Being German, luckily I don’t have a big problem with nudity. We go to the sauna naked (not like in England!), have nudist beaches (which I don’t frequent but I can tolerate it) and many public swimming pools or sports facilities don’t have cubicle showers. So I’m used to it, which was advantageous for my stay in Beppu where I spent a lot of my time in my birthday suit. But let’s take a step back to put this into perspective.

Japan has a lot of volcanoes and therefore also a lot of hotsprings (called “onsen”).

There’s a big tradition of bathing in this hot water. It is one of my favourite things to do in Japan. There’s a whole procedure around it where you have to shower first, sitting on a tiny stool next to lots of other people who are scrubbing themselves vigorously, rinse, put more shower gel, scrub some more… Definitely no dirt left on anyone afterwards (and sometimes I wonder if some even have any skin left after all this scrubbing). And then you can get into the bath.

Of course all this is done naked (gender separated), which is why you need to be pretty relaxed about it!

Continue reading “Beppu – I’m in Onsen heaven” →