First Onsen Experience

I wanted to write all my blogs in order how they happened, but this was the most recent thing that happened and I so badly want to write about it! Thus, as the creator and author of this blog, I get to do whatever I want to do with it! :p I will catch up with the other blog posts that I haven't gotten around it. Gomen~

On the 27th of October I went on a field trip with my classmates at AIU. We took three buses to go to a theme park and a Gorge. I will post about that later, I promise. I just want to focus on a small part of the trip in this post: the onsen.

For the American readers, you probably don't know what an onsen is, right? Well, it basically is a public bath house. They are mostly separated by gender and designed so neither gender can peek at the opposite gender while they are bathing. So it's almost total privacy.

Sadly, I did not take pictures of the outside of the onsen we went to, but I did happen to find some online; however, they are all of the guys bath. There are no guys in the picture, thankfully. The women's section was like the guy's except it was flipped to the opposing side. You'll see what I mean eventually. The bath that we went to was an outdoor onsen or "露天風呂" (translated as "open-air bath"). The one we went to was called "Mountain Campsite Thoroughly" through Google Translate. -_-;;

So as you probably guessed, you are completely naked when you are at an onsen, hence the separate gender baths. That's the first thing you do. You then proceed to rinse off your body with soap and water. As a foreigner, my professor had told my class, the older people will stare at you to see if you are doing it right. Luckily, there was no one there that wasn't an AIU student to judge us gaijin~. After that, (or at least in the onsen that I have been to), we went through a door that lead us to the outside baths.

We had the choice of three tubs to enjoy. The first one was extremely hot. I could not handle it. At all. The next tub was better for me. It was similar to the bathwater temperature I take at home. It was very nice~ we then switched over to the final tub, which someone said was about 31 Celsius which is similar to 80-something Fahrenheit. That one was the best. I preferred that tub over the others. Perfect temperature! Kind of like Goldilocks and the Three Bears... it took three tries to find the tub right for me.

Where we paid admission price (360 yen for unlimited time... SCORE!)

The changing/shower house. The door that is open is the guy's side. The girl's is directly across from it. They are separated though!

Although this is the picture of the boy's bath, this was the third tub for the girls. They look very similar just on the opposite side of where it was placed.

We didn't have a cool tree just chilling out, but whatevers. This was the girls second bath. Like the previous comment, it was on the opposite side.

That is still the boys' side, but that is what the stair layout was for the girls as well. And where you see the tan blinds that are lower than the left-hand side is were the first tub would be for the girls if you flip it. Confused? Good.

We were able to see this bridge while we were bathing. It was strange, but gave it a new beautiful look for me at least.

Okay, so that was the actual onsen thing. But I want to talk a little about not being comfortable in your skin. Most of the people that knows me might not realize that I am not perfectly comfortable in my skin. I am going to be 100% honest here about myself and my views of myself. I accept the flaws I have. I accept the fact that I don't have a "prefect" body based on what beauty standards of today's society is. I have burn marks from a wart removal process on the left-hand side of my torso from when I was a child. It wasn't until my teen years were that made me self-conscious about those markings. I don't have a flat stomach (believe it or not). I have scars on my body from falling down and getting hurt. I am insecure about my toes... no joke. My arms are too long for my body's height. With all these things that built up within me as a teenager, I didn't let it get me totally down. Sometimes I would see girls with no wart burns on their sides and feel a tad jealous (especially if they have a flat stomach). Sometimes I catch myself thinking of those negative things about myself, and I remind myself that it is not because I have a perfect body that I am loved, but because I am a good person and that those things should not matter in our society.

When I was changing in the room down to nothing with the other girls in the room covering up with a towel wrapped around me, I was not thinking of those things I had mentioned above, but I was thinking of how exciting it will be to try my first onsen. And I am sure the other girls were thinking similar things. We were all nervous to have nothing cover our bodies at first, but we followed the phrase "when in Rome..." and let go of those thoughts and feelings. After that, we enjoyed ourselves. There was nothing sexual about being naked, there was nothing to be ashamed of, there was nothing that made us feel insecure about ourselves at the moment. There was nothing wrong with being in your own skin.

To be honest, I have been working on my self-confidence in my body for awhile now. When Chao and I first started dating, I was embarrassed to be seen in a bikini in front of him. Slowly, he made me feel comfortable in my skin, not afraid to show that I have a small stomach and that I have scars from the wart removal and scars from falling down. As time went by, I grew more acceptance and appreciation towards my body. I don't care about the scars anymore, I don't care about the wart burns, I don't care about any of them... Well, truth be told, the toes things bother me still, but that is besides the point.

In the moment you are at the onsen, these "imperfections" don't come to mind. And if they do, they don't stay for long. Going to an onsen had actually increased my confidence in myself because there was nothing there to feel embarrassed or scared about. No one is staring at your body (except for maybe the old ladies watching you as you clean off to make sure you aren't a filthy gaijin) and no one is judging you for the body you have. Onsen are good, clean




Thanks for reading everyone. I am sorry that it got a bit emotional and personal to me. I just know that many people may find themselves thinking about those "flaws" and "imperfections" and think less of themselves or feel embarrassed about their bodies. I personally was that way before, but I learned to accept that they are all a part of me and there is nothing I can do nor would do to change it. I hope you all enjoyed reading this and took something away from it: whether it is what an onsen is, how to prepare for going into the onsen, or that even with these negative thoughts and feelings a person could still enjoy an onsen and have a wonderful experience with friends. (It's much better to go with friends. You will grow closer together over this bonding experience.) Thanks once again. My next post will be more fun and less serious towards the end of it unlike this one. ^^ Comments are always appreciated and welcomed. ^^