Japanese Onsens

Today's picture was taken at Takaragawa, Gunma the home of one of the largest outdoor co-ed baths in Japan. If you squint your eyes hard enough you may see some people bathing in the background.

When we lived in Saitama, we rented a van and drove to Gunma one summer day. The sights were awesome, the food was unusual but the highlight of the trip was the onsen (hot spring) in the town of Takaragawa. Here is the home of one of the largest outdoor co-ed baths (konyoku) in Japan.

This onsen was an outdoors facility and as we were walking to the changing room, I noticed women wrapped in yellow towels in the same bathing area with men. Before entering the bathing area I noticed how the men were covering up their privates only with a white hand towel. I followed their lead and bathed for about 15 minutes in the first bathing area. The water was too hot for me. I walked across a bridge with both hands on my waist so the towel would cover my privates. My backside was fully exposed for the whole world to see. The second bathing area was much more tolerable and more of the same. More women wrapped in towels and men holding a hand towel over their privates. Children were also in the bathing area with their parents. Some women did not wrap up in towels but only covered up the front parts. Some men decided to let it all hang out. One notable thing was that the towels on the women become transparent after they stood from soaking. I noticed this from the first bathing area after I held the towel too closely to my body.

Apparently, the eyes of the Japanese do not go to the areas of the opposite sex's bodies that are considered forbidden. Since I'm not Japanese, I can say that there was no shortage of privates on display. I managed to find a corner and was semi-floating in 3 foot deep water with my hands holding my towel over my privates and with my eyes cracked open, mainly a quint from the sun, I watched a parade of Japanese women of various ages strutting by with their boyfriends, husbands and children. Believe it or not, I learned the proper way to exit the water preventing the towel to become see-thru as observed when several women left and since they were holding their towels too close to their wet bodies. If it was held loose against them, nothing was visible.

Prior to this outing, we'd been to various hot thermal springs (onsens) as well as public baths (sentou) in the Tokyo and Kanagawa area. There has always been an issue of me and onsens in Japan. This is because I have a tatoo and I'm a foreigner. These days, the local onsen operators tend to have relaxed their stance on allowing foreigners to bathe since in most cases they will have a Japanese host with them showing them the way. Some of the most colorful tatoos that I've ever seen were on the backs of Japanese men at onsens symbolizing them as members of the Japanese mafia, (yakuza). While this may be the case, bear in mind that your one of a kind experience of onsens in Japan may have some bumps in the road.

Onsens are tourist attractions in Japan and any Japanese town that has a large number of these will have a fat bottom-line due to the Japanese flocking to them when time permits to rest and relax. Most are segregated with men and women bathing separately but a few still exist allowing both to bathe together. The first time I tried mixed gender bathing (konyoku) was when I first arrived in Japan. I was participating on a tour and was the only foreigner. My Japanese wife observed several signs stating that tattoos were prohibited. My wife asked about this and was told that the establishment did not mind but some of the patrons might. He suggested that we bathe together in private which was a excellent alternative.

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