Brief Intermission - Onsen

I must interject for one moment a brief interruption in my Tokyo entries to describe my first onsen (hot spring) experience.  Onsen is one of the pure Japanese traditions (besides karaoke) that is unique to Japan.  Last Friday I took a bus from campus deep into the mountains (or about 20 min. away) to try onsen for the very first time.  From the outside I studied the curious facility as it emitted steam from the rocky foundation of this traditional Japanese building nestled inside a valley of shadows.  The surrounding mountains seemed like 2 dimensional silhouettes against a gray sky.  For the Japanese this is a casual excursion/activity that some do as often as taking a bath or shower.  The price for this particular onsen was about three times more than most hot springs, so I was expecting great things.  But for me, $12 USD was a small price to pay for a fancier first experience. The action of using an onsen is also a very symbolic and telling representation of the complex Japanese society.  Japanese society is incredibly structured, systematic and most of all, hierarchical.  For many people the strict boundaries between social classes like that which exists between students & teachers, employees & bosses and even within family structures is very oppressive and the omnipresent pressure makes everyday life very stressful for most Japanese.  In an onsen everybody is naked (within respective male/female halves).  The clothes that brand the people in society are removed and everyone (for a brief moment) is reduced to the same equal level.  This free environment encourages a free exchange of ideas, opinions and emotions.

Inside the onsen, near the entrance the first act in a series of rituals is to splash themselves with a ladle of water upon entering.  Then it's off to the showers to further cleanse the body before actually using the hot baths.  If this seems weird to shower before you bath it's because the hot baths are not actually for bathing.   Because everybody uses it, it's more for relaxation like a jacuzzi.  So the first thing to do is to clean your own body in an open booth with a stool.  After my first sitting-down-shower, we tried the first indoor hot spring.  This was nice and warm, but we soon went outside to explore what true hot springs would feel like outside in the nature.  Outside there were 5 other hot springs, a steam sauna and an ice cold pool.  The ones near ground level were the least hot and the higher up you climb, the hotter the pools get.  Of course they're all artificially created pools and temperatures are carefully controlled but the spring water is naturally heated from the hot springs and is merely redirected back into the pools.  One hot spring had a large bamboo tube directly 10 feet above a stone seat.  The water that falls acts like a powerful water massage.  Another indoor pool had small electrical charges sent through the water and onto your back.  Another interesting outdoor hot spring had a large hollowed out stone circular tub about 4-5 feet in diameter with a constant trickle of water that was constantly flowing into the overflowing tub.  And I realized I may not be considered tall in America, but in Japan, things are designed almost perfectly for me.  This tub was comfortable and sloped on the inside creating a contour for my back.  Above that hot spring further up was another ultra hot pool which was 42 degrees Celsius or about 107.6 degrees Fahrenheit that overlooked a beautiful under-lit waterfall.  Too bad it was too hot to sit in for too long.  All the rocks around us seemed to be steaming and the whole atmosphere is shrouded in a smokey haze.  Inside, my entire body tingled with a confusing mixture of pain and relaxation.  There is a very fine line between realxing-ly hot and painfully hot.  This felt like both at the same time.  Every time I got out of one onsen to go to another, I got lightheaded and dizzy.  Apparently this was a common side effect which was both scary and interesting.  Japanese people have been doing this for thousands of years and they swear by both its physical and mental benefits.  The rock paths between hot springs were freezing cold and moving from one hot spring to another was a pain.  And besides being completely butt naked in the frigid Japanese winter, my bare feet and butt was not really used to the cold hardness of the rocks I had to walk and sit on.  But by far my least favorite part is the last ritual of onsen which is to take an icy cold plunge and wait until you could no longer stand it before reentering a hot spring.  I vowed to try every hot spring in the facility, so I couldn't say no to this.  As Adam and I sat inside literally ice cold water, I begged him to go and return to the hot springs.  He said not until we were actually shivering.  So I squatted and waited for both of us to create outward ripples from uncontrollable shaking.  In the ice water every shift of the body is painful probably because the body creates a small layer of warmer water and every little bit of moment dissipates the heat and the cold water stabs every part of your naked body at once.  Once we had waited for about 3-4 minutes in unbearably cold water, we went outside to warm up.  The air outside felt relatively warm and we all went inside a steam filled cave.  Inside the rocky cavern, Baptiste, Adam, Dion and I had a conversation about Adam's experiences in Europe over the winter break and then went back into another hot spring for the last time before we had to leave to meet the girls again.  The girls have another similar facility that is sectioned off from the male side for obvious reasons.  It's difficult however to designate a time to meet because nobody has any device that can tell time on their naked body so we all just set our internal clocks for roughly one hour.  Afterward, we all came out dazed and in an inescapable state of relaxation and lethargy.  We all drank a small can of milk which supposedly replenishes something that is lost in the body after using hot springs and lounged in a large tatami room designed specifically just for laying down.  There was two such rooms, one had a TV and small bamboo pillows (yes, rigid bamboo pillows).  Essentially, Tokyo is the metropolitan, Kyoto contains culture and history, Osaka has great food and Kyushu, well Kyushu has some of the best hot springs.  So it's a good thing I tried this because I really should know what my own region is about.  I was apparently the only one out of the 7 person group except for Adam's girlfriend Elyse who had just come to Japan, who had never done this.  It's a difficult experience and complex feeling after using an onsen but it definitely induces another altered state of mind.  The weirdest part about being naked and wandering around in the natural Japanese landscape with other naked men all around was the one Asian cleaning lady who was wandering around the men's area who didn't seem to be doing a lot of cleaning.  *awkward*  Another great first experience.

(Sorry I can't take any pictures here, I have a feeling someone would object.)