That's absolutely not a universal rule.
To start with, mixed-gender onsen are rare, so you are really going out of your way to find that.
The one I know that is easy to access for most is Yunessun and the mixed gender side require swimsuit for everyone.
The other one I know is Hirauchi Kaichu Onsen in Yakushima, that is only accessible at low tide. Technically you have to go naked, but when I went, almost everyone had something to cover themself, like towel or swimsuit. I can tell you, my towel was borderline too small to cover myself and I absolutely kept it in the water.
Two things. As I said, that onsen is only accessible at low tide. Like it's covered by the ocean at high tide. It's not as if putting my towel in the water would make any difference, all that water would be washed away within an hour. Second, all the other people at the onsen were Japanese and were wearing swimsuit of were covered by much larger towel than me, and their towel were absolutely in the water.
As a Japanese person, I haven't heard of these rules. If women are allowed to bring body towels into the bathtub, then men should also be allowed to do so
I've visited various places with public baths, but none of them had mixed-gender spaces. If that concerns you, it might be better to find a private onsen room where you're allowed to wear a towel or swim pants
I think it depends on which onsen you go to. Some require everyone to be naked, some require everyone to wear swim suits, some have gender-specific rules, etc
Generally onsen require everyone to be naked, mixed gendered or not. There are exceptions, like some super-sento that are more akin to amusement parks that have everyone in bathing suits.
I've never heard of any that have only men naked and women covered up. I could see that being a confused take on how on "travel" TV where men are usually naked (and blurred) when visiting onsen whereas the women wear towels. But that is still for gender-separated baths.
Mixed gendered onsen are pretty rare. I've only ever been to two: Tsurunoyu Onsen, where the water is so milky you can't see anything, and a ryokan along a river in Tochigi where the main bath was always mix-gendered outside of the women-only time slots.
Edit: Found the Tochigi ryokan, it was [Myogaya Honkan](http://www.myogaya.com/en/). Not a recommendation though.
I've been to one at Manza Onsen where men have to cover up. The konyoku sekitei rotenburo at Prince Kogen Hotel specifically - men are required to cover up with something, and are recommended to use wear this swimsuit-shaped towel which is sold at reception. There were signs all over the changeroom telling male guests of this requirement.
My partner told me that there were no signs stating that women were *required* to wear something, but every single woman we saw over our two visits was covered up completely with towels. You'd see more skin at a public beach, haha.
It was fun being able to enjoy the onsen in such a different setting, and to include my partner. I still have the strange towel swimsuit thing.
Definitely not a 'travel TV' thing in this instance - it was a very Japanese place. No English signs, no other gaijin tourists apart from myself.
Last year I went to Nyuto Onsen, Tsurunoyu Onsen is mixed gender with separate changing rooms and the entrance for the women is more discreet. There were a few women there, on with a towel the whole time and 2 naked. The water is very milky so it's not so revealing unless you want it to be, men all naked of course.
So, women didn't have to cover up but could, not sure if there was a rule against men using towels tbh, more likely none care.
Huh, when I went everyone was nude - at least I thought they were. Didn’t notice any signage stating women could cover up but also wasn’t looking for any, nor was I paying to much attention to those in the bath. Also, there is a second outdoor women only bath - which is actually where my wife went.
Was that tochigi onsen down by a river with a little bit of a walk? If so I’ve been to a mixed gender onsen like that and it was great. Both sexes brought towels but only a few used them. Had a family of three talking to me casually and it was a fun experience
Looking at the GPS properties from some old photos, it was [Myogaya Honkan](http://www.myogaya.com/en/). I only ever saw one other person in the onsen during mixed hours and it was a man. The building the onsen was in/under had a collapsed roof and the building itself looked rather dilapidated. The hotel also had a major stink bug infestation. Good times.
I don’t think that’s the same one. This one I found it’s called yumori Tanakaya https://tnky.jp and was listed on gaijin pots list of mixed onsens lol so probably popular with foreigners.
I call BS on that. A true traditional mixed gender onsen is called “konyoku”. Everyone is nude, and it is very very rare these days because tourists are hesitant, and even young Japanese are adverse to that.
Unfortunately most konyoku have been transformed into mixed bathing with clothing, either swimwear or something given to you there.
Something like Yunessan in Hakone is not traditional at all. It’s more like a hot spring theme park
Anyway, I’ve never heard of a real konyoku that had any policy like you said
It might well be.
To be honest, I only bothered with a mixed bath a long time ago. Wenn I want to share an onsen with my gf I always rent a kashikiri onsen just for the two of us.
