Mount Fuji and hot spring baths in Hakone, Japan
Mt. Fuji from Lake Ashi You are a traveller. You are sitting in a hot spring bath in Hakone-Yumoto, Japan. Once your skin starts to blister from the heat, you climb from the bath, feeling free and unembarrassed about your naked state among the many bare bodies that surround you. It’s raining and slowly growing dark. You step with wet feet out into the open air, feeling the freezing rain distantly on your too-hot skin. It splashes off, leaving only a thin curl of steam floating away. You are in an onsen, a traditional Japanese bathhouse with a set of basic rules. People are separated by gender, you have to be naked, and you take in a small towel which must not touch the water in the pool. Tenzan Onsen costs ¥1,200 - that’s just £9. The pools are built of natural stone and wood, and there is a freezing cold bath in the centre which you use to cool down between sessions. You cycle through a state of hot and cool for about an hour and a half. When you leave your skin is still red,...