The selected ryokan directory boasts that visiting an onsen ryokan (or Japanese hot spring inn) will purify your mind and body and may even help you to “enter into a poetic state and achieve a sudden Zen enlightenment.” As if that weren’t enticing enough, the site lists several other reasons one might want to visit an onsen ryokan: health and beautification, a return to nature, and cleansing the body and mind. Indeed, the people of Japan have known about “toji”—curing illnesses by soaking in hot springs—since the days of old. And they have also been aware that different springs have different healing properties—some are effective in treating diabetes, gout, anemia, constipation, muscle pain or mental fatigue, while others effectively promote beautification and slow the aging process. This might help to explain why Japan has a longer life expectancy than any other country in the world.
Many Japanese people spend their weekends or holidays at an onsen, soaking with friends or chatting with fellow visitors; some spent time there after the tragic earthquake and tsunami of March 2011. John Burnett wrote an NPR article in which he interviewed two women who had survived the tsunami and accepted invitations to spend a few weeks at an onsen. “The onsen is really healing,” said one. “We can stretch our legs and make new friends in the onsen bath,” said the other. After such a devastating tragedy, it is good to hear about people’s healing experiences, and heartening to know that some onsens are doing what they can to help speed the process.