Asia Travel Blog

Traveling around enjoying beautiful nature’s scene and eating the local food is something ordinary when you are on vocation in foreign tourism country. But coming all the way as a tourist only to get in a bathing ritual, this is extra ordinary!

It’s just what you are going to get when you are a tourist in Japan . For the Japanese, bathing is not only a daily ritual for cleaning the body from sweats and dusts, but also have become a fun and healthy way of recreation.

There is probably thousands of bathing house spread all over Japan . In Japanese this bathing house is called ‘Onsen’. One Onsen that is considered very old is located in the city of Matsuyama which is the capital city of Ehime Prefecture.

Dogo Onsen is estimated as old as 3,000 years. Main building has timber structures that have been erected for as long as 110 years ago, still look strong and in good condition.

If you are not familiar to this bathing recreation, you better do some adjustments before soaking your body into the bath pool. Trust me, Onsen’s hot water is not just hot, it is very hot especially for beginner bather.

When you are in Dogo Onsen, try spoiling yourself by bathing in Tama-no-Yu (Water of the Spirits). This is a not so big pool where you can bath easily while relaxing your body. Again as a reminder if you are a first timer, start by soaking in your feet into the pool first for a while, until your whole body can adjust with the heat level of the water.

For most Japanese, bathing ritual has become a way of letting go all the stressful feeling from work. No wonder if many Japanese workers stop by the onsen before they go home. Relaxed feeling would become more overwhelming when after bathing you take sometime to drink the warm or rather hot ocha (the green tea)  while enjoying the traditional sweets a la Dogo Onzen.

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