Onsen!!! And Lots of Naked People...

Ok so this is my last blog post for today.  Last night, my host parents took me to an onsen.  If you don't know what an onsen is, it's basically a public bath where everyone is naked and you shower there.  Of course it's divided by gender. There's also lots of hot tubs, jacuzzis, and mist rooms.  It's basically like a super amazing spa.  And it's really cheap.... like $5 for a person and you can stay there as long as you want or as long as the onsen stays open anyway.  It's pretty common for Japanese people to go to the onsen a couple times a month.  I went with my host parents last night and had a really great time.  I was kinda self conscious at first since I was completely naked but everyone else was too and I really don't think anyone there was intent on scrutinizing my body lol so I kinda got use to it after a while.  Also, you're in the water a lot of the time so people can't really see your body anyway :P lol and I found out that yes... if fact there are a lot of fat Japanese people.  You just can't tell because they always wear really loose clothing since it's always so hot.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any pictures or videos because I didn't want to start posting pictures and videos of naked people on the Internet.  I think that would be quite a big intrusion into their privacy >_>

Although the onsen was really fun, it was a bit different from what I expected.  Onsen means hot spring... so I thought it would be some place in the mountains, really natural.  And there would be a hot spring source directly from the mountains and the bath would be a big pit dug into the earth lined with rocks... lol but it was nothing like that.  Although the water was actual hot spring water from the mountains, it wasn't any more natural than that.  The tubs were all man made and even the open air bath was on a raised platform of wood and made of metal and stuff.  I was kinda disappointed... but I guess it takes too long to drive into the mountains anyway :) Still, I had a lot of fun but I kinda wish we could have stayed longer.  We only went for about an hour.  I think we are going to go again sometime next week though because we are having a four day vacation in Osaka and Kyoto and probably going to the onsen there.  So maybe... I can try to get some pictures there.  Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading my huge mass of posts... it took me a couple hours sooooooo :P