Having a bath at Arima Onsen

Can there be anything more quintessentially Japanese than bathing in an onsen, or natural hot springs? I’ve had several Japanese baths (e.g. in public bath houses, and recently in facilities at my capsule hotel), but not previously visited a natural onsen, which are widespread in Japan. Japan is naturally volcanic, with lots of mountains and so lots of hot springs, and people have been bathing in them for thousands of years, so I decided to do the same. An additional motivation was to ‘take the waters’ and give my feet and legs a rest!

Arima Onsen is a small town full of onsen about 20 km outside Kobe, and I gather quite a famous one. It’s a pretty little town, with lots of small shops in the central area and a number of small temples dotted around the steep streets. I decided to go for a stroll before my bath.

A river bubbles right through the town, and there are attractive bridges crossing it, as well as a warning to not be caught down there in flood conditions. The English translation for this important sign was clear. (Click on the photo to see it in full).

The town streets near the river and the station have some attractive little shops as well as a pleasant, unrushed ambience and even the beginnings of autumnal colours appearing. I saw a fruit I’ve not seen before, hanging from a vine, and I was intrigued at the public foot bath in the middle of town. I decided to not create a public nuisance of myself by trying the foot bath out, leaving that to my real bath. But this was clear evidence that I was in a spa town.

The town streets are small and steep, and there are many temples strewn amongst the houses, with not much traffic. I went for a stroll (if that’s what you describe as wandering up and down very steep hills) Here are some examples:

I love the beautiful designs often seen in Japan, where making things attractive seems to be a national obsession. These lovely containers outside a temple are a good example.

The small, windy and hilly streets must be a nightmare for drivers and pedestrians, although any traffic necessarily drives very slowly. I have seen little signs like this one before, warning motorists that there are pedestrians around (usually children, but not in this case).

Older folks must struggle with the hills (and I think that Japan has amongst the highest proportion of citizens over 60 in the world) but this chap has the solution with his gopher. I was a bit surprised to see him out in his pyjamas visiting the local store, but it seems that kind of town. Smoking here is still quite common, and I guess he thought it would be easier to continue the habit, while getting around the hills without being too puffed out. Hard to tell, without chatting, which I didn’t try.

Walking the dogs must be tricky too with all the hills, but this solution seemed to me to miss the point of the exercise:

I saw occasional confirmation that there were hot springs in town, such as the contraption below in what seemed to be somebody’s back yard (and out of which steam was coming), as well as the public drinking fountain advising users that it was drinkable water, not the hot springs water (with lots of minerals in it).

I had purchased a day pass to an onsen; when I eventually started looking for my onsen, called Taiko no yu, it was a little tricky. But I enjoyed the stroll, anyway, determined not to be in a hurry. There was even information to absorb, such as this lovely little sign about decorative tiles warding off evil spirits; what a shame that someone had covered it over with a wire! (So I’ve provided an uncluttered version on a wall for you to read instead.) Unless you are Japanese, you will see the communication problem is not only about the wire.

There were maps around, such as this one, but English did not feature prominently on it. If you click on the map, you’ll see a bigger version – which may not help, in this case!

I had a town map with a little English on it, but, as these things often are, there was no scale on it, and it was not a very good guide to distances or even directions. [As an aside, in Kobe the other day, the lady in the tourist office pointed to two places, that were almost exactly the same distance from my starting point on a map. One of them she said was a short walk, while the other required a train trip of two stops! My attempts to persuade her that the map was unhelpful came to nought.]

While poor map construction is mathematically problematic, my feet were beginning to advise me that it was biologically problematic too! Eventually, using a combination of maps, my Ulmon app on my phone, asking directions and (mostly) luck, I found what might be a sign for my onsen shown at the top of the blog – at least the arrow was immediately decipherable, even if the rest of the characters were not. Nearby, I found another version of the sign, this time with the actual name of the onsen in English characters, as well as some information. Success!

The first thing necessary when entering the onsen is to remove your shoes, and place them in a locker. When checking in, I gave them my locker key, which they kept until I checked out.

