[island101]

About: Stacy, 22 years old from Portland. She moved to Japan with her boyfriend Billy 3 months ago.

Hi all. Living in Japan these last few months has been amazing. I’d like to tell you about a recent experience at an onsen. If you don’t know what an onsen is, it’s a public bath where you go and bathe with other people. I know, to Americans this seems strange since we have our own bathroom, but it’s an iconic experience in Japan, so Billy and I decided to check one out.

The onsen we chose was near our apartment. It was a little strange to get used to, especially being naked around strangers. As a foreigner it’s hard to not stick out. This one was separated by sex, but I think I would have preferred something more private for Billy and I since my Japanese still isn’t good and it was hard for me to communicate with the local women who came over to talk to me.

Not knowing what our first experience would be like, Billy and I agreed to keep it to an hour and meet back in the lobby. When I got dressed and returned to the lobby I saw Billy talking with a short, chubby, older man. When I walked over, Billy introduced me to the man whose name was Haru. Billy met Haru in the bath and told him about me in the women’s bath and how he wished he could be with me at the onsen. Haru said he knew a place we could go that is co-ed where we could be in the bath together.

Haru said he’d come with us so he could navigate and we all got into our car. On the way to the onsen Haru told us a little about himself and I found out that he’s a physics professor who at one time taught in the US at Stanford, which is my alma mater. We exchanged some stories about Stanford and I found out that he knew some of the faculty members that I knew. It’s a small world after all.

We parked the car and got out. As we were crossing the street Haru told us to walk to a bridge and look out at the scenery. The onsen was outdoors and could be seen from the bridge. There were three older men in the bath. I should mention three very naked men, and the water was very clear, so I saw more than I would have liked - LOL.

We walked into a building that housed the entrance to the bath. There was a friendly guy who was working the door and after some chit-chat we paid our fees and were given two towels each, a modesty towel and a regular towel.

Then we were shown to an area where we were to disrobe and wash up before going through a door to the outside. The locker/shower area was separated by sex, so I walked in one door and Billy and Haru took the other door. The women’s area was empty and I got undressed and washed myself even though I had just done this a little earlier at the other onsen.

When I was done it was time to walk through the door to the onsen outside. I grabbed my modesty towel as you are supposed to and used it to cover my front. It didn’t cover very much, but covered my boobs and the bottom of the towel landed a few inches past my crotch. As usual with modesty towels, my back end was left uncovered.

As I walked out the door to the outside I noticed the bridge and a group of people looking down at the onsen area just as we had done earlier, but this time I was one of the naked people. Billy and Haru had already entered the bath and waved to me as I entered the outside area. As I walked to the bath a wind kicked up and blew my towel covering my lower nudity, flashing the others in the bath and those watching from the bridge.

As I got into the water I did as I was instructed in the last onsen and put the towel on top of my head after getting in the water. This was a little embarrassing as the water was very clear and as I looked out at my fellow bathers I saw five penises facing my direction. Billy had already met the other bathers and introduced me to them. We spent a little time getting to know each other and they were interested in why we were in Japan.

After about 15 minutes the guy we met working the front door came over to us with some tea and asked if we wanted some. It was very delicious. Then he told us that he had a second bath, but it was under renovations and would be ready in about a week. He was really excited about the bath and told us to take a walk with him to check it out. So Billy, Haru and I and our three new friends got out of the bath to follow him. I noticed at this point nobody really cared about covering up, so I got out of the bath to join the group and just held my modesty towel in my hand instead of using it to cover. The only clothed one of the seven of us led the way as the naked group followed behind. When we got to the new bath the attendant showed us all of the upgrades he did. It was a cool bath, we’ll have to go back one of these days.

After checking out the renovations we went back to the onsen. The three men we met at the onsen left and we were joined by a few new guys. I didn’t think about it at the time, but I was the only woman in the mixed bath while I was there. It would have been nice if there were other women, but at least I was able to spend time with Billy.

After we were done we drove Haru back to his car and exchanged numbers and made plans to check out a new restaurant together next week. Billy and I plan to explore more onsens as we adapt to life in Japan.