This was a totally different experience for us but one we were anxious to try. Now I can understand why the Japanese love it so much! Certainly worth a visit if you get the chance. Next time, we’ll find a true onsen for a real pampering!
We’re now home from our (amazing!) trip, so look forward to detailed daily overviews as I sift through the 3742 photos I took over the fourteen days. In the meantime, I’m continuing to feature a few specific pictures.
One of the favorite pastimes in Japan is visiting onsen or sentou. What’s the difference? The former are natural hot springs; the latter are public baths. The line between them has been blurred, and the terms are commonly interchanged, with true onsen explicitly calling out the natural hot springs feature of their establishment. Modern sentou create artificial hot springs by pumping geothermally heated water, so it’s easy to confuse the two.
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