Children and Onsen
 

We would like to visit / stay at an Onsen during our next trip to Japan. However, we have a 2-year-old.

What is the Japanese attitude towards children at Onsen? Are they welcome? Are there some at which they are welcome? Or is this considered to be improper because children and be loud and hurt the relaxation?

There is no problem with taking a child into an onsen. People even bring babies in all the time.
I have heard rumors of places where they won`t let you take a not-yet-potty-trained child in, but have never encountered a single one... And we did a lot of onsen traveling while my son was in that age range.

Just be aware of manners and do your best to control your child. Obviously make sure you wash them well first, try to get them to go to the toilet before getting in to eliminate any possible accidents, etc. While in the water keep them from splashing, running around, etc. Basically just keep them sitting with you or on your lap.

I've seen lots of children at the various onsens around Hankone. If you go on a weekday, you can usually have the bath to yourself, and most inns/onsens have private baths for not extra charge (though you'll need to reserve it in advance) if your kid is a little rambunctious.

Great! Maybe we will give it a try then.

I'm a bit worried too about the "not yet potty trained" part as well. Even if they don't reject us, it seems a bit, ummm, unsanitary?

What if we bring swim diapers for her? Would that be considered really weird?

In my experience, and in observing small children in the bath - unless they are *tiny*, if they`re going to "leak" they do it while being washed before getting into the bath. I think this is really a judgement call on your part. If your daughter is the type to pee in the bath - then don`t take her in. Or make sure it`s a private (family) bath. It`s largely an honor thing.

Either way, baths are constantly flowing, and are scrubbed down daily - so within a short amount of time the water is completely changed and within 24 the whole bath has been cleaned. I have never heard of anyone having issues with getting sick in a bath - much MUCH more sanitary than say, the beach, a lake, or even a pool in which the water is changed once or twice a season. I wouldn`t get in one with a huge open wound, but then again I don`t think I`d want to go anywhere with a huge open wound.

Swim diapers would really be pointless as they do not block urine or feces from escaping - they just don`t swell up in the same way as a normal diaper when in water. If your child goes while wearing one, it will still leak out without much difference compared to being nude. Plus, wearing anything in the bath is a huge no-no.

Not so much Onsen but my local sento....

Has loads of kids.

Now please understand that I am in the mens section and I see boys and girls come in with their fathers and never cause any problems, apart from shouting too much.

Due to the way Japanese do bathing there is always very little issue as many of the kids already know how to bathe from an early age.
I am sure that if you bathe with your daughter and she gets noisy then no one will care.

Lets face it, If she lets loose in her nappie then you be the first to know it and also the most embarresed person that day.

Thanks all. Right now it's looking like it's not going to work out for this trip, but we're going to keep our eyes open and maybe something will come up. In part, we were looking for a place that has private baths, and from my limited searching all the places with private baths are really expensive. [This is around the Kyoto / Osaka area; further north might be different.]

This place says "Please note that children still wearing diapers are not allowed in the bath." Whether they enforce it or not I don't know. [They also say "Please note that individuals with tattoos are refused access to our facilities.".]

There are some ryokans that have private onsen times as well. Might that be a possibility? We had an onsen in northern Gifu in which every room had its own mini onsen outside the room. It was really neat. :)

My wife has been taking our 12 month old girl to a local onsen for a few months now. No problems getting her in and she's been a good girl somehow realising she shouldn't relieve herself in the bath.