So of course made a dash to @dogoonsen hot spring for a public bath. You can’t take pictures inside so the one here I nabbed from the Dogo onsen website. Was in the ground floor men’s bath you see here. After putting your shoes in a locker near the front desk you then go to the changing rooms and take off all your clothes and put them in another locker. Towels as such aren’t allowed save for a small flannel. So you then go naked into the hot bath with lots of other men (women have a separate bath, I don’t know how they accommodate people who’s physical expression of gender is more complex/diverse but there probably are ways; I’ve read that tattoos aren’t a problem here as they are at many other onsen). You wash sitting on a wooden stool by the walls, then when you’re spankingly clean you go into the 40c water, takes your breath away at first with the heat. Fascinating. And the water reputedly has a healing action. Also no-one stares at anyone else so you don’t need to feel self-conscious.
