Unwind and Relax: Essential Tips for Going to a Hot Springs in Japan

Hot springs (or onsen ♨️) is a huge part of Japan, and naturally, many tourists would absolutely want to experience this sie of Japan for themselves when they're traveling. Hot springs are made up of natural mineral springs, different from their bathhouse counterparts - like a "sento" or a "spa". There are actually a number of "onsen" in bigger cities that are more like a "spa" or what we call a "super-sento", which are big facilities with different bath options, saunas, other beauty treatments, relaxation, and even food options.

Honestly, neither is "better" than the other, though some might argue otherwise. If going to onsen to natural minerals and other properties is important to you, and you believe in its healing properties, then a natural onsen is better. If you're with family and friends, and you want a place to do various activities together, then a spa or a super-sento may be the best route to go.

I personally love both types, but I do prefer the natural onsen as there are some that are situated in very scenic areas. And more natural onsen place are offering more variety in their baths and things to do as well, so it's important to do some research if this is an important aspect of your trip.

Today, as a hot spring fanatic of sorts, I just want to impart some of my wisdom to some of you who may not be so familiar with onsen. And give you a bit of perspective on what to expect going into one:

Yes, you will need to be naked!

Most onsens and super-sentos will require you to get FULLY naked before going into your gender-split baths. So yeah, no bathing suits. Sorry.

There are a few places like Hakone's YUNESSUN that allows bathers to go with swimsuits. But they are very far and few. If you're uncomfortable getting nekky, then I would look into these options before traveling to Japan.

Some mixed-gendered onsen also provides cover up, so if you're adventurous you can check out my other blog on mixed onsens.

And if you are unsure if you need to get naked, assume all of them will require you to. If there's a public bath, then it's a nekky bath! I think this is the biggest mistake I see people make at Dogo Onsen.

This is a historical building, very unassuming (I mean it does have onsen in the name...) and honestly? Looks more like a museum than a bath. But there is a public bath inside!! I personally saw a few Chinese and Taiwanese tourists purchase tickets, go inside and find out it's a bathhouse. And not wanting to waste money, they of course enter into the change room and then the baths, fully clothed. Thinking that they can just sit on the edge and dip their feet in. NUH UH! If you're going in, you go in naked!! Needless to say, some Japanese patrons called the staff and the tourists had to be told off to be uncloth... but yeah.

Lockers, Change Rooms & Showers

Starting from when you enter, your personal items can mostly be secured safely. You will need to take off your shoes upon entry, and most places will have a shoe locker with an individual key.

Once you locked up, you will pay for your bath. Some places may opt to take your shoe locker key, and provide you with a change room locker key, like a coat check - but for your shoes. Find your number in your respective gendered change room and lock up your belongings and clothes. They will also have a seperated (and sometimes coin-operated deposit) locker on the side for valuables if you wish to have them seperated. Some change room lockers may also need a coin as deposit, and you can probably ask the staff to get coins if you need it!

Some change rooms may not have lockers, and simply a basket for you to put your clothes in. But those places are usually for day trippers in the countryside (the assumption is that you will have a car so belongings won't be an issue) or for hotel-stay baths.

Baskets in the change rooms

It is rare to have individual change rooms. Stripping naked at your locker is sort of part of the experience and I guess if you're going to be in a bath naked with others, take off clothes in front of others is simply the "appetizer" of the whole experience.

Are there individual showers? No, very rarely. Some places may have a wall parititioning off each little shower booth - but do not expect any real privacy. You will be showering with others of the same gender next to the baths. However, if the bath you are going to is not too busy, most people will try not to insert themselves next to someone and I think there is effort at least on the women's side to try to keep some distance from others whenever possible. Women also don't seem to like entering bath pools with too many people unless necessary, so it's also rare you'll ever be shoulder to shoulder with someone in a bath.

Amenities Onsens Have

Most if not all onsens have: body soap, shampoo and hair dryers.

95% of the places will also have conditioner. A few places I have been to didn't, but hair conditioner is usually part of the essentials list.

Water dispensers are also very common in change rooms and outside of the change for hydration. Some may opt to provide green tea, or flavoured water but they're usually in more traditional or upscale places.

Most onsens that have accommodations available for staying guests will have skincare products available. Some are just generic, local products to promote the sale of local goods. Others are brands like DHC or Shiseido. This also means that cotton pads, cotton swabs and combs are usually available too at these places.

Towels... a small neck towel will often be provided, but some places might make you pay for one for a small fee. Some may be for rental only. Big body towels are not always available for day trippers, but always provided if you stay overnight. If you are traveling from overseas and don't have a small neck towel, you can bring a big towel along BUT PLEASE DON'T BRING YOUR OVERSEAS TOWELS INTO THE BATH. Keep it in the locker room! Try to shake yourself off and dry as much as you can by standing around before you enter back into the locker room. No one wants to step on the water you track into the change room.