I was then issued with everything needed: a robe (I got to choose my colour, so chose purple; the robe I got was brown, however) a towel and a small hand towel. I then went to a locker room, disrobed and put everything in my locker (except the hand towel), and headed off to the bath. I had a locker key on my wrist that allowed my to bathe, with my belongings secure, and also allowed me to buy things (such as food, beer, extras, etc) using a small barcode (that is, using mathematics). Of course, I could not take my camera into the bathing areas, for reasons of public impropriety.

It is necessary to thoroughly wash yourself before a Japanese bath; it is completely improper to use the bath to wash in, as it is for soaking in. All the facilities of soap, shampoo, conditioner, etc are provided (as described earlier on my capsule hotel blog, so I won’t repeat them here).

It was lovely. I tried out various bathing pools, which had hot water, some of them very hot, and there were also some saunas. I’ve downloaded a couple of images from the web to show you examples from this particular onsen:

(In case you leap to conclusions, men and women bathed separately!) The baths shown here are outside in the open air, albeit with some roofing, but there were several inside as well. I tried them all, of course, including the small tubs you can see. usually there were three or four others in a bath (but not in a tub!), but people for the most part completely ignored other people, but just sat in the bath and wallowed. The exception of course was people who came together (such as a group of young men and a father and son). The muddy bath did not feel muddy, but most of the others were crystal clear and delightful to sit in.

And the small towel? That mostly sat on people’s heads, and was used to wipe off perspiration (e.g. in a sauna) or used to dry you a little walking between baths. Some people used it to modestly cover themselves, too, when walking around, but most didn’t. Of course, it is quite improper for the towel to be in the water, as it will contaminate it … so I was mortified when mine fell off my head, but fortunately nobody was watching (I hope!) and I quickly grabbed it again and restored it to my head!

All kinds of males were in my half of the onsen: young, old, tall, short, fat, skinny, etc. Yet it seemed to me that nobody was even slightly concerned about others – their size or shape – but was just there to enjoy a bath. I have of course been in lockers before, but I’ve not seen such a large number of people wandering around naked, and not in the least concerned that everyone else was naked too. So I was very surprised on returning to the locker room on one occasion, a room with about a dozen naked men in it, to find a cleaner mopping the floor between all the men and generally tidying up the dressing areas (basins, mirrors, hair dryers, etc). She (yes, she!) seemed blissfully unaware that she was in room full of naked men, and they also completely ignored her, as they were busy getting dressed, or dried. It tells me a lot about the idea of the bath.

After a while luxuriating, and having tried everything at least once, I decided to have lunch, which required putting my pyjamas back on and going to the lunch room, which was mixed (so that people could eat with their partners or families). It was a lovely room with lovely food, and not too expensive. Everyone is wearing the same pyjamas, men and women alike (except for the choice of colour) and people all looked very relaxed, as I was. [I could take a few snaps here on my phone, on which I also enjoyed some free wifi]

The surrounds of the onsen were all spotless – indeed, gleaming – and it was a beautiful place to spend a few hours. There were also shops, of course, mostly selling food and other souvenirs of various kinds.

I am frankly surprised, given the amount of food that seems to be sold, that people here are not heavier than they are. Maybe it’s all the walking up and down hills?

What a wonderful experience! Thoroughly recommended, if you have the chance. I was completely refreshed and relaxed after it all, and pleased that I had ‘taken the plunge’. [But don’t misunderstand that! swimming in the baths is almost as unacceptable as washing in them!] It’s a terrifically democratic experience, too. you don’t know whether the chap next to you in the bath is manager of an international corporation, the local MP or a local street-cleaner. Without our clothes and other trappings, we’re all just human beings.

If you get to Japan, and even (or especially!) if you are anatomically unhappy with yourself as too tall, short, thin, fat or otherwise ‘unacceptable’, forget all that. Nobody will be even slightly concerned about that, and you can simply enjoy a decent bath. If you’re interested further in this little town, see this website.

I’ll do this again, I hope, one day.