[bushfan87]

When I visited Japan, I stayed in a "minshuku" which is a family run guesthouse. The main building consisted of a long hallway, with about 8 rooms dotted along the right hand side. My room was the last one towards the end. It had a high ceiling, and big 'paper' windows.

At the very end of the hallway was a door which gave access to the onsen. You walked into the changing room, then turned right to access it. It "sunk" down lower than the rest of the building, and there were windows along the top of the walls. Its use alternated between men and women, i.e. 19:00 - 20:00 was for men, then 20:00 - 21:00 was for women.

From the outside, there was no way to see anything. The windows on the onsen wall were too high. But, my room was in the *perfect* position. Its windows were only a few metres away. My ceiling was high, the onsen was low and I'm 6ft tall.

If I stood on a table and stacked up my bedding, I could *just* get high enough to peek out my window, and "down" into the onsen.

At the end of each day I'd turn off my light, open my window, stand on my table and wait for the various Japanese women staying with me to enter the bath.