Onsen.

Hot springs are everywhere out here, especially in Hokkaido. To answer the most common question regarding these places, yes, people get neked. Nobody wears swimming trunks or speed-os for that matter. You walk into the changing room, take off all your clothes, and take a small towel with you. And yes, the towel really is small.

Onsen are not to be confused with sentos (bath houses). Onsen get their water from natural or mostly natural hot springs whereas their sento counterparts simply use heated tap water, sometimes with minerals added.

Well, there are all sorts of onsen. You've got the salt water baths, the sulfuric baths, the cold water baths, weird mineral baths, and the mother of all onsen, the rotenburo or outdoor onsen. The rotenburo are particularly cool when it's snowing outside. Something about being in a warm bath, and having snowflakes fall on your face... it's something worth experiencing.

Anyway, a while ago, I remember going to an onsen that had a peculiar bath. I couldn't read the sign that described what was special about this particular bath at the time, so I decided to just test it out. I lifted my leg and slowly put it into the bath... and OUCH OUCH OUCH, I pulled my leg out of that mess. It turns out that there was an electric current running through the bath. That's right. An electric current was purposely flowing through the water where people were expected to bathe. Supposedly, it's good if you have arthritis. I don't care. Bathing experiences aren't supposed to feel like a school of piranhas are picking at ya like you're a buffet table.