My first experience came at an end of the year party with my adult English conversation class. Japanese love their onsen. The minerals in the water are supposed to be good for the body. Stewing in the hot water is supposed to be a good way to relax.

The students in my class seem to tell me every other week about some onsen they’ve visited. I’ve always been a shower person myself so I don’t really see much in the appeal of hot baths. But, you know, when in Rome…. Besides my back was kind of sore from attending judo classes with my students who all were quite keen on introducing my beginner ass to the wonders of being flipped onto the ground.

Anyway, my adult class set the trip for 10 o’clock on a Saturday morning. Normally this would be fine, only I was thoroughly drained from a long week of getting up early to walk the 40 minutes through the snow to school (finally, a story to patronize my grandkids with!).

I managed, however, to get there on time. The onsen was located upon a hill with a picturesque view of the town nearby. Inside, my students had secured a tatami mat room and had already laid out a beautiful spread of Japanese morsels, which made the bag of Doritos I brought look like an elephant trying to fit in at a tea party. Most had already entered the onsen so I made my way over as well.

Anyway, what one usually does before getting into an onsen is strip into one’s birthday suit, in this case in front of a bunch of old Japanese men (haven’t seen many young guys at any of the onsen I’ve been to so far). From there one has to shower with soap and shampoo to get clean before getting in. Then from there it’s a cannonball into the onsen and a quick dash out before the mob of old men clobber you with their towels. Or more often than not it’s a simple soak in the hot water.

On this particular occasion I happened to notice a sign posted above a separate onsen. Putting my Japanese skills to work I discovered it was a denki furo. Having heard some stories about this before I figured I might give it a go. I first waited, however, to see if anyone else would go in. There was some fine print with a lot of kanji that I couldn’t read so I wanted to make certain it wasn’t saying, “Jump in here if you feel like committing suicide by electric shock!”