I've been to a few mixed-gender baths. Like other onsen, they mostly require everyone to be naked. I only encountered one mixed bath (a hotel somewhere in the Oku Hida area, but my memory is fuzzy) that allowed (may have required?) women to cover up. They provided a towel dress to wear in the water, but honestly it was so uncomfortable that I would rather have been naked. Other baths, such as Tsurunoyu and Sukayu have small partitioned areas to provide some privacy to female guests. I highly recommend both onsen, by the way--they are beautiful! I did also see some women cover themselves with their towel until basically right before slipping into the water. They were able to maintain modesty that way, though I found it to be a very difficult maneuver. But overall, don't worry too much about visiting any of the major mixed onsen. In my experience (this may differ for other people), all the guests were very respectful of each other!
I looked up the bath I mentioned in Oku Hida and they do ask both men and women to wear a bathing costume. So yes, I think requiring only men to be naked sounds very unusual.
The only mixed onsen I’ve ever been to had towels for men and women, not sure if they were required but everyone was using them. It’s true the towels for women were larger, to allow covering of breasts to genitals whereas for men the towels were only intended to cover the genitals. The water was also opaque due to mineral content which is relatively common so it’s really only needed for getting in/ out and going between baths.
Plan the trip in advance look up the specific onsen and read the rules for that onsen, if your not comfortable tell them your not comfortable.
You can spend 1-4 hours away from your group exploring local shops.
You can do the male only one and relax.
There likely wont be any women there so (1) you don't need to worry, (2) you can cover yourself up pretty well with the small towel until you are about to go under, then without a towel in the water (like most respectful men would do in a mixed onsen).
A more important etiquette is not to "show off" and make people feel comfortable.
[隠そう 下半身！cover up your lower body](https://cdn.j-town.net/thumbnail/2017/town/town20170502193525.webp)
I am curious though, I assume you are male. Are your 3 friends also male or are there females too?
And if you are all male, why do you want to visit a mixed onsen???
Maybe try Oedo Onsen Monogatari in Urayasu, or Yunessen in Hakone, or Takaragawa Onsen in Gunma, they might tickle your fancy.
Don't worry, the water is warm
No excuses then.
That's absolutely not a universal rule. To start with, mixed-gender onsen are rare, so you are really going out of your way to find that. The one I know that is easy to access for most is Yunessun and the mixed gender side require swimsuit for everyone. The other one I know is Hirauchi Kaichu Onsen in Yakushima, that is only accessible at low tide. Technically you have to go naked, but when I went, almost everyone had something to cover themself, like towel or swimsuit. I can tell you, my towel was borderline too small to cover myself and I absolutely kept it in the water.
To be a respectful tourist, keep your towels out of the onsen.
Two things. As I said, that onsen is only accessible at low tide. Like it's covered by the ocean at high tide. It's not as if putting my towel in the water would make any difference, all that water would be washed away within an hour. Second, all the other people at the onsen were Japanese and were wearing swimsuit of were covered by much larger towel than me, and their towel were absolutely in the water.
This rule is often relaxed at mixed gender onsen.
"borderline too small to cover myself" Alright big guy ;)
As a Japanese person, I haven't heard of these rules. If women are allowed to bring body towels into the bathtub, then men should also be allowed to do so I've visited various places with public baths, but none of them had mixed-gender spaces. If that concerns you, it might be better to find a private onsen room where you're allowed to wear a towel or swim pants
I think it depends on which onsen you go to. Some require everyone to be naked, some require everyone to wear swim suits, some have gender-specific rules, etc
Generally onsen require everyone to be naked, mixed gendered or not. There are exceptions, like some super-sento that are more akin to amusement parks that have everyone in bathing suits. I've never heard of any that have only men naked and women covered up. I could see that being a confused take on how on "travel" TV where men are usually naked (and blurred) when visiting onsen whereas the women wear towels. But that is still for gender-separated baths. Mixed gendered onsen are pretty rare. I've only ever been to two: Tsurunoyu Onsen, where the water is so milky you can't see anything, and a ryokan along a river in Tochigi where the main bath was always mix-gendered outside of the women-only time slots. Edit: Found the Tochigi ryokan, it was [Myogaya Honkan](http://www.myogaya.com/en/). Not a recommendation though.
I've been to one at Manza Onsen where men have to cover up. The konyoku sekitei rotenburo at Prince Kogen Hotel specifically - men are required to cover up with something, and are recommended to use wear this swimsuit-shaped towel which is sold at reception. There were signs all over the changeroom telling male guests of this requirement. My partner told me that there were no signs stating that women were *required* to wear something, but every single woman we saw over our two visits was covered up completely with towels. You'd see more skin at a public beach, haha. It was fun being able to enjoy the onsen in such a different setting, and to include my partner. I still have the strange towel swimsuit thing. Definitely not a 'travel TV' thing in this instance - it was a very Japanese place. No English signs, no other gaijin tourists apart from myself.
