Hello, my name is Daniel Riley and you've reached the site of a blog I wrote during my time as an exchange student in Nagoya, Japan. In the wake of the triple disasters of earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear incident, I have decided to repurpose the site as an aggretation of resources for those interested in helping the survivors of these disasters. Those interested in reading about my time in Japan can still do so in the Archives. Thank you for reading, I hope you find a way to support the people of Japan in this time of need.
- Dan
29 December 2009
Onsen
Hello Everyone! I hope you are all enjoying your holidays, whatever persuasion they may be. I have been enjoying mine immensely, and can happily say that I have managed to stay unconscious for most of the time. The time I have not spent sleeping has been spent on various traditional Japanese cultural activities; Onsen(Japanese Hot Spring), rice cake parties, and million dollar public bathrooms. You know, the usual. I am pleased to announce that tomorrow my Mom will be arriving in Japan for a few days of holiday and we will be spending it based in Kyoto, with daily side trips. I will be bringing my computer of course, which means I will have been thrown roughly and unceremoniously back into my daily blogging schedule, which I hope you will enjoy. I've been meaning to start doing more actual cultural topics, but school work has until now forced me to do what I can with whatIhave. I also plan to make some changes around Barefoot in Nagoya and its mirror on facebook, so stay tuned.
Todays topic is Onsens. What is an onsen you might ask? An onsen is a naturally occurring hot spring used as a public bath. These baths are scattered all over Japan and are a matter of much national pride, sometimes to the extent that non-Japanese are banned for their unruly conduct.
Going to onsens is a common practice for many Japanese, as the volcanic mineral water is seen as medicinal and the setting is seen as one where you can relax. Yes, public bath means public bath, so everyone is naked, but the Japanese I have talked to don't see any problem with it. "It removes barriers, and makes people more honest." said one student I asked. While this might imply that Japanese are less modest about being naked in public, I have yet to find a Japanese person who doesn't balk at what I suppose is the American equivalent; skinny dipping. Perhaps there is a difference between settling business deals naked in a hot spring and running around then jumping naked in the river behind Green Mountain, but I don't really see it.
Recently I was lucky enough to be invited to an onsen by my tutor's family, and I jumped at the opportunity. The onsen we went to was the product of an accident in construction, the company was building the supports for a ferris wheel and they struck proverbial gold when they discovered an onsen bubbling just below the surface. So, what started as a highway stop with a ferris wheel turned into a very profitable resort of sorts, with spas, restaurants, onsen, and of course the finished ferris wheel.
We got there and the place seemed fairly packed. I of course had never been to an onsen before so my tutor's father showed me what to do. First of course is shedding your shoes and traveling to the reception desk where you pay and hand over everything aside from the clothes on your back. After this we said goodbye to my tutor and headed into the side marked 男(pronounced "otto" or "dan") for men, as at this onsen women and men were separated (at some the sexes are mixed). Through a set of curtains we were presented with lockers to deposit our clothes, leaving us with....a wash cloth. To call this a towel would be to imply that the speaker was one foot tall and very skinny. So why even bother with the wash cloth? Well, here's the deal. With bathing in Japan you are supposed to wash yourself before getting in the bath. This is supposed to conserve water and make sure the bath itself does not get dirty, as the bath is intended as relaxation, not as actual cleaning. It was with this cultural point in mind that you must consider the following picture of the cubicles we were provided to clean ourselves before actually going into the onsen.
(Of course none of these photos are from the actual place, but as the saying goes, "ask google, and you shall receive".)
After washing you are allowed to actually enter the baths. The ones we went too were fairly natural, but as you can tell from the following photos there are a variety of possibilities from natural to unnatural looking , and from very public to very private.
The thing these all have in common is the mineral water piped or channeled directly from the volcanic source. The onsen we went to most resembles the first photograph, but there were bowls like the last photograph scattered around the perimeter. I have to say that this was one of the most relaxing experiences of my life, almost akin to a really good massage. After what seemed like a fairly long time we decided that it was time to go. We went back in, rinsed off, dried ourselves, collected our clothes, and headed out the curtains from whence we came. Outside we treated ourselves to some hot drinks and headed on our way.
Some ending notes:
To any of the foreigners reading this, if you ever come to Japan, you have to visit an onsen.
To any of the Japanese reading this, invite me to more onsens.
For those wanting more information on Japanese onsens I actually found a blog dedicated to the subject here.
For those wanting more humor, I offer the below video as a caution to those tempted by these Japanese resorts.
