Last week we traveled to Japan. On our trip, we visited Nozawa Onsen. Nozawa Onsen is a small village in the mountains about two hours away from Tokyo by bullet train (shinkasen). Nozawa Onsen is very special because it has an amazing ski resort and roughly a dozen onsens.
When you arrive, you first take off your shoes and socks. These go into a little cubby on the bottom shelf. It is important to put your shoes and socks in the bottom cubbies. The top cubbies are for clean clothes and other belongings.
After you put your shoes away, you have to take off all of your clothes (even your underwear!) and get a bucket. Buckets are provided at the onsen. You don't have to bring your own. Once you're naked, you use your bucket and pour water from the onsen onto the tiled floor. Then you sit down next the onsen on the warm floor and get used to the hot water temperature by pouring buckets of water on your body. Once you're warm, you soap your body, shampoo your hair and rinse off using the bucket. Once you're totally clean, you can hop into the onsen.
The sides of the onsen are made of wood and the floor is also wood. There is a wooden divider that separates the hot side from the super hot melt-your-face-off side. Once you're in the water, you can choose to soak on the hot side for a bit, or if you're brave, you can test the super hot side and decide if you want to move over. Not all onsens are the same temperature. The onsen that was closest to our hotel was pretty hot. After you feel satisfied with your soak, you wade out of the onsen and dry off with your towel. Then, you head over to the cubbies and put on your clothes. After that, you put on your shoes and socks and exit the onsen building.
When you leave the onsen you are likely to feel like Mario, super energetic and ready to do anything!
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