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As I haven`t done a lot since last time, I thought I`d talk about the wonderful naked and public bathing experience of the onsen.

The `onsen` which I visit are public baths. As Japan is on a large fault line with lots of volcanoes and things, there are areas where natural hot water springs occur. I went to a new one yesterday which showed the temperature of the baths digitally at 43 degrees Celsius. These are full of minerals and the like, which are therefore good for you as well as being incredibly relaxing. The Japanese have built public bathing centres around these, which as well as having the water piped up into large bathing areas, also have saunas, steam saunas, massage baths, where jets of water get sprayed from all sides, and scented baths such as rosemary and silk as well.

You pay about 600 yen which is three quid and you can stay in there for as long as you want. In fact you can stay the whole day if neccessary which is what many old age pensioners often do. They close normally at about one in the morning. These centres also have restaurants and at some you can buy bottles of the water or in sprays for medical purposes. There are also washing areas in these onsen where up against a couple of walls you have maybe 15-20 mirrors with their own shower, tap, dish and mirror where you wash yourself.

The Japanese bathing experience at home is also peculiar. The baths are much deeper - about one and a half times as deep as a western bath. This is filled with really cold water and heated elecronically (even their baths are computerised) and covered with a heavy wooden mat when not used to keep it hot. The whole family will use the same water in the bath. What is different from the West is you have a stool and a kind of plastic dish which you use to scoop the water from the bath and pour on yourself to wash your body and hair physically outside of the bath. When you are clean, you get into the bath and bathe. Of course in the heat at the moment, I have been restricting myself to ice cold showers instead of undergoing further sauna conditions.

The toilets are also bizarre for a Westerner. When you flush the toilet, the top part of it normally acts as a sink, you wash your hands with the water replacing the water in the basin.

Water. Onsen. Nice.