Monday, February 8, 2010

Onsen: Hadaka No Tsukiai

Bathing in an onsen, a Japanese hot spring, is a traditional way to stay healthy and unwind. Businessmen soak together to relax after a stressful week in Tokyo. When Zack was teaching in Niigata, he bonded with his coworkers at an onsen.

We say goodbye to Temple who will have to have a solo naked adventure in the female onsen.

Zack and I walk into the locker room and get naked. We walk outside. In the corner are a few rounded stone stools with a bucket next to them. We sit and begin our bucket showers which are mandatory before entering the onsen. When we are clean, it is time to test the waters. There are six small pools to choose from, some are carved out of the mountain and others are wooden like jacuzzis. Each on is a different temperature ranging from ice cold to boiling hot.

We decide to begin in the largest and most popular. We relax and soak. During the next hour, we try out all the different pools and take a sauna. Once our relaxation is complete we towel off and go to hear about Temple's solo adventure.

Onsen by ClayBolton

2 comments:

Waru said...

And we rubbed salt from a huge barrel onto our bodies after we saw some guy do it.

And lots of the men and women had tattoos, which usually only yakuza members have here. Women with tattoos is really rare, so I'm pretty sure we stumbled into a mafia onsen. But it was one of the nicest ones I've ever been too.

Waru said...

woops, I should've listened to the audio before posting