Onsens 101

Brellowgirl
Nov 4, 2015
4 min read

Day 1 @ Nozawaonsen

We start work around 8 in the morning and work about 4-5 hours a day in order to finish around lunch time. There are a bunch of properties up here that need to be readied for the ski season. I helped clean out a lodge this morning – this place was beautiful. A beautiful loft room that had great views of the mountains, traditional Japanese tatami mat bedrooms and a nice sized, bright kitchen. I was expecting the worst going in but this IS Japan and the place was practically spotless already before I helped clean it. My time working went by really fast and the work is not difficult at all. I slept comfortably last night and was warm bundled up on my double futon. The mornings are brutal though. Everything is cold and I didn’t want to leave my bed. All the volunteers met in the kitchen and we hung out for breakfast before work. For lunch I walked down to the main street downtown (10 min walk) and picked up some steamed buns from a local shoppe. I also bought some veggies for dinner. I walked around a bit, mailed out some letters I had written a week prior then headed back to the lodge. The town has a bunch of free onsens and then two that you have to pay for (one of which is outside on the roof of a building). The hottest one is at the edge of the village and the locals use it to cook vegetables and boil eggs haha. If you go there you can buy food that’s been cooked in the onsen. You can’t bathe in that one, obviously, it’s boiling hot but there is a foot onsen right next door. I haven’t walked over there to check it out, I’ve only been in one of the onsens here so far.

Onsen 101

So the lodge I’m staying at has showers downstairs but the boilers are never turned on because………everybody goes to the onsens to bathe! Crazy right? So even the townspeople who have showers in their houses go to the onsens every day to get clean.

Here are the basic rules:

*Enter through the correct door - men’s/lady’s

*Take your shoes off in the first room and go into the second room (changing room)

*Put your shoes on the bottom shelf and your belongings in a cubby (that means get naked and grab your shower caddy and small onsen towel)

*Third room is the bath room. Grab a bucket and find a faucet

*Here’s the fun part… wash with a bucket while you're naked in a bath with 5-10 other women that you probably saw during the day in town

It’s one big bath (hot spring fed pool of water) and then faucets of cold water along the walls. You bathe with the locals. You soap up and use your towel to clean hard to reach places…like your back =P You can use the bucket to take hot water from the onsen and rinse off with but you can’t get soap in the onsen. Make sure you’ve scrubbed up well and then you can get in the pool of water. I put my legs in initially and it was too hot so I took them out and then slowly tried to acclimate myself to the water. The local ladies were probably laughing at me so hard but I couldn’t see them because I had taken off my glasses. The water was really hot, like scalding hot. I went in to my neck and didn’t move – felt ok. Then I moved a bit and it felt like I was on fire. How do people DO this?! I hopped out after two minutes and called it a night. You’re supposed to use your small towel to dry off a bit before going back in the changing room. It just so crazy that even though people have showers everyone goes to take a bath at the onsens. It’s so traditional and old school but I love it. It’s relaxing especially because it gets quite cold up here. It was a bit of a shock the first time I went last night but today wasn’t as bad even though I saw some people that I knew (you get to know people real fast). I always used showers as Cassie time but for the next 11 days I guess my shower time will be shared. Honestly if showering with other people doesn’t weird you out enough I think the most awkward thing is shaving in front of someone else. It’s just so private and who would want to be taking a bath next to someone who’s shaving her legs or pits or anything else? ANYWAYS, that’s my onsen adventure and I’m sure I’ll have more stories in the coming days.

For dinner I made a broth flavored with kombu (seaweed) and shoyu (soy sauce) and threw in some crazy looking mushrooms, garlic, bok choy, moyashi (bean sprouts), carrots, mochi (rice cakes) and udon noodles. The broth was a bit bland but definitely healthy and what I needed after these past two weeks of eating out. Everyone here tried some and thought it was good so #winning.

I’m writing this as some of the volunteers are watching a movie in the lounge room. It’s super cozy in here with the fire on and I’m falling asleep. It’s so nice here in small town Japan. Everybody keeps their doors unlocked and the most I need to worry about is going hiking alone because there are a lot of bears. I’ve been told to bring a bell with me to scare them off. That’ll be tomorrow’s adventure.

I’m going to bed. Catch you guys tomorrow.

Much love,

Cas