How do you say awkward in Japanese?
Hot springs bubble all over Japan, and the Japanese have tapped into most of them to create onsens. Entire towns have sprung up around the hot springs, filled with public onsens and private ones in ryokans (traditional Japanese inns). We even saw people soaking their feet in an onsen foot bath in the center of town. I’d heard that people stroll around town in their yukata robes and wooden geta sandals, but we didn’t see this in any of the onsen towns we visited.
Foot bath in the Shibu Onsen town
I’ve been dying to try a hot spring ever since we visited Colorado a couple of years ago and didn’t get a chance to go to any of the hot springs. I wasn’t going to be deterred in Japan, even after I learned that onsens have a complicated set of rules. First, there’s the whole rule about not wearing clothes. Me, pasty pale and flabby in a hot spring full of naked trim Japanese women. Um, awkward! Then there’s the whole rule about making sure nothing impure goes into the onsen, which means you have to scrub down publically at a sit-down bath/shower contraption before you enter the water. Fun times. Neither Sean nor I had a choice when we stayed at a ryokan in an onsen town in the Nagano prefecture; the only bath was the public one in the onsen room.
After I survived the onsen at the relatively uncrowded ryokan, Sean and I split up for the day so I could voluntarily subject myself again to the onsen. I visited the popular onsen Tenzen in Hakone. This time, there was no hoping and praying that you were the only one who decided to use the onsen at the moment. I tried to relax in the onsen’s steamy sulphur waters, which are said to have healing properties, but couldn’t get my mind off of the fact that I was surrounded by at least thirty naked Japanese women. When a mother started undressing her children in the changing room to bring them into the onsen, I couldn’t hightail it out of there fast enough. While the Japanese are completely comfortable with this public form of bathing – some of them even using it as their sole method of cleansing themselves – I still prefer my very private shower. I hope the Colorado hot springs allow bathing suits.
Tenzen's grounds. Obviously I don't have any pictures of the onsen baths themselves. The only thing more awkward than an anxious naked American girl would be an anxious naked American girl with a camera.
Reminds me of the Turkish hammam. I tried to act all nonchalant and normal but inside I was screaming ‘I’m naked people!!’…great story though! Cheers!
Ahh, sure glad you haven’t lost your sense of humor while traveling, Amy. 🙂 I about choked on my coffee when I read the 2nd picture caption.