The hints on that mentioned homepage are really recommendable. Unfortunately I have never been to Japan. But I have been to Iceland, and they have also those wonderful hot baths, the so-called hot pots in Iceland. And they can be REALLY hot. If you go into the wrong water, you will be cooked by about 80 degrees. But the normal hot pots for bathing are also hot and you should go in very slowly and warm you up step by step.

But they were sooooo wonderful, and I can imagine that an onsen is also so wonderful! :D

I know an excellent hotel with onsen baths near Hakone.
It's small, cheap (6000yen per night), and has two springs (indoor and outdoor). The best thing of this place is that the springs are private (which means, once you're in the wather, no one else except your friends can enter) and are opened 24 hours a day!!!

Imagine you taking a bath in the middle of the night in a outdoor onsen, when a light rain is falling down, with no one else except your friends.
Great experience :vsign:
That's only true in huge, public baths.
In small and private ones they don't care... but that's only because once you are naked into the water, no one can see you...:mtongue:
And I'm sure there are Yakuza's onsen too, where people with tattoos aren't banned. But non-yakuza aren't obviously allowed to enter!!

I just came back from Japan today on a school trip and we spent a night at a hotel in Kyoto with an Onsen. At first all the girls were really really uncomfortable but it's strange that after a while all those worries just go away. The onsen is really relaxing and peaceful! And it's so refreshing going from the onsen into the little cold water tub. Ooo:) Ahh there was a sauna as well and it was even hotter than the onsen...every time I breathed through my nose it felt like I was breathing in fire! I didn't stay in there for long:eek:

That hotel was really good, we had this amazing dinner with loads of yummy stuff, and breakfast was great as well. I can't remember what the hotel name was called, but apparently it was near the Biwa Lake in Ogoto, just outside Kyoto I think.

Aah... onsens. They're absolutely fantastic. xD Good memories...

I remember when I was in Japan and we were in a youth hostel in Hakone, and they had indoor and outdoor onsens... I think it might've been the place Cyclamen was talking about.

Hehe, at first I put my leg in and was like 'WTH it's boiling!!' and refused to go in, but then my friend kinda... pulled me in (what's more is that she splashed water at me and I swallowed some... yuck xP). Of course at first it felt like I was cooking but once you get settled in, it's actually really comfy. You have to get out every 10 minutes or so for a break though, or else you might get dizzy or something :S

It was tons of fun though, and a great experience!!

yeah i really want to visit a hotspring when i go to japan. i cant wait!

...eww...onsens aren't for you to perve and nampa.

Thanks for telling us :)

I've only ever been to one onsen in Japan and that was at the Tomiura Royal Hotel somewhere in the Chiba prefecture (dad always scores discounted accommodation due to his work). Always a pleasant experience but I'm sure there are better ones out there.

just recently visited DOGO Onsen in Ehime Prefecture.. its one of the oldest onsen in japan and was the inspiration of the movie Spirited Away.. it was really an amazing experience :D

** will post the pic as soon as i go home ***

Seriously guys.

If you have a tattoo on your leg by your foot. Does that mean that you really cant take a bath there? I really want to bath when I get there... luckily enough I havent tattooed it in yet.. kinda waiting for how bad it is with tattoos in onsens.

Some places are stricter than others... a small one like that on an obvious gaijin might be allowed to pass at some places (because you probably aren't yakuza...), but many people who see it will think you are an American criminal or gang member, and still might refuse you for that. I'd wait to get it until after returning from Japan if you don't want to possibly be denied entry or kicked out. The rules at nearly every onsen I visited said clearly "No tattoos!", and most places enforce that.