Onsen Rules: A Guide for the Nervous First-Timer

The single biggest barrier to enjoying a Japanese onsen is the ten minutes before you get in. Once you are in the water, it is one of the great pleasures of travelling in Japan. Here is how to get through those ten minutes, and everything after them.

An outdoor rotenburo. Mineral-rich water and a change of season are most of the appeal.

Yes, everyone is naked

Swimsuits are not worn in a traditional onsen. Baths are separated by gender — red curtain 「女」 for women, blue 「男」 for men — and you go in with nothing but a small towel.

The important thing nobody tells you: no one is looking at you. Onsen culture treats nudity as entirely unremarkable, and staring is the actual taboo. Locals of every age and body type use these baths daily, and the atmosphere is closer to a quiet spa than anything self-conscious.

The washing comes first

This is the rule that matters most. You wash thoroughly before entering the bath. There is a row of low stools and handheld showers along the wall; sit down, soap up, rinse completely, and only then get in.

The bath itself is for soaking in clean, shared water, not for washing. Getting this wrong — stepping in with shampoo still in your hair, for instance — is the one mistake that will genuinely bother other bathers, more than almost any other faux pas on this list.

What to do with the small towel

You are given a small towel roughly the size of a hand towel. It is for washing and for modesty while walking between the shower and the bath. It must not go into the water — wringing it out over the bath or letting it float is considered unhygienic. Most people fold it and rest it on their head while soaking, which looks eccentric for about four seconds and then looks obvious.

Tattoos

Traditionally, tattoos were associated with organised crime, and many onsen still ban them outright as a result. The situation is slowly easing as the country adapts to more international visitors, but it remains inconsistent from one facility to the next. Your options:

1. Look for tattoo-friendly onsen. There are now searchable lists and apps covering most tourist regions, updated by other travellers.
2. Use a waterproof cover patch for anything small — these are widely available at pharmacies and online, and are usually enough to satisfy front-desk staff.
3. Book a private bath (kashikiri-buro). Many ryokan rent these by the hour, and it removes the question entirely — it is also simply a nicer experience if you are travelling as a couple or family.

Photography and phones

Cameras and phones are not used inside the bathing area, full stop — not for a quick photo, not for a video call, not even face-down on a bench. This is one of the few onsen rules that is genuinely non-negotiable and can result in being asked to leave. Take your photos of the building and the changing room before you undress, and keep the actual bath as a memory rather than a picture.

The rest of the rules, briefly

• No swimming, splashing, or diving. It is a bath, not a pool, and the water is often hotter than a swimming pool by a wide margin.
• Long hair goes up, off the water, using a hair tie rather than the small towel.
• Keep your voice low. The room is echoey and the mood is quiet, even when it is busy.
• Rinse off lightly at the end, or do not — the minerals are supposedly good for the skin, and opinions differ on whether to wash them off immediately.
• Hydrate afterwards. Milk from a glass bottle in the changing room is a genuine tradition after bathing, and tastes better than it has any right to.

Go once and the nerves disappear permanently. Most people who were dreading it end up planning their next trip around which onsen town to visit, and a stay in Kanazawa or Matsumoto — both covered in our guide to visiting Japan in 2026 — makes an easy base for exactly that.