Snowflakes melt on my skin as I head naked toward the steaming waters of Houheikyo onsen. Within seconds, I am relaxing in the hot spring’s 102-degree water, and I quickly forget about being outside in freezing weather. Physically, I am in Shikotsu-Toya National Park in the hills above Sapporo, Japan, on the island of Hokkaido; mentally, I am in a world far, far away. This is what an outdoor onsen is all about.

Onsen are as quintessentially Japanese as sushi and ramen noodles, but unlike them can be truly appreciated only in the Land of the Rising Sun. It is a pity, then, that so few foreigners take the time to partake in this Japanese obsession, which acts as a portal to the old Japan.

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