Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Onsen are baths filled with geothermally heated, mineral-rich water. They’ve long been part of Japanese culture, but foreign ...

This undated photo provided by Stéphanie Crohin shows traditional baths and murals in Kasuga onsen, or hot spring bath, in Matsuzaka, Mie prefecture, Japan. Japan is proud of its bathing traditions.

TOKYO — Japan is proud of its bathing traditions. For many Westerners, though, the fact that these traditions involve being naked with strangers is awkward at best, even though men and women bathe ...

Bathing in an “Onsen,” or hot spring, should be on any bucket list for Japan, even if you aren’t a big wellness girlie — although the physical and mental benefits are definitely part of the draw. Each ...

(CNN) — It was a cold February day in northern Japan, snow piled high outside the onsen locker room windows as I slipped out of my clothes. Nervously, I stepped into the plumes of steam wafting from ...