Midwinter in Shirabu Onsen. It's warm in there! (Really!)
Onsen (温泉), quite literally "hot springs", are the pinnacle of the Japanese bathing experience. Cluster of hot spring inns pop up wherever there's a suitable source of hot water, and in volcanic Japan, they're everywhere. The most memorable onsen experience is often the rotenburo (露天風呂), which is located outside with views of the surrounding natural scenery. While the baths are usually large and shared, some swankier accommodations offer, often for an additional fee, reservable baths for you and yours alone, known as family baths, racier "romance baths" or just plain old reserved baths (貸切風呂 kashikiri-furo). Onsen baths can be either in standalone buildings available for anybody (外湯 sotoyu), or private guest-only baths inside your lodgings (内湯 uchiyu).
While most onsen are run commercially and charge fees for entry (¥500-1000 is typical), especially in remote areas there are free publicly maintained baths that offer minimal facilities but, more often than not, stunning views to make up for it. Many of these are mixed (混浴 kon'yoku), but while men still happily traipse into these naked, if holding a towel in front of their dangly bits, it's a rare woman who'll enter one without a bathing suit these days. Commercial operations with kon'yoku baths tend to enforce bathing suits for both sexes.
To find those really off the beaten track hot spring inns, check out the Japanese Association to Protect Hidden Hot Springs (日本秘湯を守る会 Nihon hitō wo mamoru kai) , which consists of 185 independent lodges throughout the country.
Many onsen prohibit the entry of visitors with tattoos. Intended to keep out yakuza gangsters (who often sport full-back tattoos), the rule is usually applied with a modicum of common sense, but heavily tattood visitors will, at the very least, receive curious looks and may be asked to leave.
The Most Frequently Asked Travel Questions about Japan
Where To Stay & Best Hotels in Japan - updated Apr 2024
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Japan Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.
