Onsen questions

Having visited a few onsen lately been wondering about some things. Why do people put their towel on top of their head? Sometimes it looks like they dip it in the water and then putting it on their forehead. Did so myself to fit in somehow but not sure about the reason and It almost fell off a few times.
I off course clean my body before bath but are you expected to clean your hair with shampoo every time or just leave it if you did it the same day?
Then I went to Kinosaki where bath hopping is the thing. Got through three baths as some where closed. But what about cleaning yourself between the baths, are you expected to do that every time in the same day? Feels like the skin might get damaged by too much soap..

Why do people put their towel on top of their head?

I always figured because it is the easiest place to put it. You should not put it into the water. And putting it outside the bath is not always straight-forward. I personally hate the feeling of having a towel on my head and always look for a place next to the pool to put the towel.

I off course clean my body before bath but are you expected to clean your hair with shampoo every time or just leave it if you did it the same day?

Certainly not. Hair washing is not required, at all, when using an onsen.

But what about cleaning yourself between the baths, are you expected to do that every time in the same day? Feels like the skin might get damaged by too much soap.

There are many different opinions on this. I have visited probably a thousand onsen baths - from modern ones that reek from the chloride they put into the water for hygiene to natural ones that have no showers and forbid the use of soap, altogether. For me onsen is about getting in contact with the mineral-rich water. It has nothing to do with cleaning yourself. To the opposite: you dirty yourself with the mineral-rich water. If you are not interested in the minerals, there is little need to visit an onsen. For hygiene-reasons, of course, all users of a common bath should clean themselves before entering the bath. I believe that rinsing yourself with water is enough in most cases, especially when enjoying multiple onsen baths per day. Most rule posters at onsen baths will reflect what I just wrote, but there is a steadily growing number of hygiene-crazy people out there, who have different opinions on the matter.

That's why I love the old-fashioned, rustic onsen with a steady flow of fresh water, whose baths don't even have showers, and your only option is to rinse yourself with water from the bath. And I dislike the modern, sterile "“V‘R‰·�ò" baths that leave you with a smell of chlorine on your skin (and usually have their water pumped from a depth of several hundred meters and then reciruclate the water).

Why do people put their towel on top of their head?

That's what's been traditionally encouraged, and I can't think of a more practical place to put it. The towel is to be used to rub grime off your body as well as to wipe off excess water before you go back to the dressing room.

You're not supposed to dip it in the tub, because it's got your grime on it, and you don't want to leave your towel elsewhere, because the towel could get wet or even dirty. The top of your head is best. It's the driest and safest place for you and for everybody else.

Then I went to Kinosaki where bath hopping is the thing. Got through three baths as some where closed. But what about cleaning yourself between the baths, are you expected to do that every time in the same day?

No. But just to show respect for other bathers, you're expected to rinse your body with water before you enter the tub. At least your feet might have gotten dirty from the road, and you might have gone to the toilet.

I only recently learnt that this small towel was supposed to be used to dry yourself off before heading back to the changing area. Before that, I did not always take it to the baths. When I do, if there are (many) buckets available around the pool, I would take one and put my towel (and glasses) in it. By the way, I wonder if it is impolite to keep my glasses on while bathing?

I personally wash myself with soap before and after the bath. But I saw a "user guide" in one onsen, that suggested just rinsing yourself (without soap) before entering the pool, and then take a proper shower (with soap) when exiting. Regarding hair, I don't wash it every time, but it is not supposed to enter the water.

@Uco: then reciruclate the water
I did not know that some onsens recirculated the water! I always thought it was an open circuit, or otherwise it did not qualified as an "onsen". Thanks for the heads-up, I'll pay more attention to that in the future and try to go only to those with free-flowing water.

Woops, that was @Uji, no @Uco (sorry !!)

Regarding washing, I thought that you should wash well before getting into the onsen. But not necessarily at all afterwards. Sure, if it is a super sento with chlorine in the water, get a quick shower afterwards. But if it is a real onsen, I thought that you should leave the minerals from the water on your skin and not wash them off with water and soap.

There was only one instance ever where I read that a quick rinse before is enough (which surprised me), usually the guidelines say to wash well before entering the bath. I don't remember which hotel it was , unfortunately, only that it was in English (with pictures, so, no misunderstanding it) :/

I wonder if it might be because they throw away the water in the nearest river and don't want to pollute it with soap, in case people don't rinse well enough.

this difference is from Osaka (Kansai) style or Tokyo (Kanto) style.
many differences in life styles between them.

@Meliye
Being a wearer of glasses myself, and about half blind without them (could easily have fallen down the stairs in the onsen near the station of Kinosaki onsen without them), I have always had them on when bathing. It's for my safety and I have seen others wearing too.

I've noticed that in the recent years, the rule has been to "wash your body completely before entering the shared bath". Here's an example of a rule.
https://hakone-japan.com/things-to-do/onsen/how-to-enjoy-onsen/how-to-...

When I was growing up, however, all I heard was to first just roughly rinse off excess dirt and your under parts. This also allows you to get used to the hot water so that your body won't be shocked when you enter the tub. Then you get in the tub to warm yourself. This not only allows you to become warm enough to stay outside the tub when you thoroughly wash yourself but also opens up your pores which makes it easier to wash off everything that's bad for your skin.

