Japanese Hot Springs near Mt.  Aso Report

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Japanese Hotsprings near Mt. Aso.
December 1999.

I was taken to the Japanese Hotsprings near Mt. Aso by two wonderful women that work with the airline and a mechanic to help me with the traditions. It was about an hours drive, of course 40 minutes of that is just getting out of the city.

From what I could tell (language problems as well as not being able to read Japanese), it is a "hotel spa" where one would book in for an entire weekend or so. I think the majority that were there were just day visitors like ourselves. Cheap though, best value going in Japan from what I can tell, only 400 yen (about $6.00). They had 4 different areas to go in: the 1st we entered was inside, (not that it made that much difference as it was really only covered and walls and such, no additional heat, just the water) (today was about 2 degrees and lightly snowing in the mountains) men on one side, women on the other, yup you got it right! So we were there for about 40 minutes and then moved onto the next hotspring, just a short walk away.

This one was outside but being heated up by the 1st one it was actually very pleasant. Much smaller. The part that got me was that again it was separated but since it was on the mountain slope, the women's was about 15 feet higher than the men's area. There wasn't a lot of cover around the men's area and so when the women climbed the stairs to get to their's and went along the short wooden hallway (with windows, and yes almost all the women looked out as they went along) they could see very nicely into the men's area. As well if they looked over the bushes that surrounded their spa, they could look down into the men's area. Of course being short women (most of them), we could see their heads but nothing else. There was something very unfair about this hotspring area, I would call it a male disadvantage.

The 3rd area was by far the best. We packed it up from the second area after about 30 minutes and went on to the 3rd. This one again was an open one, but it was a co-ed! I thought I had gone to Japanese heaven! The 2 girls had gone ahead of us (mechanic and myself) and when we got there they were just coming out of the change area with a towel wrapped around them. So of course I thought..... things are getting better, after all, I couldn't think of a better thng to do than to sit in a co-ed hotspring with two lovely women and a host of others that were in there also. So I got myself changed and entered the spa area only to notice that they had worn their towels in the hotspring. I looked around and sure enough most of the women did. So I asked them if I also had to wear my towel.... they told me that I could and that they had an extra one for me if this was the only one I had.

I didn't know if I should be my nudist self, would I offend someone, what did the other men do, were they sitting with towels around them...? luckily my mechanic friend (who spoke very little english - great conversationalist) stepped into the water, took off his towel and sat down. So standing around looking like a dummy I took off my towel and stepped into the spring in true naturist fashion! I found out that they were just trying to be polite and not embarass me with nudity (oh how they don't know me!) So I obviously raised the question with them, why the towel around them? I never really got an answer. The conversation got dropped for some time and then a women came into the area (very large area), stepped into the spring and then took off her towel, ok, not so brave but at least no towel while sitting in the water. I obviously raised a question and the girls acted like this doesn't happen much and then the coversation was dropped again due to the lack of english and japanese. Now most of the men also hang onto their genitals while moving from one area to another or place a small towel in front of them. So we sat and talked for about an hour and then got out, got changed and went for lunch.

While the girls were changing (I was much quicker) I sat just outside the spa area watching the people, and that's when I noticed that this area could be considered as a conservative naturist spa. Why I say conservative is because it is against custom to wear clothes in the spa so most attempt to cover up, but only enough for "tradition". I'm almost positive that if it wasn't for the "taboos" like in our own culture, they would be a lot more open. I noticed men walking from area to area without towels (not all, just a few braver ones I guess) and as well I noticed two other women walking to the upper end with just a small towel in front (not wrapped), they threw it aside, entered the spring and sat there like normal people would, "naked". After about 5 minutes (I was waiting quite a while) I noticed one of them get out and just sit on the edge with just a small towel (washcloth) placed over her pubic area, but didn't seem to care about the breast being exposed (as the others seem to be). So I think I just got there at the wrong time or was in the wrong crowd for this one time.

Oh the 4th area, it was inside the change area of the co-ed outdoor spa. I think that is where the women went before getting changed.

So anyway, on the way home we got talking (as best as we could) about Canadian traditions and the conduct at our hotsprings in the Vancouver area and Portland area and the whole nudity issue and just before they dropped me off at the hotel they invited me to go with them again tomorrow to a different one! So more to come!

(Second report from Ron.)

Well I guess I struck out on this one. Although much more posh it was a strict non co-ed environment...... damn. The thing that really gets my goat is the same as what happened in the UK..... the people that constantly clean the change room and spa area are women. This would be ok in my books if they hired men to clean both sides, but they don't, they only hire women and so even if you are on the men's side there is a woman parading around with a mop! Talk about an unequal world..... like what gives....?

Unsettled and looking forward to home!

Ron

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