With the phrase “Girls Night,” often comes images of scenes such as drinking an excessive amount of wine, consuming fatty processed foods while binge watching an entire season on Netflix, or dancing obscenely in the club (then crying, then back to dancing); and typically followed by brunch the next morning where you can share wild stories and ridicule each other’s lapses in sound judgment. At least, that is how “Girls Night” is imagined back home in the United States. Things are a little different in Japan, to say the least, which is how I ended up in a giant bathtub with three of my closest girl friends on a Friday night.
In Japan, public bathing is huge—and completely normal. Japan is famous for its onsens, which are Japanese hot springs, and onsen resorts are popular with both tourists and Japanese alike. Sento is the term used for public bathhouses that use heated tap water, whereas the water in an onsen comes from a natural hot spring.
(Via source)
This visit to the local sento was not my first experience with public bathing. On a previous trip to Japan, my family actually stayed at an onsen resort, where my little brother and I embarrassed my mother by splashing and flailing our arms around in the onsen like it was a regular swimming pool, and all of the other guests smiled graciously while probably silently wishing they could drown us. I was only ten at the time, and I had never experienced anything like it before, but I remember being largely unfazed by it. I was also not yet as self-aware of my body as I am now, which contributed to my ease.
Still, ten years ago is a long time, and when my friends suggested going to the public bath the other day I instantly reverted back to my ten-year-old self as I hesitantly asked if we were going to be sharing the bath with each other. “Well, yeah,” one of my friends responded. “You don’t think its weird, right?”
Who, me? I laughed, and brushed my nervousness aside for the time being. When we did go to the sento, which is a convenient 5-minute walk from our dormitory. I felt completely fine as we slipped out of our shoes at the entrance as per Japanese custom, and as I paid my shockingly low fee of 460 yen (approximately 5 USD). Then we walked through the red curtains labeled WOMEN into the locker room, where the sight of two stark naked women promptly greeted me. For a second, there’s a moment of bewilderment that I could not help because I am so unused to this kind of situation, but I immediately returned to my senses before I could turn into a gaping foreigner.
via flickr
Next it was time for my friends and I to undress, and I managed this with complete ease up until I was in my underwear, where for some reason I started looking around the room at the rest of my friends to see what they were doing despite knowing exactly what I was supposed to be doing. I think that this situation rendered me more self-conscious than normal because I was never briefed on proper sento etiquette, and I kept wondering if there was a wrong or right way to do things, even for a task as simple as taking off all of your clothes. After a few minutes of reassuring myself that my friends have seen me do stranger things than undressing (like way stranger), I steeled myself and finished undressing all the way. Surprisingly, I did not feel as self-conscious of my body than I expected. There was absolutely no sense of feeling like someone was scrutinizing you, nor did I think that anyone cared about what you looked like. It was kind of liberating, especially since I come from a country where major news typically consists of pointing out celebrities’ minor flaws and young women are constantly pressured to look a certain way in order to feel beautiful.
The actual process of bathing was the real challenge, since I could hardly remember the last time I was in a public bathhouse (that last time, I had my mother by my side to guide me). This time I was left to fend for myself, so I just started following by example. It is customary for one to wash oneself before entering the actual bath, which is done by seating yourself at one of the water taps, then pouring water into a bucket and dumping it on yourself. I cursed briefly as I poured scalding hot water all over myself, since I was too dumb to realize that you could just mix the water from the red (hot) and blue (cold) taps for a more desired temperature. Finally, I headed over to the bath and stuck my legs into the water, before uttering some more expletives while my other friend looked up at me, already fully submerged in the water.
via Travel Rakuten
I always thought my showers were pretty hot, but the water in the sento is unlike anything I was used to. That, and I also consider myself weak in general, which is why I blubbered incoherently as I gradually lowered myself into the bubbling water, feeling more like a boiling vegetable than someone here to take a relaxing bath. Once you are completely in the water, however, the experience becomes more enjoyable as you eventually get used to the temperature. A friend told me that it is recommended that you do not stay in the onsen for longer than 20-25 minutes, but not even we could last that long, jumping out of the bath periodically to cool ourselves off with buckets of cold water. For those feeling brave, there was also a smaller bath that was filled with ice-cold water. I got as far as putting my legs into the water, before feeling the lower half of my body grow numb—NOPE, said my brain.
Once you are finished, you return to the locker room where you dry yourself off and get dressed. One of the things that surprised me the most was the age range at the sento, with both young and old women alike. I was told to expect a lot more old people, because public bathhouses are not as much of a habit for the younger generations. I also expected to see more people there alone, but a lot of the women came with a friend, and chatted nonchalantly while they undressed and washed themselves. For them, getting naked with their friends was not nearly as intimate of an experience as it was for me, although by the end of the experience I felt completely comfortable being around my friends like this, and it felt no different from a regular excursion with them.
So next time, when you and your friends have the chance, and aren’t in the mood to drink copious amounts of alcohol or party that night, maybe try a visit to your local sento or onsen. Because nothing quite says bonding more than getting naked together, and taking turns trying to detangle each other’s hair because none of you thought about bringing a hairbrush.