I Feel My Temperature Rising
Last night was my first onsen experience. That’s great Mandy, but what’s an onsen? Mandy-sensei: an onsen is a natural hot spring (that has, of course, been developed for income-generating public use), and there are loads of them all over Japan (apparently it’s one of the perks of being on “the ring of fire”). If you’re living in Japan there is bound to be an onsen in your backyard (not literally, although I’m sure if more people dug around their houses….), so people in Japan go to onsens at the drop of a hat for everything- it’s cold tonight, let’s go to an onsen for an hour before we go to bed; we’ve been hiking, let’s go to an onsen; we have vacation coming up, let’s make reservations at an onsen high in the mountains somewhere with monkeys that also like to onsen where we can drink sake while we soak (I’m not making that one up, although generally they try to keep the monkeys out of the human onsens, but what can you do if you are in an outdoor pool and a monkey wants to take a dip? Offer him sake, I suppose and enjoy the company. :-) ). Most onsens have natural hot spring water so besides being a great way to warm up in the winter or soak sore muscles (a la sumo wrestlers), the minerals in the water are supposed to have many different types of health benefits, especially for back or joint problems.
There are a couple of onsens in my small town of 14,000 and the one I went to last night is only a 10 minute walk from my house. Naturally it was the couple from Poponoki (the organic café I’ve mentioned more than once) who extended the invitation for me to join them last night for one of their many visits to our local onsen. Apparently they go a couple nights every week during cold weather. We tried to go last week, but only found out upon arrival that it is closed every Wednesday, which happened to be the day we were attempting to make an appearance. I’m telling you this because of the funny thing that happened when we did actually get to use the hot spring last night (which I will mention later)…we are all braced for something unusual to happen every time we go together now.
The thing about onsens is that the only thing you are allowed to wear is your birthday suit- some onsens forbid the wearing of bathing suits and if you did wear a bathing suit to an onsen that didn’t have a strict rule about it, people would look at you like you had two heads. So, this isn’t necessarily a problem, except when you are 1 of only 2 very obvious foreigners in town and going to the local onsen puts you at risk of running into a student, a student’s parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, etc. This maybe isn’t something the Japanese would bat an eye at, but having only been here for a few months, it’s something I’d rather avoid as long as possible. :-) Of course at an onsen, there are separate changing, bathing and hot spring rooms for men and women, for those of you who were wondering. However, I was a bit freaked out for a second last night when Mayumi (Poponoki owner) and I were in the changing room and could hear male voices that seemed to be coming from the hot spring. It did get me to wondering briefly if I had misunderstood the nature of onsens. At least at this onsen, there was simply a really high wall between the two sections of the hot spring with an opening at the top that allows voices to carry back and forth between each section. Still a bit disconcerting for my first visit!
I’m going to have to build up tolerance to the heat of the onsen pool water. I was only able to sit in the water for max 10 minutes before I had to get out and sit on the edge of the pool for a bit. I think I spent more time on the side of the hot spring pool than I did in it, but it was nice. We sat outside for the hour we were there looking up into the trees and listening to the nearby river run by (although you couldn’t see it because of the walls, but I’m not complaining!). I learned a lot about Mayumi’s family and childhood, which was really interesting. For many Japanese, onsens provide a place for people to socialize and speak more freely with each other without some of the societal constraints found in everyday life. I read (in Wikipedia, actually), that it is popular for co-workers to go to an onsen together for work retreats for the very reason, well, first of all, that everyone loves an onsen, but more importantly, because everyone is on an even keel undressed and unmasked in the hot spring. The teachers at my junior high school this term actually invited me to go to an onsen retreat with them earlier this month. It ended up being cancelled, which is probably for the better because I still don’t know how I feel about participating in an onsen retreat with my colleagues. Nothing like sitting naked in hot water with people with whom you spend 8 hours a day but can’t really communicate with wondering what they are saying in a language you can’t understand while you’re all naked sitting in hot water together (the repetition was on purpose)....
Having an onsen was great though. When we left, I wasn’t cold walking around outside. I couldn’t feel the early-winter chill seeping through any and every “seal” back at my apartment. And I was actually warm for a good hour + before going to bed. I did quickly realize though that you should never leave anything undone for the evening before you go to an onsen. When I got home, I wandered between rooms in a daze for a good 15 minutes trying to remember what it was I wanted to do in each room that caused me to head in there in the first place before I decided to toss in the towel and just go to bed.