My suggestion is to get a small neck towel somewhere if you can. Most souvenir shops sell some with really nice designs and may be worth a souvenir investment.

Hair ties and shower caps are a hit or miss. Some will have at least shower caps, but hair ties are becoming slightly rarer these days. I highly recommend bring along some hair ties if you or your friend has long hair! You WILL and MUST tie up your hair in the bath so it doesn't touch the water, and you may be in a bit of a pickle if you can't tie it up (and trust me I have been in this situation a lot)!

...Hair Tie Alternatives?

Fret not, there are ways to overcome no hair ties.

The first would be to use your small towel which you need to bring with you to the baths. These small towels shouldn't be used in the bath, and most people fold them up to put to the side or on their heads anyway, so if you can wrap it around your head and tuck your hair inside, then this is the way!

No good? Well, remember those locker room keys?

Most if not all of the locker keys have a band that is elastic, like such:

You can easily use the band to tie your hair!

Unfortunately not all have lockers though, but then it's possible that the onsen may provide shower caps. If these are not available, then... welll... I guess you can try to hold up your hair. Personally I've never been in a situation that none of these options become unavailable to me. But do let me know if there's ever an onsen where you forgot your hair tie and had no alternatives! I'd love to know myself.

Showering & Bathing

You are free to bring your own shower products with you, but please don't take them around with you when you're bathing. Either keep the shower products at the shower booth if it's not too crowded (most people know not to use the booth as it tells them it's occupied, but please only do this if it's not crowded!!), or leave it in the locker room after use (you can use your small towel to dry off, head back out and just rinse yourself quickly before hopping into a bath).

Some places may have a rack or a shelf by the entrance of the bath for this purpose, but most do not.

And please do 100% shower. This is not an option.

Those of you wear glasses - of course you can wear them, but don't bring them into the sauna! Some saunas may actually have a place for you to bring your glasses, but most don't. I would recommend leaving your glasses in the locker room, at least until after you've showered.

Take ONLY your small neck towel with you. Do not bring your big bath towel. You are suppose to semi-dry yourself with a small towel before going back inside to fully dry. And yes actually, those small towels are very good at absorbing water even when wet, so don't worry. Wring it out when necessary by the showers.

You can also use your small towel as a back scrub. They're nifty!

And like I said before, leave towels out of the bath!

Very small children can accompany parents of either gender, so if you're a mom with very young male children, you can take them with you into the bath. I think fathers taking female children are much rarer, maybe even none at all... but I wonder. If you know or have experience, let me know!

Try to keep a distance and give other bathers you don't know space where possible. Even if you would like to try to engage strangers in random conversation, you don't need to do this sitting too close to them.

Ladies, if you are on your period, stay out of the baths - even with a tampon on.

Just be wary of others and don't do something you won't do if you were to shower at a friend's place.

When you're done...

If you borrowed any towels, leave the towel bin. Don't forget any belongings!

You can relax outside in the waiting area for any friends, partners and family members. So you don't need to sit around the change room! I recommend also partaking in a bottle of chilled milk from the vending machines there. A great way to hydrate for those not lactose intolerant.

Take your locker key back to the reception when you're all done, get your shoe locker key and out you go!

Let's Talk about Hong Kong Films for a Hot Minute...

It's no secret that I am Chinese, from Hong Kong. I think I made it plainly obvious with the fact that I curated an entire list of Hong Kong cafes in Tokyo and the recent post of me being East Asian in Japan.

(please check out the list, I promise I don't disappoint!)

Of course, as an Asian kid growing up in a western country, I too have gone though a phase of trying to reject my heritage and my roots. But eventually, I took interest in it again through music and films - though a bit unconventional.

I was 12 at the time. Everyone was crazy over Avril Lavigne. And rightfully so! She's extremely talented and there were some serious bops created then. But I wasn't a fan, necessarily. I accepted that she was good but I never took to any obsession with her or any of the "younger" it singers and actors at the time (High School Musical anyone?).

Instead, I fell head over heels over (at the time) 45-ish year old Andy Lau Tak Wah.

Considered one of 4 Heavenly Kings in the music industry of Hong Kong (the other 3 being Aaron Kwok, Leon Lai and Jacky Cheung), he was also acclaimed as an actor. He was most active out of the 4 Kings at the time, and have been famed the title of being an Ox not only because he was born the year of an ox, but also for being extremely hardworking - to the point where it really wasn't that uncommon to see at least 3 or 4 films out by him in one year. On top of music world tour and releases of music! His filmography in the 90s up until the late 2000s is quite uncanny for a rather lesser entertainment industry at the time.

