Re: Edo Style Nudity.
As it pared down to the final nights I thought I ought to finally do the Oedo Onsen in Odaiba. None of my few remaining peers wanted to go (you suck - you know who you are), so I did this one solo. In retrospect, it was probably for the better as this was a famous bathhouse of all things.
In Japan bathhouses are normal part of life. Watch anime - its true. Japan is rife with natural geothermic hot springs. Incidentally these were the main draw of Hakone, its like a bathhouse resort. Sadly not to be. Now both natural and artificial baths are commonplace. I couldn’t say what occasions going to a bathhouse rather than conventional bathing, but its an experience unto itself. Group bathing in a foreign country? Sign me up! I came here for culture immersion, right.
So I took the train into Odiaba, behind the TV studio and Palette town.
Dropping me in off in front of this building, which I THINK is NTT DoCoMo.
And there is was - The Disney World of bathhouses. You heard me. It’s like a carnival atmosphere. No, seriously. Not exactly what I had envisioned either. Its also open all night (hence why it dark out). I recall an anecdote regarding a couple of my classmates missing the train and sleeping in massage chairs all night.
Like all fun places, the first thing you do is wait in a long zigzagging line. Then you pay the entrance fee and select the yukata of you’re choice. It really only gets more ridiculous from here on in. I chose the two-tone blue zig-zag one to the back left with the enthusiastic gentleman on the back.
Sorry - pictures of me in my Yukata have been omitted. By the way if there is a different term than ‘Yukata’ for the men’s version please let me know so I can make slightly less of an ass out of myself talking about it. Then you go into the locker room ante-chamber to secure your belongings, and figure out your yukata. I found the obi (belt)…challenging. These instructions explain show how I spent about an hour of my life: http://www.shimazakura.com/How-to-tie-men-s-obi-s/78.htm
Then you leave your respective gender’s locker room, and emerge into…the…bathhouse?
It was like a recreation edo carnival. Coed, everyone wearing yukatas. Traditional food. Carnival games. Gift shops. Ninjas.
Underwear machines
Ramune soda rocks.
It is a GOOD time. The awkwardness of it makes it 3 times better. The bravery is well worth the payoff. Sidenote - no tattoos. Tattoos = yakuza apparently.
There is also an outdoor portion with various foot baths and whatnot. You can soak your feat or walk little paths designed to relax and massage. Although my experience was transcendent and relaxing only in the sense that I had to separate my mind from the fact that I was walking a sizable distance bare foot on increasingly sharp rocks in SCALDING hot water. As one Japanese girl put it “Atsui! Atsui! Atsui! Atsui!”.
After the middle, shared portion, it sub-divides again into the ACTUAL men and women’s bathhouses through another set of locker rooms. No cultural immersion quite like bathing with a hundred or so Japanese men. So many…so many naked men…I don’t know if its always this crowded, but it was packed that night. I’ve been on sports team, I’ve done the group shower thing before, but its so bizarre seeing it on this scale. Of course, to the Japanese it was the most normal thing in the world (except me being there). There were even squads of naked children running around. Safe to say a place like this would upset sensibilities back home.
First you actually bathe. This involves sitting a very very low stool and scrubbing, then rinsing with a little adjustable hose. There is also a little bucket you can fill and pour over your head. It was an adjustment. As the only chubby, white, hairy guy there I just tried to go with the flow. Then once you are nice and clean (and still naked), you walk through the big bathing chamber, out to the beautiful outdoor courtyard with the actual mineral baths. Then you just sit in there and relax. They have tons of different pools. They have hot, they have cold, they have clear and pure, they have cloudy and full of…stuff. I don’t know if I’d just gotten used to it, or
whether a part of my mind had just broken from the ridiculousness of this place. In either case, sitting out there was THE most relaxing few hours of my life. It was unbelievably soothing, opiate soothing. I wouldn’t be surprised if the cloudy bath was actually full of crushed up Ambien. Sadly this would my first and last time. Seriously - do this. You haven’t done japan till you have.