Hot springs

Location: Tokyo, Japan

I met a German man at the hostel in Tokyo. He was a professional photographer, sent to Japan by his employer, and had managed to extend his trip to do some sightseeing.

(Aside: I've found that being able to speak German is enormously useful when traveling. Germans love to travel. I can't remember the last time I traveled to somewhere and didn't meet a German.)

We compared travel guidebooks. They both suggested going to the same onsen, so we did. An onsen is a facility that has been built around a hot spring, such that you can go and bathe in the hot spring. They figure significantly in Japanese culture.

We arrived at the onsen. The lobby had prominent signs indicating that tattoos were prohibited. I've been told that this is common, and intended to prevent gangsters (yakuza) from entering. That was in 2007. Now that tattoos have become so popular, I wonder if the policy has changed.

Traditionally, men and women would bathe together, naked, in an onsen. That custom is outdated, and banned in Tokyo. The onsen we went to had separate locker rooms for men and women, and separate pools for bathing, but there was a shared area for showering (to rinse off before and after bathing) which was open and clearly visible from the pools. So that was odd.

Being naked was a requirement. Swimsuits were not allowed. The only thing you could carry around was a small white washcloth that was given to you by the facility. That was no problem for my new German friend—Germans love being naked in public. I was more modest and tried to position my washcloth in such a way that it hid my bits but did not attract attention. Those were mutually exclusive goals and I gave up after a minute or two.

The bathing area was divided into six or seven pools of varying sizes. The whole area was made out of stones that were large, flat, smooth, and dark. They were arranged to give the impression that maybe the pools had occurred naturally and the facility had been built around them. There were a few plants and trees.

My friend and I would sit down in a pool on the opposite side of anybody who was already in the pool, so as not to disturb them. We talked quietly with each other, or not at all. But what would happen, invariably, is that after a few minutes, the Japanese people who were already in the pool would get up and move to a different pool. I don't know why. Maybe we were disturbing them. Maybe they were worried about disturbing us. Whatever the reason, it was clear that they didn't want to be in a pool with us.

The onsen was fun and relaxing, but we came away with the feeling that we weren't entirely welcome.