Being able to sleep in my own bed after the onsen didn’t seem like it would be a possibility though when we tried to leave. The onsen closed at 9pm- we had arrived at 8pm for the final hour of business and weren’t in a hurry to vacate before the witching hour. So right at 9pm, after we’d had our departing cup of chilled oolong tea, we headed for the door that lead from the changing room entrance along an outside path to the reception area where we could collect our shoes. When we pulled on the sliding door leading out of the changing area entrance, however, it didn’t budge. Had they locked us in without realizing there were still people on the hot spring? It sure seemed that way. Another couple of yanks still didn’t yield any results. Thus started a round of laughter from our little group, and knocks on the door and window accompanied by hollers of “sumimasen!” (excuse me). It was quite the scene. After about 5 minutes, someone from reception did come to our rescue, only to inform us that Mother Nature had been playing a joke on us. It had been raining for a few days and apparently the wood in the doors at the onsen have a tendency to expand and stick during rainy weather. So, we had a good laugh with the reception people about that, then we were on our way. One can only wonder what will be in store for us the next time around. In our only two trips to this onsen, first we were shut out, then locked in. Although, being trapped where we were would not have been all that bad- in the room adjacent to the changing rooms are 3 massage chairs, an electric foot massager, free tea, an ice cream vending machine and open access to the hot springs. I’m sure we would have made due. :)
There are a couple of onsens in my small town of 14,000 and the one I went to last night is only a 10 minute walk from my house. Naturally it was the couple from Poponoki (the organic café I’ve mentioned more than once) who extended the invitation for me to join them last night for one of their many visits to our local onsen. Apparently they go a couple nights every week during cold weather. We tried to go last week, but only found out upon arrival that it is closed every Wednesday, which happened to be the day we were attempting to make an appearance. I’m telling you this because of the funny thing that happened when we did actually get to use the hot spring last night (which I will mention later)…we are all braced for something unusual to happen every time we go together now.
The thing about onsens is that the only thing you are allowed to wear is your birthday suit- some onsens forbid the wearing of bathing suits and if you did wear a bathing suit to an onsen that didn’t have a strict rule about it, people would look at you like you had two heads. So, this isn’t necessarily a problem, except when you are 1 of only 2 very obvious foreigners in town and going to the local onsen puts you at risk of running into a student, a student’s parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, etc. This maybe isn’t something the Japanese would bat an eye at, but having only been here for a few months, it’s something I’d rather avoid as long as possible. :-) Of course at an onsen, there are separate changing, bathing and hot spring rooms for men and women, for those of you who were wondering. However, I was a bit freaked out for a second last night when Mayumi (Poponoki owner) and I were in the changing room and could hear male voices that seemed to be coming from the hot spring. It did get me to wondering briefly if I had misunderstood the nature of onsens. At least at this onsen, there was simply a really high wall between the two sections of the hot spring with an opening at the top that allows voices to carry back and forth between each section. Still a bit disconcerting for my first visit!
I’m going to have to build up tolerance to the heat of the onsen pool water. I was only able to sit in the water for max 10 minutes before I had to get out and sit on the edge of the pool for a bit. I think I spent more time on the side of the hot spring pool than I did in it, but it was nice. We sat outside for the hour we were there looking up into the trees and listening to the nearby river run by (although you couldn’t see it because of the walls, but I’m not complaining!). I learned a lot about Mayumi’s family and childhood, which was really interesting. For many Japanese, onsens provide a place for people to socialize and speak more freely with each other without some of the societal constraints found in everyday life. I read (in Wikipedia, actually), that it is popular for co-workers to go to an onsen together for work retreats for the very reason, well, first of all, that everyone loves an onsen, but more importantly, because everyone is on an even keel undressed and unmasked in the hot spring. The teachers at my junior high school this term actually invited me to go to an onsen retreat with them earlier this month. It ended up being cancelled, which is probably for the better because I still don’t know how I feel about participating in an onsen retreat with my colleagues. Nothing like sitting naked in hot water with people with whom you spend 8 hours a day but can’t really communicate with wondering what they are saying in a language you can’t understand while you’re all naked sitting in hot water together (the repetition was on purpose)....
Having an onsen was great though. When we left, I wasn’t cold walking around outside. I couldn’t feel the early-winter chill seeping through any and every “seal” back at my apartment. And I was actually warm for a good hour + before going to bed. I did quickly realize though that you should never leave anything undone for the evening before you go to an onsen. When I got home, I wandered between rooms in a daze for a good 15 minutes trying to remember what it was I wanted to do in each room that caused me to head in there in the first place before I decided to toss in the towel and just go to bed.
Being able to sleep in my own bed after the onsen didn’t seem like it would be a possibility though when we tried to leave. The onsen closed at 9pm- we had arrived at 8pm for the final hour of business and weren’t in a hurry to vacate before the witching hour. So right at 9pm, after we’d had our departing cup of chilled oolong tea, we headed for the door that lead from the changing room entrance along an outside path to the reception area where we could collect our shoes. When we pulled on the sliding door leading out of the changing area entrance, however, it didn’t budge. Had they locked us in without realizing there were still people on the hot spring? It sure seemed that way. Another couple of yanks still didn’t yield any results. Thus started a round of laughter from our little group, and knocks on the door and window accompanied by hollers of “sumimasen!” (excuse me). It was quite the scene. After about 5 minutes, someone from reception did come to our rescue, only to inform us that Mother Nature had been playing a joke on us. It had been raining for a few days and apparently the wood in the doors at the onsen have a tendency to expand and stick during rainy weather. So, we had a good laugh with the reception people about that, then we were on our way. One can only wonder what will be in store for us the next time around. In our only two trips to this onsen, first we were shut out, then locked in. Although, being trapped where we were would not have been all that bad- in the room adjacent to the changing rooms are 3 massage chairs, an electric foot massager, free tea, an ice cream vending machine and open access to the hot springs. I’m sure we would have made due. :)
Labels: culture
posted by Mandy | 6:50 PM
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