But you get the point. I like this man. A lot.

Heck, I even did a school project on him! I think a lot of friends were rather concerned that I was into men with a age gap and it would reflect in real life (nope, thank god!).

Not only for the age gap, but I think most people associated Hong Kong film at the time with Kung Fu and Gangster films. Bruce Lee, Stephen Chow, Jordan Chan - all these names wouldn't have been unusual for someone to get into Hong Kong entertainment from. For the younger generation like us, there were even an entire sleuth of young music artists and actors I could have chosen. Joey Yung, Jay Chow, Twins.... and while I did like them, it wasn't quite the same.

Point is, my Cantonese is as good as it is now is thanks to him.

And one other player which you've all been recently introduced to internationally:

Recognize him? Yes, the acclaimed Tony Leung Chiu Wai from the Marvel films. My man. A total sweetheart and so down to earth despite his fame. I have had the chance to interact with him but that's another story for another time :)

These two single-handedly carried the Hong Kong film industry in my opinion and not made a total fool out of it after the hype over Wuxia and Kung Fu was no longer at its peak. Whether that's in the film depicted in these two photos of them, Infernal Affairs (this film is why The Departed exists, ok), or otherwise - they have both created a great number of local successes that were actually memorable and contained value messages in life of sorts.

My personal favourite from Tony are actually some of his least popular films. My Lucky Star, a romance film he did with Miriam Yeung. It was rather subjective, but there was an overwhelming consensus that Miriam was a terrible actress (her singing was also... well). The fact that he still managed to make this film watchable and pulled at heartstrings is a miracle if you ask me.

Tokyo Raider. No had nothing to do Tomb Raider. I mean, there's nothing really to write home about. It's not any artistic film that the west seems to love about Asian "exotic" films (that's also, another topic for another time), it's supposed to be a fun, action film. Hong Kong had a lot of those at the time. Fun comedies. Fun romances. Fun gangsters. But they were all extremely stupid and almost braindead. Zero substance. So to fun action film that actually had people try to act was really refreshing at the time and remains one of my Tony Leung favs. Also who doesn't like guys in long trench coats? Come on.

Now, Andy. Gameboy Kids with his fellow heavenly king, Aaron Kwok. Hands down. One of my favourite fun, geeky Hong Kong films.

Dance of a Dream which has the late Anita Mui always has a HUGE spot in my heart. There's not a lot of films in Hong Kong that try to mimic a more musical-type film, but this one tried. It wasn't great, but there's a bit cultural references that makes it really nostalgic for locals. I personally love it because it's so down to earth. The film follows Sandra Ng's character, where her character really isn't charismatic nor attractive. She goes through the events of the films, falls in love with Andy's character but realizes she wasn't the one and goes through a series of reflections, self-discovery and reliance on new friendships. It's tiring to go through the whole "ugly duckling" troupe, but its nice to see one film that doesn't completely follow through. And Andy dances in the film, so that's all I needed to say, right?

I also have so many memories of me forcing my poor poor friends to watch this film and making them dance to this terrible number:

Yeah, I am a amazing Hong Kong entertainment ambassedor ok.

I'm also a fan of anything Andy Lau does with Sammi Cheng. These two friends are the Kimura Takuya and Matsu Takako of Hong Kong golden combi, and no one can convince me otherwise.

Andy and Tony both are genuinely great, hardworking actors.

In very different ways. Despite Tony Leung having taken the award for best actor home over Andy Lau for Infernal Affairs, I don't particularly think Andy's acting is lacking - just different. As Tony put it in this interview below: it's luck that won him the award. (don't we just love a humble king?)

But essence, they are two VERY different actors. Tony Leung is more stoic, and is the art of mimic. He thinks a lot about his characters and really gets into the mind of it. Andy appears more outgoing and almost acts in a way that reacts to those around him, a more spontaneous act if you will. Both necessary components of an actor and why I think these two are such a legendary pair and why I am sooooooooooooooooooo excited to see them act together again!!!

I really didn't think I'd ever see these two act again in my lifetime, but I feel absolutely blessed. Truly. I don't have many joys in life but these two, along with my personal favourite sweetheart Charlene Choi (Twins) are all going to be in it. I am. So. Stoked.

Even Tony Leung's wife Carina Lau posted about it:

The "dream team", she write.

HELL YEAH. She is actually the reason I found out about it in October... hahaha ;;; Yeah, actually I really haven't been caught up with any Hong Kong films since forever. And I haven't been this excited over Hong Kong anything for a long time.

I don't know if it'll be good. I only hope it will be. And I trust it will.