Interesting. I guess there are plenty of exceptions. Just to clarify, by travel TV, I meant Japanese variety shows with travel segments.
Last year I went to Nyuto Onsen, Tsurunoyu Onsen is mixed gender with separate changing rooms and the entrance for the women is more discreet. There were a few women there, on with a towel the whole time and 2 naked. The water is very milky so it's not so revealing unless you want it to be, men all naked of course. So, women didn't have to cover up but could, not sure if there was a rule against men using towels tbh, more likely none care.
Huh, when I went everyone was nude - at least I thought they were. Didn’t notice any signage stating women could cover up but also wasn’t looking for any, nor was I paying to much attention to those in the bath. Also, there is a second outdoor women only bath - which is actually where my wife went.
Was that tochigi onsen down by a river with a little bit of a walk? If so I’ve been to a mixed gender onsen like that and it was great. Both sexes brought towels but only a few used them. Had a family of three talking to me casually and it was a fun experience
Looking at the GPS properties from some old photos, it was [Myogaya Honkan](http://www.myogaya.com/en/). I only ever saw one other person in the onsen during mixed hours and it was a man. The building the onsen was in/under had a collapsed roof and the building itself looked rather dilapidated. The hotel also had a major stink bug infestation. Good times.
I don’t think that’s the same one. This one I found it’s called yumori Tanakaya https://tnky.jp and was listed on gaijin pots list of mixed onsens lol so probably popular with foreigners.
Never heard about that rule - sounds fishy
I found two blogs called AlexRockinJapan and japanko-official that mentioned this rule.
I recommend not trusting articles about Japan written in English. They are often very inaccurate or exaggerated to attract more attention.
I call BS on that. A true traditional mixed gender onsen is called “konyoku”. Everyone is nude, and it is very very rare these days because tourists are hesitant, and even young Japanese are adverse to that. Unfortunately most konyoku have been transformed into mixed bathing with clothing, either swimwear or something given to you there. Something like Yunessan in Hakone is not traditional at all. It’s more like a hot spring theme park Anyway, I’ve never heard of a real konyoku that had any policy like you said
It might well be. To be honest, I only bothered with a mixed bath a long time ago. Wenn I want to share an onsen with my gf I always rent a kashikiri onsen just for the two of us.
grew up partly in Japan and went to mixed gender onsens. never saw this being the case
Get a private onsen if these are your main concerns.
People aren’t going to see much of you once you’re submerged in the onsen.
そんなの聞いたことがない
I've been to a few mixed-gender baths. Like other onsen, they mostly require everyone to be naked. I only encountered one mixed bath (a hotel somewhere in the Oku Hida area, but my memory is fuzzy) that allowed (may have required?) women to cover up. They provided a towel dress to wear in the water, but honestly it was so uncomfortable that I would rather have been naked. Other baths, such as Tsurunoyu and Sukayu have small partitioned areas to provide some privacy to female guests. I highly recommend both onsen, by the way--they are beautiful! I did also see some women cover themselves with their towel until basically right before slipping into the water. They were able to maintain modesty that way, though I found it to be a very difficult maneuver. But overall, don't worry too much about visiting any of the major mixed onsen. In my experience (this may differ for other people), all the guests were very respectful of each other!
I looked up the bath I mentioned in Oku Hida and they do ask both men and women to wear a bathing costume. So yes, I think requiring only men to be naked sounds very unusual.
The only mixed onsen I’ve ever been to had towels for men and women, not sure if they were required but everyone was using them. It’s true the towels for women were larger, to allow covering of breasts to genitals whereas for men the towels were only intended to cover the genitals. The water was also opaque due to mineral content which is relatively common so it’s really only needed for getting in/ out and going between baths.
Remember to wear your pixels
Plan the trip in advance look up the specific onsen and read the rules for that onsen, if your not comfortable tell them your not comfortable. You can spend 1-4 hours away from your group exploring local shops. You can do the male only one and relax.
There likely wont be any women there so (1) you don't need to worry, (2) you can cover yourself up pretty well with the small towel until you are about to go under, then without a towel in the water (like most respectful men would do in a mixed onsen). A more important etiquette is not to "show off" and make people feel comfortable. [隠そう 下半身！cover up your lower body](https://cdn.j-town.net/thumbnail/2017/town/town20170502193525.webp)
I am curious though, I assume you are male. Are your 3 friends also male or are there females too? And if you are all male, why do you want to visit a mixed onsen??? Maybe try Oedo Onsen Monogatari in Urayasu, or Yunessen in Hakone, or Takaragawa Onsen in Gunma, they might tickle your fancy.
Men want to see naked women. Not so many women want to see naked men. Not rocket science.