I still have about 8 Japan blogs I'd LIKE to finish writing about before going back to Japan. If I don't, I'll probably just scrap them and refer people to the Facebook pictures and captions. Luckily, this entry on hot springs was already written in my journal, so I'm going to touch it up a bit and send to print. Here we go.
First, an introduction to hot springs in general. When foreigners hear about hot springs, called "onsen" in Japanese, they tend to imagine a scene in the mountains that's very peaceful and natural where people go to bathe. This image is likely very different from the one brought about from hearing "public bath." However, for the Japanese, these two things are essentially one in the same, distinguished only by saying "onsen" and "true, natural onsen." In the days of old, public baths were also known as "sentou," but having been improved and enlarged as time went on, it's now called a super sentou, or "supaa sentou. ;]
This is where my host parents took me, initially as "practice" for a natural onsen, or perhaps simply other, more elaborate ones. However, this was about two weeks before I left, and I still managed to hit up two more after this since it was so fun. haha On the whole, Japanese probably visit these once a month or so, but it depends on the person – one may go every day, another once a week, and still another only on special occasions. There are people of all ages, from 8-80 that I could tell. Men and women were (for better or worse) split up, and yes – everyone was NAKED.
I won't say that this didn't take some getting used to. After all, it was my first time at an onsen, a public bath, or anywhere that requires getting undressed in front of a group of people. Plus, I was the only foreigner in the entire building, so I expected some staring, if you know what I mean. But once you get into the locker room, walk out into the bathing area, and pick up on what's expected, you get used to things very quickly and that fear that everyone is looking at you goes away.
You start off in an area on the side, sitting on a small stool and doing some quick washing off. This apparently meant that you were to skip over shampoo and do a more thorough job later on, but I ended up washing everything prior to walking into the wide pool-looking area. Here there were people just sort of sitting around in the low water like they were in a hot tub, chatting with friends if they had them and just chilling out. I went with my host dad so I followed him around most of the time, learning rules by example and asking questions when there was something I didn't understand. And since I went there to experience and didn't feel like relaxing for a while, I didn't spend too long at one area before moving on to the next. There were two kinds of jacuzzi-like baths that I tried as well, one where you lie flat to help your back, and another where you kneel to help your legs and feet. I didn't use the sauna or the cold water areas, which are intended to be used together.
After trying out each of the stations inside, we stepped out into the cold evening air to see what else was available. At the very end was another wide onsen pool, made to look natural with rocks lining the sides and bottom, and a bamboo fence around the side; however, this feeling of being in nature was slightly ruined by the TV on the wall and a digital temperature reader next to it. The best part, though, was looking out over the top of the fence to see the city all lit up below, and looking up at the full moon in the sky. The other areas outside included a one-person tub that looked like a boiling pot, another place to lie almost flat, and one bath that looked like it had minerals in it. When we were finished, we went back and changed in the locker room.
We met my host mom in the lobby and talked about my experience. Upon her suggestion of what people usually drink after exiting an onsen, I got some milk and chugged it in the designated pose, which was probably a joke. We then walked around to other areas of the building, where people were having massages or just taking a nap before they headed back into the onsen. It's definitely not an experience to miss when coming to Japan.
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