Randy young couples play scrub-a-dub at rural hot springs

[RockLee]

"Our inn has a large common bath, plus four smaller private spas that can be rented by guests," says the 'kami' female proprietor at a ryokan (Japanese-style inn) in Shizuoka's Atagawa Onsen. "The private baths are available for rental on a round-the-clock basis. Of late, they've been taken over by young couples, who are quite ... noisy, if you know what I mean."

Gracious old rural inns, traditionally, have been places where Japanese go to relax in natural surroundings while soaking away their aches and pains in mineral hot springs. But, reports Shukan Jitsuwa (10/13), inns' clientele of late seem to have other ideas.

"The idea of 24-hour bathing was to let you get up early, and soak in the tub while watching the rising sun burn off the morning mist," continues the kami. "Or, you could go late there at night and gaze at the starry sky. It made things all the more relaxing. But when you've got to worry about families bathing within hearing range of these noisy young couples, it's really vexing."

The inn's proprietor describes such amorous sound effects as a staccato "picha-picha" of water sloshing in the tub, accompanied by a moaning female voice.

"Then you might hear a strained male voice muttering something like, 'Keep it down, people can hear!' followed by a woman saying, 'Ahhhh this is too much!' It sets off a chain reaction and inflames their passion even more."

"We certainly want couples who come here to be able to enjoy a romantic interlude," the kami at another rural spa tells Shukan Jitsuwa. "But they get pretty messy in their lovemaking. Employees have told me when they go into the bathing areas to clean up, they can see obvious traces that sex took place. Since other people use the baths too, they should at least be considerate enough to wipe up after they finish.

Wouldn't want to be the customer after them

"Japan's traditional hot spring culture regards this kind of behavior as absolutely disgraceful!" she complains.

Japan's ryokan industry, unfortunately, is in the throes of an unprecedented recession, and as such is hardly in the position to turn away business. But still ...

Yeah, it's the big money these days.

Take this story of three "office ladies" in their 20s employed at Tokyo trading company, who caroused over too many cups of sake with their evening meal and got completely plastered.

"They went lurching down the corridor towards the bath, the fronts of their robes hanging open, exposing their naked breasts, and completely oblivious to the other patrons," complains the operator of a ryokan in Hakone, near Mt. Fuji. "Then they staggered naked into the men's bath by mistake. There was just one old man in there alone, and when he saw these three completely naked young women walk in, he nearly freaked out. To make things worse, one of the drunk girls said to him, 'Gyaaaa --- what're you doin' in here? This is the women's bath!" as if he were the guilty party. Outrageous!"

Oh boy, wish they would've come into my spa !! Why do those old geezers have all the luck !

Each autumn, just before the beginning of the tourist season, hotels at the Kusatsu spa in Gumma Prefecture invite bus drivers and female bus guides to an orientation. These bus guides used to be fairly serious young women. But those days, sighs Shukan Jitsuwa, are long gone. According to one witness account, after the inn's customers have turned in for the night, the drivers and bus guides head for the bath and engage in wild orgies

Likewise, the notion that the custom of mixed bathing is an "innocent" practice with no sexual overtones is rapidly --- no pun intended --- being laid to rest.

hmm, kind of reminds me of the orgies at the Great Wall.

"These days I've seen women, even those who come here with their husbands, pair off with other men," says a kami at a bed & breakfast spa in Tochigi Prefecture. "What's more, couples interested in swapping are using the Internet to seek other enthusiasts, and then meeting up at our place. They're using mixed bathing for the kinds of things that go on in 'happening bars,'" she says, referring to clubs in Tokyo and other major cities where patrons engage in intercourse on a stage while other customers look on.

Hmm, partner exchange is getting popular in Japan too huh Guess we pretty much ruined the Japanese their values.

"People living in rural areas don't have those kind of opportunities, so spas like ours --- which are the one type of place where nobody takes notice when men and women bathe together --- are becoming the perfect venues for these kind of sensual encounters."

The inns' determination to preserve their country's proud tradition of hot spring bathing, sighs Shukan Jitsuwa, may be a losing battle. (By Masuo Kamiyama, contributing writer.)

October 6, 2005

It might be, but if they can handle people with tattoos, they must have a way to prevent people from making the onsen into a place for orgies


source: http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai...0dm003000c.html

[nice gaijin]

I think segregated bathing is a pretty good way of keeping this kind of behaviour at bay, but it could be damaging to business as these young couples go elsewhere for their rendezvous... I suppose the onsen and ryokan have to choose between their traditional morals and the profits produced by offering co-ed baths.

I wonder, however, where this kind of behaviour came from; is it truly due to western influences, or would these sentiments arise without the aid of outside sources.

