Do not bring your large bath towel with you. You should be provided with a small white bathing towel that you can use to wash your body, hide your bits, and dry yourself off. Shampoo and soap are usually provided in the shower areas, but feel free to bring your own.
In the onsen you will rarely see anyone walking around in a towel, but if you want to keep covered up before you hop into the water, you can. You can rent a towel for a small fee, and most onsens will provide you with a 'modesty towel' to walk into the onsen with.
Manners Whilst in the Onsen
You cannot put your towel inside the hot spring water. The towel is used for washing the body, so if you put it in the water, you could dirty the water. You can either place it on your head, or leave it in the washroom instead.
What Should I Bring To Onsen? The Basics. In most cases, before you dip into the onsen bath, you will want to completely wash yourself. This means you will at least need soap, and if you want to wash your hair, shampoo and conditioner.
wear ANY clothes or swimsuits in the bathing area; the small towel can be used to cover yourself when out of the water. Some onsen may offer a thin gauze bathing cover-up for women to rent. submerge your face or head, it is considered unclean. yell or speak loudly, onsen are for relaxing.
Most onsen will not tell you explicitly that you cannot use the bath on your period. Some people will enter the bath with a tampon, but the topic is often debated. If you're worried, maybe sit this one out.
Doctors do not recommend using onsen at all while menstruating. But, if you absolutely cannot avoid it, use a tampon. Even if it's a “light” day, nobody wants blood or bodily fluids floating around in the shared bath water. Using a tampon will also help protect against water entering through your cervical opening.
It's customary, polite and hygienic to wash your hair and body before entering the onsen water. This keeps it clean for everyone.
A: The answer differs for men and women. In general, it is acceptable for men to shave in the shower area of the onsen, and razors are even provided. For women, it is not generally acceptable to shave in the onsen as this is seen as an activity that should be done privately.
Onsen etiquette
Take a shower to cleanse yourself before bathing. Most onsens provide soap and shampoo for you to use. If not, you have to buy some. It's best not to eat before bathing in the onsen, but you need to drink a lot of water before and after your onsen bath.
The frequency of bathing shall be at most 1-2 times per day, and when people get used to Onsen, they can enjoy 2-3 times per day. Duration of bathing depends on the temperatures of water, but generally it shall be around 3-10 minutes at one time, and can be extended to 15-20 minutes if you get used to it.
It is recommended that you do not shower after bathing in an onsen, as rinsing your body will weaken the minerals' healing effects. However, taking a quick cold shower or bath upon leaving the bath, which has its own health benefits, has also been recommended.
There are two major rules to take Onsen. First, you should now allow your wash-towel or any soap into the bathtub. Secondly, when you leave the bath, you do not drain the water. These manners come from the fact that you are not the only person to use the bath water in the tub.
After soaking in an onsen, don't be in a hurry to leave. Follow tradition and have a comforting post-bath glass of milk or indulge in a soothing deep tissue massage or lounge in your yukata on a comfy couch while catching up with everything that happened online while you were soaking away.
Do NOT bathe in an onsen if you are at the active stage of a disease (especially if you have a fever); Onsen bathing imposes a large burden on your body, so avoid bathing in an onsen when you are weak and tired as the symptoms may become worse.
Typically it is not permitted to take photos while inside an onsen, unless you are visiting a private onsen.
So please don't concern yourself with being embarrassed in an onsen. It is a great experience that is both relaxing and exhilarating. Also, there is no reason to fear tourists or Japanese. Really, everyone inside the onsen doesn't care at all!
It's best not to eat before bathing in the onsen, but you need to drink a lot of water before and after your onsen bath. Keep your bath to a minimum. Staying too long may cause dehydration. While an onsen is relaxing and beneficial to your health, it's generally not a good idea to enter more than three times a day.
The Japanese have perfected the art of onsen, or hot spring baths, for centuries. Traditionally, men and women would bathe together in the same facility, but these days the baths are segregated by gender.
This social aspect, however, led many onsen and sento to prohibit tattooed guests. The Japanese taboo toward tattoos stems from their association with members of Japanese organized crime. Gangsters in Japan are typically heavily tattooed, and body art in Japan came to be associated with unsavory characters.
Many people report feeling dizzy or nauseous after their first few times after going to an onsen, and this is usually because of dehydration or overheating from staying in too long.
However, hot water above 42 Celsius (109F) causes dry skin and also high blood pressure, so complete bathing for 10 minutes with a half-body bath method. If you have high blood pressure or heart disease, better avoid taking a hot bath at 42 Celsius (109F) and higher.
Thermal Effect
It has been found that Japanese way of taking bath consumes significant energy. For example, when you take 42 ℃ onsen for 20 minutes, it is said to consume 220Kcal. It burns your calories as much as light jogging. That means, there is a diet effect!
Entering onsen of 42°C for about 10 minutes burns 70 to 80 calories which is only a little less than jogging for 10 minutes. Naoko Itatsu states that entering onsen and then exercising has been especially effective for her.
Today, Live Japan shares onsen bathers have a choice of coffee milk or fruit milk — both are sweet drinks that seem to help the body re-energize quickly after a bath.