When my mom read the itinerary to me (did I mention - this entire thing is in Mandarin) she told me that no clothing or swimsuits are allowed in the onsens. I packed my bathing suit anyway holding out for hope, but sure enough, the Japanese were not kidding. You really go into these things 100% naked-o. The men and the women are separated, of course, but other than that one needs to be ready to sit in a steaming sulfur laden piping hot pool of water with a bunch of old Japanese soakers. If you're me, that's old Japanese ladies who have no problems walking around baring their boobs and butts and fellow tour buddies who pretend they don't know you.
There's a whole art to this. First, you must wear a traditional yukata from your room (worn the correct way of course, because if you cross your lapels wrong you will be considered a dead person) as well as slippers, both of which are provided.
The sense of security provided when they instruct you to bring your large towel and small towel is soon proven false, when you are told that you will be leaving the large towel alongside your yukata and undies in a basket in the changing area. Luckily, you are allowed to bring the small towel. But I am getting ahead of myself. So you go into the ladies section (the men's section if you are male), where the first room is the changing area, but is essentially a locker room but with baskets instead of lockers. If anyone goes to the gym in the states, it's a fairly similar scene - unabashed women walk around swinging their jugs like there's no tomorrow except here everyone's asian and also, you have no choice but to follow suit. Next, it's the removal of all your clothing - every stitch - and along with your small towel (which is the size of approximately 3 face towels in the states) you walk into the room with the onsen - the hot pool.
At this point, the concern turns towards hygiene. Don't worry, the Japanese are way ahead of us here. There are rows of little shower stalls with tiny benches, a bucket, and hand held shower nozzle and a vast array of soap and shampoo products with which one is to vigorously scrub every lick of loose hair follicle and skin cell off oneself before entering a pool. The Japanese will squeeze a huge dollop of liquid soap into the small towel and rub it so that it produces a huge, rich lather. The more soaping and scrubbing that is evident, the more comfortable everyone feels. Once this is done, you can finally enter any one of the pools. Many women who are shy, such as me, will hold the puny towel up to their bodies, and if you haven't spent the last few days stuffing your face with tempura and pork katsu, the towel should just about cover up your privates - on one side. Of course, you can't put the towel into the water, so there's a few minutes of awkward splashing around and stumbling into the water while adeptly raising the towel so as to maximize coverage while not breaking any etiquette covenants. Once you're in, you're more or less safe, as the water is cloudy with sulfur particles, and who are we kidding - the Japanese aren't there to look at body parts they've seen all their lives anyway.
The onsens we have gone to have typically had at least an inside pool and an outside one. We went to a beautiful outside one in the morning, when no one else was around. The birds where chirping (and some ravens were cawing) and the sun was rising and aside from the idea that I was naked in a hot pool with my mom, that the night before a bunch of guys had been naked in, it was really peaceful and relaxing. The first evening, we were at an onsen that was right by the onsen park near Obama (haha, no for real, it's called Obama!) and so we were right at the center of all the sulfur action where there was steam rising from the ground every where you turned.
The next evening, we went further south and were by a river, and this evening, we came all the way to the tip of the island to a very special resort that does sand baths. I believe this is the only place in the world that does this, "this" being, you lie in a patch of sand which they rake over you and you bake in it for 15 minutes and get your blood pumping. As you can imagine, it would be unideal to get sand all up in your privates, so this is one treatment that you do wearing your yukata, and because everyone is clothed, it is not gender segregated. It kind of looks like they're farming people; my more morbid tour compatriots said it looked like they were burying us, either way, there is a slightly creepy element to it, but it turns out it was really nice. The 55 degrees didn't feel so bad at all, and my brother and I were contemplating staying in until we were kicked out. The Japanese are so polite though, they would never do such a thing, so once 15 minutes were up we got out.
Anyway, we're really not allowed to bring cameras to any of these things, so here's a picture of my brother and me posing by the pool. FULLY CLOTHED, you PERVERTS!
Anyway, the thought of the impending naked bath was definitely unnerving, but I have to admit I got over it pretty quickly. Not too many people from our tour group went into the baths, and the rest of the women in there were old Asian ladies I didn't know anyway. Plus, people are pretty discreet and polite, and our tour guide was right - no one really cares to look at your goods anyway. In general though, it really just wasn't a crowded affair so the whole experience is relatively private. My brother though, still isn't that into it. Something about not like being in naked guy soup. I guess I wouldn't really want to imagine what it's like going to a guy version of this...