But I guess now that we have showers, soaps, enough public water supply, and air conditioning, they're encouraging us to wash thoroughly from the beginning. Btw, I remember that it was in the 1980s that Japanese people commonly started washing their bodies and hair every day instead of once in three days or so. Until then, I was the one weirdo back from the U.S. who needed a shower head in the bathing room.

I also think this is a difference of eras. Society simply has become more hygienic over times. And some think: too hygienic.

@Meliye
nothing wrong in what you say.
for example, the layouts in sento, ‘K“’ are different between Kanto and Kansai.
the recommended manner here is Kanto style.

@ken
That wasn't in Kanto but further north, during my trip covering Tōhoku. I did a bunch of onsen ryokans, day use onsens and hotel baths so I'm not sure where it could have happened.

@Jolo
Same for me, I can't walk without wearing my glasses. But I have seen very few (almost none) women with their glasses on in any bathing facility, that's why I wondered if it was frowned upon.

as an onsen enthusiast here my two cp:

regarding the towel on the head:
* there is one more purpose that has not been mentioned yet:
** the head is the center of temperature evaluation of the human body.
* using this fact people can soak the towels with cold water, put it on the head and then you can enter extremely hot onsen (e.g. 46+) and your body will still think it is a nice temerature, cause the cold towel makes your brain say: oh, it's still fine.
* => so use this trick if you can not handle extremely hot water to enter the onsen or to stay longer time in them.

also wiping yourself clean before entering the dressing room is a must. it is seen very rude not to do so.
* but the good thing is: if the onsen water is very hot and you remove all drops with the small towel before entering the dressing room, you might then not even need a bigger towel at all
=> so good for onsen hopping or a quick hikaeri (saves you weight and sometimes rental fees for bigger towels)


about cleaning:
after entering many many hundreds of onsens your mindset will slowly change:
* you must stop seeing the showering as >>cleaning<< process. instead you have to see it as part of the "onsen ritual"
** washing yourself slowly on the chair (not using shower but only the bucket) will set your mind into a somehow mediative state
** you can get to feel the atmosphere of the onsen, the people inside it, the secret local onsen rules and so on
** you can clean your thoughs and worries also during this process, not only your body
* the difference to european or american bathing culture is: we go into the bath to clean ourself. but in japanese onsen ritual the cleaning is done >>before<<, so that when you enter the onsen itself you do have nothing else to do but relaxing and enjoying the bath.

i know this takes time to settle and was also not for me until after some hundred onsens, but with time you will get it. so most times now i clean myself thoughtfully again even if i have been in 3 other onsen before and i am completly alown in the new onsen with noone watching.

what a wonderful thing onsen can be, if you take your time!

I'm a woman and I can definitely say that wearing glasses on in the bathing is not frowned upon. It's perfectly alright to keep them on. But I suspect that glasses tend to quickly be mist over or even get wet and blind you. Also, hot water, moreover onsen water, would damage most lenses. Perhaps people tend to leave their glasses behind for those reasons.

also wiping yourself clean before entering the dressing room is a must. it is seen very rude not to do so.
Yep, I'm definitely doing since I learnt about it (it seems so obvious now) and also noticed that I don't really need the bigger towel anymore unless I was my hair.

@Uco
Thanks for confirming it is ok for women too :)

I have a friend who bathes with a hand towel wrapped around his head like a bandana, instead of just placing it on his head. It looks a little funny because he doing that looks like a waiter at a ramen shop, but I think it's not a bad idea because it's much more stable than just placing it on top of the head.

I don't think that cleansing is traditionally part of onsen culture. Don't confuse onsen with sento. In onsen, cleansing is just a necessary practicality. In old onsen baths you won't even find showers.

As for glasses, they will get damaged by the water and steam of acidic onsen (some have a pH close to 1). In Kusatsu, for example, where the water has a pH of around 2, electronic devices in the proximity of hot spring sources have a considerably shorter life time for that reason. So, if you have very expensive glasses, you better leave them in the changing room for that reason. I myself always keep them on because I want to see the scenery, read the signs and not fall over.

I don't think that cleansing is traditionally part of onsen culture. Don't confuse onsen with sento. In onsen, cleansing is just a necessary practicality. In old onsen baths you won't even find showers.

As a 62 year old native resident, I can say that it has always been a no no to jump into a shared tub without cleansing yourself, moreover your toilet parts. Before showers and faucets became common, people used the tub water to cleanse themselves. That's why there always was/is an "oke" bucket in the room. But if you look hard, there almost always is a faucet inside onsen bathing rooms.

Cleansing yourself after using the tub is debatable, however. People used to commonly believe that it would accidentally wash off the nutrition you gained from the onsen tub water. But nowadays, you're encouraged to cleanse after the tub, because science has proved that there is bacteria in shared tubs and that a simple cleanse wouldn't really wash off all the onsen power.

I expressed it badly. What I meant is that cleansing at onsen is a necessary practicality rather than an integral traditional part of onsen culture. Very different from sento culture.