Japanese Onsen (Hot Springs)

So today I returned from my two day trip with my dormitory. We went to an onsen resort in Komatsu.

England doesn't have onsen, so as somebody who has never been to an onsen before, I was quite worried. Onsen are hot, public, baths heated by natural hot springs. The biggest thing that was worrying me was the obvious 'getting naked in front of your friends thing'. My other worries included cultural blunders and people staring at me because I'm a gaijin.

The first time we entered the onsen, I went with two Japanese girls, and two other girls from abroad - one from Germany and the other from Finland. My Finnish friend is used to saunas and being naked in front of her girly friends, which is wonderful. Kathy and I, on the other hand, were really quite nervous.

As we went into the women's changing rooms, we took off our slippers like you do as you enter a house in Japan, and proceeded into the actual 'changing' part, where a few mostly naked, slightly older Japanese ladies were getting dressed. That set the scene quite a bit. You first choose a basket to put your clothes in, and then you undress. I was really nervous about this. You are given two towels to use - the bigger one stays in your basket, and you take the smaller one in with you. Once I was naked, I did the whole 'covering your front with the smaller towel' thing, which was just fine. (I didn't bother doing it the second time I went into the onsen, because by then I didn't care). You should also tie your hair up if you have long hair and are going into the onsen.

When I went into the onsen room, there were a row of stools and showerheads, along with bodywash, shampoo and conditioner, to clean yourself with before getting into the onsen. First you rinse the stool off with the shower, and then you sit and wash yourself. Once that is done, you get in the onsen. Once you leave the onsen, you can rinse yourself or wash yourself off again. That's about all there is to it.

At first, I was really nervous about being naked around the people I knew, but I knew that my Japanese friends were kind of used to it as it is a part of their culture - even though for Minori it was her first time going into an onsen. The room was so steamy, though, it was almost as if you had left reality for a bit, and since everyone in this strange, wonderful world was naked, it didn't really matter that you were too. The water was so wonderful and warm.

There were two large baths, a cooler one, and a warmer one. The cooler one was still very warm. There was also a very small bath full of very cold water, in case you needed to cool down, and a Sauna.

The onsen was an amazing experience, and I would definitely recommend it to everyone. It felt amazing to bond with my female friends and have a girly chat, whilst relaxing - the water felt amazing. It also made me feel a lot happier about myself, and kind of made me appreciate all of the different kinds of bodies of my lady friends. I think that if every culture had onsen, there would probably be a lot less people with body issues.