Japan Trip Part 3: Going to an Onsen

[joezu]

(The third in a five-part series about my Fall 2017 trip to Japan)

Furo Usually said with an honorific prefix: o-furo. A Japanese bathtub that is deeper but not as long as American tubs. Many Japanese homes and hotels, both traditional and modern, have o-furo. Sentou A Japanese bathhouse. Onsen Similar to a sentou, but using water from a hot spring. Sentou usually have just plain water.

While in Japan I had the opportunity to go to several onsen. Public bathhouses have long been a tradition in Japan, though numbers have declined due to the fact most modern homes now have baths. The difference from one bathhouse to another is usually in the design and amenities offered, but not the basic layout of the bathing areas or the bathing procedure.

After checking in at the front desk, you will receive a bath towel, washcloth, and robe. If you're staying in a hotel with an onsen, these items are usually already in your room. The first thing you do upon entering the bathing area (usually segregated by gender, though not always) is remove your shoes. Sometimes you leave them by the entrance, while in other places there are pigeon hole boxes. You might think, wouldn't some people be tempted to steal your shoes? Perhaps, but Japan is a very honest country. In public housing apartments (danchi), which can be very small, the residents sometimes keep their extra belongings in the hall, in full sight of their neighbors. Bikes are often left unlocked in public. I left behind my passport and videocam in an Osaka coffeeshop and didn't realize it until two hours later. Although I raced back to the coffeeshop to retrieve them, I was reasonably confident someone had turned them in instead of taking them.



There are small lockers for your valuables, but not your clothing. In the next area is the changing room. Instead of lockers, there are shelves with baskets. Everything you're wearing goes in there, including your bath towel.

You then proceed to the washing area. I can't speak for the ladies' side, but for the men there is a row of “stations”. Each station has a small stool, a handheld showerhead, a mirror, a faucet for filling a large plastic bowl (for dumping water over your head), soap, shampoo, conditioner, and sometimes disposable razors. You never enter the bathing area without washing first. You sit on the stool (good idea to hose it down first), then lather up and rinse. The showerheads and the faucets have a mechanism so they shut off automatically after about 30 seconds to prevent wasting water.

You then step into the bathing area. Some Japanese men will coyly cover their genitals with the washcloth as they walk around, but once they get in the water, they will set the towel aside or fold it and place it on top of their heads. The washcloth is never immersed.

The bath water is about two feet deep, just enough to come up to your chin. Depending on your health and your tolerance for heat, a soak may last five minutes or longer. I usually sat about fifteen minutes. Immersion in hot water is not recommended if you've been drinking, partly due to the risk of drowning (I never saw an attendant on duty) and also the increased risk of dehydration and heat exhaustion.

When you get out, you use the washcloth to wipe off the excess water. From here, everything happens in reverse. You may choose to rinse off in the washing area. You then dry off, get dressed, go back to the locker room to get your valuables, then the outer area to put on your shoes. The changing rooms sometimes have hair dryers, more disposable razors, ear swabs, toothbrushes, and a fan to help you cool off. There may also be a lounge, where one can relax before getting dressed. There may be more electric fans, massage chairs, and vending machines with beverages and snacks.

Here are a few differences from place to place:

24 Kaiken (gay bathhouse in Shinjuku, Tokyo)
There are two soaking tubs, one hotter than the other. I'm pretty sure the water was just regular water, not from a hot spring.

Route Inn Grantia Hotel, Hakodate
The onsen was on the hotel's top floor. In the bath you could get a view of the bay and the city. The water was 42°C (107°F), a somewhat rusty color, with a faint but not unpleasant smell. Instead of the customary robe, the hotel provided a two-piece pajama style outfit, which you could also wear around the hotel. I would like to add this was one of the best hotels at which I've ever stayed. Friendly staff, a very short walk from the main train station, a delicious free breakfast buffet of Western and Japanese foods, a desktop computer and a coffee machine in the lobby (both free to use, and each cup of coffee is made with fresh grounds).

APA Villa Hotel, Sendai
There were two tubs but the temperature seemed the same. The second was much smaller and in a separate space. The water was clear.

Ryokusuitei Resort, Sendai
A very large ground level bath in the countryside. There were two very large tubs, almost like pools; the temperature seemed the same and the water was clear. The bathing area was brightly sunlit. One may also step through a back door and follow a path to an outside bath built into a rock pond. The water had no scent but had a buttery tint. It was quite nice to soak outside under the trees, and there was a sort of brazier, probably for burning a fire at night or in the colder months. There was also a dry sauna. I got to keep my washcloth (which had the resort's name on it) as a souvenir.

My visit to Sendai was mostly so I could meet, for the first time, a penpal of twelve years, an older heterosexual gentleman named Ohayou-kun (not his real name). When I responded in the affirmative to his suggestion we check out an onsen, he warned me I would be expected to disrobe completely. I said that was no problem. He later told me he was impressed I disrobed so nonchalantly—in his experience, Westerners usually make a fuss about having to bathe nude. Nearly every onsen I went to had a sign forbidding bathing suits.

Dormy Inn, Matsumoto
The onsen was about nine floors up, with an outdoor soaking area directly underneath the illuminated hotel sign!

So, does any action take place in the onsen? Do guys on the down-low go there for some relief? Outside of the gay baths, I think not. I am all but blind without my glasses, and though I did try to wear them into one of the baths, it was so warm the glasses fogged up instantly and I couldn't see a thing. For all I knew when I didn't have my glasses on, guys could've been cruising me left and right, but this seems unlikely. The baths don't necessarily have any sexual connotation and the Japanese tend to be on the shy side, so one's eyes are usually straight forward or down.

The tubs usually shut down twice a day in the mid-afternoon and in the wee hours for a thorough cleaning. These places are immaculate, even the gay bathhouse. I never felt uneasy about walking barefoot or sitting in the tubs. In one gay bathhouse I used to frequent in Los Angeles, the hot tub smelled like it had more chlorine than water in it (easier I suppose just to dump in a barrel of chlorine rather than scrubbing the tub clean once in a while), and the place was quite popular with the cockroaches.

Part 1: Fisting in Shinjuku
Part 2: Porn, Porn Everywhere!
Part 3: Going to an Onsen
Part 4: Japanese Bondage
Part 5: Miscellaneous Anecdotes