Bathing with slugs

If you live in Japan, chances are you have bathed with bodies of varying shapes and sizes. People are not shy in their bathing habits. No hiding those C-section (or even more spectacular) surgical scars, here. Beer bellies, love handles, pendulous breasts, and balls that dangle to the cold, stone floor. They're all on show. No one gives a monkey's. If you have a weird body, are aching to loose it from the confines of clothing, and don't want to risk derision whilst you're at it, then a Japanese hot spring is the place for you.

An onsen is a fantastic place. If the waters are particularly potent, then their soothing effects penetrate deep into your fibre, right down to your very core. Muscles relax, blood pumps, pores open, aches dissolve and cares melt away. You just sit and marvel at the process. Mineral deposits on the walls and floors provide their own version of modern art. Post-bathe your skin feels smooth and silky. You feel reborn.

This area is not the creme-de-la-creme for onsen. For the top notch pools you need to go far north to Hokkaido; to the real mountains in the centre of Japan where the monkeys also like to bathe (see some great photos here); or down south to Kyushu. Around here, one of the better onsen is at Kimita. A sign proudly lays claim to being second best onsen in the Chugoku and Shikoku area. The waters at Kimita weave their magic every time, rendering me helpless to the web of sleep. Yano onsen in Joge used to have the same effect.

Alas, we get to the onsen infrequently.

Tonight, I shared my plastic bath in a dingy bathroom, not with monkeys, nor with soothing minerals, but with two slender slugs. They inched their translucent way across the ceiling as I stared up at them. When I could stand the entertainment no longer, I picked them off the ceiling, opened the window, and gave them a satisfying flick out into the night.