[Index]

I wouldn't say this is Western influence. Are Westerners the only ones who have sex? In any case the Japanese attitude to sex is much more liberal than Christian based societies I would say. Unless it's the Swedes and their spas in the North, how often do you see orgies in public baths in the West? How often do you see public baths like in Japan?

[McTojo]

I can see how this story could be true, but I don't see it as very common through-out Japan. I for one, have been to over 1500 different onsens and not once have I seen swinger couple do the things that the author of Mainichi mentioned.

Sure, when I'm with my significant other we do have sex in private baths, why not ? It's the perfect set-up; nature, water, and intimacy all mixed together especially if you have children and you need a chance to get away.

As far as western influence, well, I think most of you are dead wrong ! It's a shame how quickly people point their finger at the west for every negative influence Japan has ever had, like the Japanese are morally without stain ?
It was because of western influence that you have segregated bathing in Japan today, remember the missionaries who came here? ! The idea of mixed bathing is completely indigenous to Japan by all means. In fact, most Japanese have no problem when it comes to mixed bathing; it's the Americans who have a problem with mix bathing let alone getting naked in front of strange people !

[mad pierrot]

The good ol' Mainichi.

I think maybe, some of the stories they print in the wai wai lane are sorta true.







Fun read.
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edit*

Let me add to that. Speaking from personal experience the hanky-panky does happen alot at onsen resorts.

Try this place.

[RockLee]

Originally Posted by McTojo

it's the Americans who have a problem with mix bathing let alone getting naked in front of strange people !

And a huge part of the world too.Mainly western people who are brought up with seperated bathing etc. But who the hell are we(western folks) to say mixed is wrong

I think this article has a huge wai wai factor, but there is truth in it.Also you can't deny we western people had a great influence in Japan's current society.

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Im sure people have been getting frisky in the springs for hundreds of years, its just never been a wide spread issue and i don't think it is now(although i've never been to japan, its probably as common as people making out in hotel swimming pools and hot tubs at night over here in England, that is to say, it does go on but it still seems pretty rare).
I havn't been to japan yet but i'd definatly like to once i scrape up some spare cash and some holiday time and take a couple of courses in learning japanese, i'd like to go to a hot spring but to be honest im not sure on how embarrassed/shy i'd be in going to a public bath myself.

[nurizeko]

Hmm, partner exchange is getting popular in Japan too huh Guess we pretty much ruined the Japanese their values.

Im afraid not...anyone who's anything more then blind has already seen that japanese popular culture has a high level of interest in sexuality, japan is a country where bussiness men quite happily read rape manga on a train home.

Look at it this way, having sex at a public swimming-pool is frowned upon heavily in most western cultures, so its hardly bad influence on our part, infact, we dont even commonly have this idea of bathing naked in public, which is why we wear bathnig suits when we go to swimming-pools.

Nah, it was just a matter of time, before japans obsession with sex caught up the public baths.

But maybe, they could make love-bath resorts instead, so these couples could have somewhere dedicated to it rather then goint to public family baths or something :S.

Better then telling young japanese to not have sex, what with a falling population, it needs all the help it can get.

[RockLee]

Originally Posted by nurizeko

Im afraid not...anyone who's anything more then blind has already seen that japanese popular culture has a high level of interest in sexuality, japan is a country where bussiness men quite happily read rape manga on a train home.

I don't understand what you mean by this.So you're saying businessmen are the popular culture of Japan And all the businessmen read hentai on the train? Isn't that a bit of a generalization?

Look at it this way, having sex at a public swimming-pool is frowned upon heavily in most western cultures, so its hardly bad influence on our part, infact, we dont even commonly have this idea of bathing naked in public, which is why we wear bathnig suits when we go to swimming-pools.

Erm, you can't compare an onsen with a pool =.=; It's totally different.You don't swim in an onsen lol.

Nah, it was just a matter of time, before japans obsession with sex caught up the public baths.

It's not something that caught up recently, it already exists for a long long time.

But maybe, they could make love-bath resorts instead, so these couples could have somewhere dedicated to it rather then goint to public family baths or something :S.

that's why love-hotels exist.

Better then telling young japanese to not have sex, what with a falling population, it needs all the help it can get.

They need to understand what save sex is, recently the number of AIDS-patients has gone up with all the sexcrazed young'ones

[lexico]

Sex in the onsens as one kind of public bathhouse should be nothing new if the wiki passages are to be trusted. Sentō (銭湯, せんとう)

Commercial baths during the Kamakura period: 1185 to 1333

Due to the small opening, the lack of windows, and the thick steam, these baths were usually very dark, and customers often cleared their throats to signal their position to others. It can safely be assumed that on occasions an amorous couple used the dark room for more than mere bathing, and also amorous singles may have less-than-accidentally bumped into members of the other sex.


