Nude Public Baths and Role-Playing Dress-up: Exploring Japan's Traditions and Cultural Quirks

And now for something completely different! Naked public baths, role-play dressing, etiquette valued above all else - Japan is an exciting mix of historical traditions and cultural quirks of bathing in a public onsen READ MORE: Map reveals what people wear in saunas around the world
By Ivo Dawnay for The Daily Mail
Updated: 08:07 BST, 11 July 2023 < /p>
Nerfs weren't half of it. Even before landing in this amazing country, I couldn't help but wonder if I'd be brave enough to go bathe with the Japanese in hot springs 6,000 miles from my home in London.
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'Can we wear swimming trunks?' I asked.
'Absolutely not', James Mundy, our InsideJapan tour guide, replied vigorously. 'Of course, you don't have to participate.'
So it's two days later than a middle-aged newbie late slams bravely in wooden clogs and a thin cotton kimono through the cobbled streets of Kinosaki, a small hot spring town on Japan's west coast, to the onsen public baths. England are waiting - and I'm proud to say that in the end I've raised the flag.
On the surface, Japan is the lookalike of Great Britain. Over there, on the other side of the world, is a small group of islands off a huge continent. They even think they are better than their neighbours, smarter, more sophisticated, wiser. They drive on the left. They understand the queue. They are reserved and courteous. They say sorry when you stand on their foot. All a bit like us.

Travel Jul 12, 2023 0 40 Add to Reading List

Nude Public Baths and Role-Playing Dress-up: Exploring Japan's Traditions and Cultural Quirks

And now for something completely different! Naked public baths, role-play dressing, etiquette valued above all else - Japan is an exciting mix of historical traditions and cultural quirks of bathing in a public onsen READ MORE: Map reveals what people wear in saunas around the world

By Ivo Dawnay for The Daily Mail

Updated: 08:07 BST, 11 July 2023 < /p>

Nerfs weren't half of it. Even before landing in this amazing country, I couldn't help but wonder if I'd be brave enough to go bathe with the Japanese in hot springs 6,000 miles from my home in London.

'Can we wear swimming trunks?' I asked.

'Absolutely not', James Mundy, our InsideJapan tour guide, replied vigorously. 'Of course, you don't have to participate.'

So it's two days later than a middle-aged newbie late slams bravely in wooden clogs and a thin cotton kimono through the cobbled streets of Kinosaki, a small hot spring town on Japan's west coast, to the onsen public baths. England are waiting - and I'm proud to say that in the end I've raised the flag.

On the surface, Japan is the lookalike of Great Britain. Over there, on the other side of the world, is a small group of islands off a huge continent. They even think they are better than their neighbours, smarter, more sophisticated, wiser. They drive on the left. They understand the queue. They are reserved and courteous. They say sorry when you stand on their foot. All a bit like us.