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Freizeit

By Lara Tupper.
As a travelling food and beverage manager, Ben received six-month assignments in exotic locales, like Japan, where he and his girlfriend Ruthie were staying now. But while Ruthie dreamed of their future, the past held potholes -- would happiness be as elusive as the healing onsens? Read the full story.

Part One

There were onsens in the wilds of Northern Japan, or so they'd been told: hot, earthy cracks in the ground for soaking. Ruthie imagined something like Old Faithful but cooler, something outdoorsy and borderline catastrophic. Ben, she was fairly sure,...   Read More >>

Part Two

Their days were spent on cruise ships and in hotels and the shiny malls of Japan. Ben was a travelling beverage manager; Ruthie stayed back at the room and wrote haiku and dreamed of the time when they'd trade the maid service for some real space of their own. They were closest when they were furthest away from that life, however, when it was the two of them, alone, searching for the legendary onsens of Japan.   Read More >>

Part Three

The chance to travel the world seemed exciting -- six months in this dreamy locale, a year someplace else, with little to do as Ben pursued his career as a food and beverage manager for hotels, cruise ships and resorts. But what Ruthie really wanted was a place of their own. And sometimes, when they were alone, she felt the panic of staying even four months in a place where she knew no one, and had only her haiku.   Read More >>

Part Four

Their travels in Japan reminded Ruthie of a camping trip that she and Ben had gone on earlier, in Maine. They brought her tent which she hadn't used since a vacation with a teenage boyfriend -- and sure enough, there was the tell-tale triangle of a torn Trojan wrapper stuck inside. Ben didn't find it funny. Ruthie realized then that they would have to love each other by careful diversion, by looking away sometimes. And she was right.   Read More >>

Part Five

The hours and the travel were beginning to wear Ruthie and Ben down. They were sniping at each other, losing patience easily, which is no way to be when it's just the two of you far from home. Perhaps one more look for the healing Japanese onsen would be their savior.   Read More >>