Bathing in the Edo period:1603 to 1867

At the beginning of the Edo period, there were two types of baths common in different regions. In Tokyo (then called Edo), the normal bath was a regular bath with a pool called yuya (湯屋, lit. hot water shop), whereas in Osaka a bath was a steam bath with only a shallow pool and was called mushiburo (蒸し風呂, lit. steam bath), or just furo (風呂).

At the end of the Edo period, the Tokugawa shogunate (1603 to 1868) at different times required baths to segregate by sex to preserve public morals. However, many bath house owners simply added a small board to separate the bath, with little effect for the preservation of morals. Other baths had men and women bathe at different times or different days, and some baths limited themselves entirely to female or male clientele. The laws about mixed-sex bathing were soon relaxed again.

One reason for the popularity of the baths were the female bathing attendants yuna (湯女, lit. hot water woman). These attendants helped the customers by scrubbing their backs. However, after the bath officially closed, many of these women sold sex to male customers. Even nowadays, some brothels in Japan specialize on having young women clean their male customers in a private bath. These establishments are called sōpu rando (ソープランド, lit. soap land).

Subsequently, the Tokugawa shogunate limited the number of Yuna to three per bath house, to preserve the public morals. However, this rule was widely ignored, and shortly thereafter in 1841 the Tokugawa shogunate prohibited any Yuna to serve in a bath house, and furthermore prohibited mixed-sex bathing again. Large numbers of unemployed Yuna thereafter moved to the official red-light districts to continue their services.

Up to 1970 there were also male washing assistants called sansuke (三助, lit. three helps) for washing and massaging both male and female customers. These male workers, however, usually did not participate in prostitution.

The prohibition of mixed-sex bathing again did not last long, and when Commodore Perry visited Japan in 1853 and 1854, he was displeased about the lack of morals due to mixed sex bathing. Subsequently, the Tokugawa shogunate prohibited mixed sex bathing again.

[nurizeko]

Originally Posted by RockLee

I don't understand what you mean by this.So you're saying businessmen are the popular culture of Japan And all the businessmen read hentai on the train? Isn't that a bit of a generalization?

No, im saying that people, in the west considored well to do mannered adults, who arnt known for reading hentai or watching pornography on a bus/train home, are more likely to do so in japan, it was pointing out the massive influence of sex and eroticism in japanese mainstream and popular culture.

Erm, you can't compare an onsen with a pool =.=; It's totally different.You don't swim in an onsen lol.

Unfortunately, most western countries arnt known for public bathing, we have public swimming again, but the concept is close enough, they do have jekuzi's ro whatever their called at most reasonably sized public swimming pools, showers, but we dont go to them naked, it stands to reason that if you can bath naked you can technically swim naked, but we dont, hence i was simply pointing out its unlikely a western influence, ive never read a news article regarding a couple having sex at a public swimming pool, though no doubt its possibly occured somewhere where it didnt make news all the way where i live.

It's not something that caught up recently, it already exists for a long long time.

Indeed.

that's why love-hotels exist.

But its clear that these young couples seem to have an interest in having sex in a hot-spring/public bath.
Though its most likely in most cases done for the danger aspect of it, going against all the japanese social norms and having *cough*descreet*cough* sex in a public establishment, it was merely an off-the-top of my head idea to help this problem, in the west there are companies that do couple-only holidays/vacations so, it stands to reason the same thing can be applied to some bath-houses and hot-springs, and as some of the management staff have said, its not really much of an option to turn bussiness away.

They need to understand what save sex is, recently the number of AIDS-patients has gone up with all the sexcrazed young'ones

Well, thats another debate for another thread, safe sex should be common sense, though, also i would also like to think that most young couples are committed enough to relationships that the threat of getting aids in the relationship is slim to nil if both dont have it.

Commodore Perry visited Japan in 1853 and 1854, he was displeased about the lack of morals due to mixed sex bathing. Subsequently, the Tokugawa shogunate prohibited mixed sex bathing again.

Ah a good old reminder of the old western habit of arrogance and ignorance.

Japanese like sex, instead of fighting it, harness it, and teach the value of safety.

[RockLee]

Originally Posted by nurizeko

No, im saying that people, in the west considored well to do mannered adults, who arnt known for reading hentai or watching pornography on a bus/train home, are more likely to do so in japan, it was pointing out the massive influence of sex and eroticism in japanese mainstream and popular culture.

Do you have statistics that prove foreign guys in Japan tend to read hentai on trains? I think they still will feel uncomfortable reading hentai on a train, even if they are in Japan.

Well, thats another debate for another thread, safe sex should be common sense, though, also i would also like to think that most young couples are committed enough to relationships that the threat of getting aids in the relationship is slim to nil if both dont have it.

Think again, why do you think there are so many kids with aids...

Japanese like sex, instead of fighting it, harness it, and teach the value of safety.

From what I have heard, sexual education is almost non existant, hence the fact to many young people don't have safe sex and SOA's and AIDS occur more and more