next to me if he will stay for another show, and the answer was affirmative. So, I stayed for the third show, when my back was killing me already.

The third show was uneventful. Sorry I was talking BS. The third show! When I asked Yuki if I could take pictures of her below the belt area now, her answer was yes. So yes, I finally got to take pictures that confused me for so long. Turns out, at Kosei, you get to take pictures of women’s below the belt area at the third show.

When it was Ake’s turn, I successfully retrieved my pictures from her, with each picture signed and had a message written on the back. The guy next to me, who got Ake’s panties last time, asked Ake to use that as a prop to take pictures. He told me that theaters that allow you to take pictures of the girl’s below the belt area is extremely rare, and it will become even more rarer as the law got stricter because of the Olympics and will become much stricter when the Expo will take place in Osaka in 2025.

I didn’t want to believe that, so when I went downstairs to retrieve my pictures that I had the exchange tickets for, I asked the friendly staff about the situation, and I think they mistook my question, but they said that it is okay to take pictures at the third show. I reported my findings to the guy sitting next to me, and he seemed confused, but he went with it. He was right, though, as Kosei is only one of two theaters in the whole of Japan that still allows this, but I didn’t know that until much later.

He also taught me the meaning of “week” in Japanese strip theater world. A week, for strip theaters, means 10 days. There are 3 weeks in a month, from the 1st to 10th, 11th to 20th, and 21st to the end of the month. Dancers will remain at the theater from the start of the week to the end of the week, and will be replaced by other dancers at the next week. I remember joking to the guy that since it’s 1st to 10th, 11th to 20th, and 21st to 30th, what about the 31st. He literally paused for a moment, and I believe he paused because he couldn’t fathom how stupid of a question it was. But yeah, that doesn’t make the girls who work at the third week of February look good, I mean, it’s only 9 days at most, and that only happens every 4 years.

At the third show, I told the girls that I will be taking the pictures home, because I really didn’t want to stay for the fourth show. Breakfast was basically non-existent, lunch was fish cake on a stick, I didn’t have anything in my stomach other than water by that point, so I have made up my mind to get the hell out of there when all my pictures are done. Still, there was a panties present thing going on at the end of the third show as well.

Cut to the important thing: I won one. I won Yuki’s panties. I’m not sure “won” is the correct word that I would want to use in this situation, as I did win a rock-paper-scissors game that landed me her panties, but I would hardly consider it to be a prize worth winning. It’s still gross, after all. But unlike the her last round and unlike all the other girls who just took their current underwear off and gave it to the winner, Yuki asked me to take the panties from her bra. That was pretty cool. Didn’t get to see anything or touch anything, but that was still kinda cool. She signed the panties, which was cool, again.

So, like the guy who asked Ake to use her panties as a prop to take pictures with, when it was picture time, I asked Yuki to use her panties as a prop too. I then asked her to give me an exchange ticket to take the pictures home, and she said yes.

Since the new picture with her (now mine) panties will need time to be printed, I stayed for Ake’s performance. And when Ake’s performance was finished, I thought to myself that I might as well stay for Kingyo’s performance, since her 4th show is her dildo play. There’s something interesting with today’s dildo play. Normally, after she has done masturbating with the dildo, she would stand up from a lying down position, something I would never dream of doing in a million years, an action that needs some serious core power. When she masturbated this time, water came out from her vagina which I believe signaled that she actually had an orgasm. This never happened before. When she tried to do the standing up from lying down, she couldn’t do it, and had to actually use her hand to push herself up. That was very different and oh my god. I thought to myself that I was so right to stay here and see her last performance. After seeing that, I grabbed all my stuff, said thank you and goodbye to the guy sitting next to me, and went downstairs to get my pictures.

I had a conversation with the friendly staff members downstairs, and they asked me to not upload pictures with the girls’ faces onto the internet, and to never throw these pictures away, as it might be bad and will lead to the theater not being able to allow this type of pictures anymore. I replied that I will never throw them away, I like these pictures.

Kosei Show Theater (Dec. 15) Verdict:

★★★★★

So yeah, after seeing the show, I went on my way back to my “hotel”. And holy shit what a “hotel” it was. It was true that they were nice enough to place my luggage into my room, but what a shitty room. There’s just one bed, one table, one chair, one TV, and that’s it. The furniture is so bad, that I have no words to describe them with. The room is clean, don’t get me wrong, but the quality of the room is in no way comparable to the same price as what I have paid for on Day 7. How bad? Well for starters, there is no lock on the door. The only thing that stops intruders from coming in is through a door chain, which didn’t seem strong enough. It was late, and I was tired, so I didn’t realize that the door knob itself locks from the inside; but it gave me such unsafe feelings.

The bathroom is not on the same level as the bedroom, and I am not making this up. The bathroom is 1 ft elevated from the bedroom, and you would need to literally climb up to reach the bathroom. There is no staircase, so when you open the bathroom door, you need to climb up. The shower head also uses the same water as the faucet, so yes, the water pressure was like shit. You are taking a shower using the water pressure from a bad faucet.

It was definitely not the best “hotel” experience that I’ve ever had, but it wasn’t too horrible like the time I was in Shenzhen. Still, I could stay a night at somewhere much better than what I had there, I just need to walk a little be further away.

After cleaning myself up with the weak-ass shower head, I sorted the pictures up, and shared my experience with my friend Flora, who wanted to learn more about the whole strip theater as soon as I told her that I’ve visited one two days ago. As I was sorting the pictures, I noticed that for the one where Yuki took her picture with her panties with her legs spread open, she painted a silver heart over her area. That was not cool. I didn’t know then, that for the dirty photos (of the women’s below the belt area) taken at the fourth show, you can’t take it home. If you take it home, it must not be a dirty photo. But at that moment, I thought that was not cool.

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