On Onsen

Dawn, who I work with, has been to Japan many times to visit her husband's family.  "There are two things you must not miss in Japan," she told me before I left.  "Trains and onsen."  'Trains' I get, am easily pumped up for, and have mentioned/will mention often in this blog.  'Hot springs' are...fine, but I haven't really gone out of my way for them.

But Dawn was right.  And I was wrong: apparently, I AM going to wax poetical about onsen.

'Onsen' (I understand there are no plural forms in Japanese grammar) are a kind of hot springs bathhouse.  Depending on where you are, the water may contain some kind of minerals, that have some kind of healing property and some of them (like Asama Onsen) have been around for centuries.  You can find bathhouses with heated water, but, to be an onsen, the water has to be geo-thermally heated (as I understand it), not a water-heater.  Surprising NO ONE, the Japanese have a national agency that certifies which places are 'onsen,' and which are merely 'sento.'

Because onsen are important to the Japanese, as Dawn suggests.  They're not merely hot springs, although I can only speculate why not.  Part of it is probably the ritual:  everyone soaps off before, swimsuits are not allowed, no tattoos (it's a family place...Japanese gangsters [yakuza] are known for tattoos), and you're not allowed to put your face in the water, so you keep your little face cloth on top of your head.  Obviously, they're divided into men's and women's, and I didn't see a lot of socializing.  Then again, as a gaijin (foreigner), it's entirely possible people didn't want to talk around me.

And then....you soak.  Mostly it's in the hot pool, but there's also a cold pool, and typically a bench or two out in a walled garden.  In one hotel, the whole onsen was on the 15th floor, so the bench was out on the balcony behind a 5-foot wall.  The whole experience, taken over 30-40 minutes, is surprisingly soothing, but also invigorating....and very Japanese.

We talked with a local owner in Ishinomaki.  If I recall, his onsen was completely slammed after the tsunami, and a pump failure nearly created a crisis.  Sure, folks wanted to clean off, but it was clearly a much needed comfort.  I'd be interested to know what percent of the population uses an onsen, and how often.  I'M certainly a fan...