Onsen, The Japanese Bath

This blog post will be little different, because in this time I will try to present and explain the feeling of onsen from a foreigners viewpoint.  I found that interviewing Japanese wouldn’t necessarily be that fertile.  I think they inherit their bathing habits in their genes, it would be hard them to explain or describe the bath process to outsider.

I have heard some wonderful stories about onsens, I felt like I really had to experience it by my self too. Bathing culture in Japan was totally unfamiliar to me, so it was a big leap to the great unknown. There is something really fascinating in onsen, maybe it’s all the good health affects and the feeling of total relaxation. One late Thursday evening me and two friends of mine went to solve the mystery of Japanese onsen.

 

Inside the onsen place we first left our shoes to shoe lockers.There was couple of machines where you could buy your entrance ticket and all possible accessory involving in bathing. Men and women hade their own sides in the onsen. This was a public bath, of course you couldn’t take any pictures inside. But now it leaves to your imaginary a space to think how it would be like there in the middle of many different onsens.  

We left your clothes to changing rooms lockers. When we entered to bathing area, a very warm and humid air welcomed us. First we needed to take a shower. There were many shower places next to each other with small chairs and buckets. I found interesting that showers were placed really low and in every shower place there were big mirror too.   

First we tried basic onsen, with massaging bubbles. The water was very warm, about 42 Celsius grades. Next we went to outdoor area, where there were three different onsen. To me the most fascinating was the milk onsen. You really could feel the tender touch of white water and good affect to your skin. At the same time you could watch some TV too. Vinegar onsen had some bitter smell, and water was brownish. This one too was really worth testing, again very relaxing.   

To me as a Finnish person, sauna is definately one of the most important things that I miss, when here in Japan. In bath entering to hot sauna made me feel cozy and actually little like home.  In sauna there were nice soft mats to sit on and of course there were also flat screen, you could keep up with your favorite soap opera.

The best piece of advice I can give is; do the same as Japanese do and follow their example.  All the signs in onsen were written in Japanese only, so without any language skills, just imitate others doings. Case mystery of famous Japanese onsen culture has now been solved (at least some part of it). I got purified, both my soul and my body are now clean and I’m ready for new adventures.

Some more information about onsen:

http://www.onsenjapan.net/onsenbasics.php 

http://www.yamasa.org/acjs/network/english/newsletter/things_japanese_32.html 

http://www.taupohotsprings.com/?PK_PAGE_ID=2107

Traditional Yuzen Dyeing

Arashiyama is a very famous place for springs' hanamis and some Japanese intend to have a picnic there also. Place is fantastic because there you can enjoy nice views and taste some local delicious foods, sweets and drinks. In Arashiyama there is this charming art studio called Karukaya. It’s near the river next to a beautiful sakura tree garden. 

I had amazing opportunity to experience a bit of traditional craft of Kyoto called ”Yuzen Dyeing”, the industrial art of dyeing Kimono cloth. This time, instead of Kimono cloth I used postcards made of Japanese paper called “Washi”.

On a Washi postcard, I printed with a brush a traditional Yuzen patterns with a variety of colors, such as sights of Kyoto and Arashiyama, wild local plants and flowers, and etc.

In total I had two sensees, teachers, who guided as well as they could. My lacking Japanese language skills made the situation a bit challenging, but when doing art, you can use the language of brush.

First I got to practice my print to an ordinary paper before moving to the real Washi. Washi felted smooth and soft, but it has some texture on it too. Then I replaced my pattern on the Washi, chose a color and used a brush to print it. My senses told me, that there are no stick rules about color using.  You should just go with your feeling at the moment. 

This whole experiment gave me actually feeling of ancient Japan, and the appreciation of a true handwork. 

 

I found this great webpage for those who are interested more about Japanese traditional art making:

http://www.pref.kyoto.jp/visitkyoto/en/theme/activities/cultural/crafts/