Onsen bathing is nude, swimsuits aren't allowed, and you wash before you get in. The full routine, the rules people break most, and tips for après-ski soaks.
At a Japanese onsen you bathe nude, in baths separated by gender, and you wash your whole body at a seated shower before you get into the water. Swimsuits are not allowed, your small towel never goes in the bath, and photos are banned in the bathing area. Keep to those rules and nobody will pay you any attention.
A 2018 multilingual guide for the Hakuba Happo onsen, published on Japan's tourism ministry database, lists the rules most baths share (MLIT):
| Rule | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| Wash before bathing | Soap and rinse at the shower stations first |
| No swimwear | Nude bathing only, unless the bath says otherwise |
| Towels out of the water | Don't dip or wring your towel in the bath; put it on your head or the edge |
| No swimming or splashing | The bath is for quiet soaking |
| Don't jump in | Tubs are shallow and others are relaxing |
| Dry off before the changing room | A wet floor gets slippery |
| No photos | Taking pictures in the bathing area is prohibited |
| No alcohol in the bath | Don't bring drinks into the bathing area |
Nudity is normal and nobody stares. Many visitors carry the small towel in front of them while walking, which is fine.
Both have separate, nude bathing areas for men and women, but an onsen is only for bathing.
| Japanese onsen | Korean jjimjilbang | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Hot spring baths, often at a ryokan, hotel or public bathhouse | Bathhouse plus a mixed-gender lounge with sauna rooms |
| Clothing | Nude in the bath area; nothing shared outside it | Nude in the bath area; issued clothes in the shared lounge |
| Typical visit | 30 to 60 minutes of soaking | Several hours, sometimes overnight |
| Body scrub | No scrub service at most onsen | Scrub service (seshin) common in the bath area |
| Noise | Quiet | Social, with families and friends chatting |
| Tattoos | Often refused | Rarely an issue |
The closest Japanese equivalent to a jjimjilbang is a super sento or kenko land, a large bath complex where you change into house clothes and use rest areas and restaurants. Ski-town onsen are usually simpler than that.
Washing first is the same as in a Korean mokyoktang; the order after that differs. Long, vigorous scrubbing at a shared washing area is unusual in Japan, so if you bring an Italy towel, use it briefly and quietly at your own station, and never in the tub. After an onsen you get dressed and leave, or go back to your room if it is a hotel bath. Many onsen close in the evening, and village baths are not open through the night.
Often not, and this is the main problem for foreign skiers. In a 2015 Japan Tourism Agency survey of hotels and ryokan, about 56% said they refused bathers with tattoos (Travel Voice). It is a house rule, not a law, so policies differ from one bath to the next. The Happo guide above, for example, bars people with tattoos from the water and lets small ones be covered with skin-coloured waterproof stickers.
Ask at reception before paying. A simple "Tattoo OK desu ka?" works.
Nozawa Onsen has 13 free village baths (soto-yu) that you can walk between. Local residents' groups called yunakama maintain them, and visitors are asked to leave a small donation in the box. From December to March most open 6:00 to 23:00, and night bathing is not allowed for security reasons (Nozawa Onsen tourism association). The posted rules: wash before you get in, keep towels out of the tub, and turn off the cold tap once the water is bearable. The water is very hot, so enter slowly. The Ogama spring, where locals cook vegetables, is off limits to visitors.
The village site lists no tattoo rule for the soto-yu. They are small, unstaffed baths that residents use every day, so be discreet and cover small tattoos if you can.
Yes, and most skiers do. Drink water before and after, take it slowly in very hot water, and avoid bathing after drinking alcohol. Hotel baths are often quieter at dinner time, which helps if you are nervous on your first visit. The Hakuba onsen guide lists baths near Happo-One.
Usually not. Swimsuits are allowed only at the few baths that say so, such as some mixed outdoor baths that rent bathing wear. Most baths are separated by gender.
Leave it in the locker. Photography is prohibited in the bathing area, and a phone out of its locker can make other bathers uncomfortable.
Ask at reception before paying. Some baths allow tattoos, some allow small covered ones, and some refuse them. A private bath (kashikiri-buro) avoids the issue.