Kind of wish I was in Hong Kong for this when it comes out in December, but hey. I've already got my two kings in one movie, I cannot complain.

And did I write all of that just to say I'm excited for one damn film??

Yes. Yes I did. :p

Life as an East Asian in Japan

(this is purely my own experience)

Lots of foreign people who has lived in Japan will tell you that Japanese people are really not used to seeing "foreign people". They often "freak out" or is overly fascinate by simply the sight of them. To be honest, I'm not sure how true that is anymore, especially in big cities like Tokyo and Osaka. The foreign population in Japan is only growing, and as most job opportunities (outside of teaching) are in big cities, I would have to argue that they shouldn't react twice as much as they did before.

To be fair though, it's not something I can relate to.

Yes, I'm foreign. But I don't look foreign. And while we absolutely do "blend in" (for the most part), Japanese people often get more confused by us, than those who are "visibly foreign".

That's not to say it's really a bad thing. But their lack of understanding can sometimes lead to rather interesting conversations, and perhaps borderline offensive - depending on what type of person you are.

---

Are you... Japanese?

I showed up at orientation at my first ALT job in 2014. This was sort of the first time you meet one of your Japanese Teachers of English (JTE) - one of your teaching partners, and you get to introduce yourself, learn a bit about your schedules and your school bit more.

My supervisor walks in with me to one of these sessions, and of course, I thought it would be more polite to start off speaking Japanese (like よろしくお願いします。) instead of English. So I bowed, spoke the Japanese and sat down. There were a lot of curious faces then. I wouldn't say it's confusion, but just more of a "but she's Asian, can she really speak the American English we want?" sort of thing. Then my supervisor does a brief introduction of their company and tells everyone in the room my name and where I was from (Canada).

I guess knowing that I was from Canada brought some relief because I definitely saw some sighs of relief that Canada = English speaking country = I can speak English.

The mental gymnastics I must have caused.

I then preceeded to do a short introduction in English and in Japanese, as advised by my supervisor as a curtesy. I told them I was Chinese-Canadian which seemed to have put the mystery of my origins to rest. It's not that I don't think they've never seen an East Asian speak English, but I simply just think that they often associate western countries like Canada to have only western looking people. So I as sort of a rarer breed at the time. And if you think about it, 2014 wasn't exactly a time when a lot of Asian people appeared in English media so there were still tons of learning moments to be had.

The same JTE later told me that she was 100% convinced I was Japanese and I take that as a compliment. :p

Speaking Preferences

If you’re the Asian friend with your foreigner expat friends, I’m 100% sure you’ve experienced this. If you are ordering something, or paying for something, the Japanese staff will always default to you as your friends’ spokesperson. Even though you aren’t Japanese.

It’s probably because they are more comfortable with the East Asian face. Which more or less looks similar to the Japanese. I think this old youtube video is still extremely relevant and summarizes the experience perfectly:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLt5qSm9U80

The Bar is Set Very High for You

Because I was Japanese-passing due to being of East Asian descent, Japanese people often assumed I understood things when I didn't. Or if there was a western foreigner around, they'll think you'd understood whatever the assignment was better than your counterpart (but in actuality, it's sometimes the opposite).

The Honeymoon Phase was Short, If Any

There was a time when I was on the subway with a western friend. She was visibly foreign, and we had been speaking English the entire time of course. We were just sitting on the train, minding our own business when a Japanese man comes up to us and hands my friend an origami crane.

"For you. Welcome to Japan!" he said to my friend before getting off our train and waved.

After the interaction, we laughed and joked at how random that was and how we had already been living in Japan for 3 years and people would still approach her like this.

The entire time I was also thinking, "WHERE IS MY ORIGAMI??"

Not that I actually cared for one, but it's not like I wasn't a foreigner either...... "oh wait, but was it because I looked Japanese?"

(realistically it could be that I just wasn't hot enough lol)

As a visibly foreign person in Japan, I think this kind of interaction and hospitality often lasts the entire time you are here and never quite goes away. Whereas many people wouldn't immediately think I was a tourist or a guest to the country, and the interaction is null. Certainly, there are pros and cons. If you just started living here as a visibly foreign person, it can be a nice and sweet gesture. Been in Japan for 10 years and people still treat you like a guest, I ought to think that can be a bit defeating. Definitely a win for being East Asian there! ;)

I don't think there is much of a point I want to ring home tonight. But I just think that it's always been interesting to me how being "foreign" can differ in experience in Japan just by looks. And that often times the "problems" other English speaking foreigners run into don't really apply to me.

I don't know. If you're East Asian, what are your experiences on being foreign in Japan? Is it different? Share your experiences with us in the comments or on twitter with us!