Spa Day

Yesterday I went to a traditional Japanese onsen [ON-sin] with a Japanese girl so she could show me how it's done.  Onsens are basically spas but with a...er, twist that I'll get to in a moment.  They are built on top of the many natural hot springs that are here in Japan.   They consist of a lot of indoor hot tubs (to use the American term) that are different temperatures or have different color water (one today was colored pink) or maybe have jets in them.  There are also outdoor rock pools with steamy hot water that you can go in.  There is a sauna too.  Japanese people believe that regular trips to an onsen is good for your health.  Annexed to this particular onsen was a more American-like spa (facials, massages, manicures etc.) and a restaurant.

So the twist is that you have to go in totally naked.  No, I'm not kidding.  (Men and women are separated of course.)  You take a shower first in a communal shower room with little stools to sit on under the spray.  After you take your shower, you can enjoy the indoor or outdoor pools and/or the sauna pretty much all day long. The cost was about $7.50.

I was there for about an hour (we tried almost all the different "pools") and came out kinda dazed.  Relaxed, but dazed.  The water is hot.  And I had never been in a sauna at all before much less a naked Japanese one.  It's kind of like what I imagine a nudist colony would be like...when everyone is naked, it seems almost normal.

At any rate, of course I couldn't take my camera but I did do some Internet searches for photos of onsens similar to the one I went to.  The onsen shown on this blog is very very close.  Also here and here.