Of course I’m here for soaking in hot baths and there are two baths and an “ondol” hot room where you lay on tiled floor and inhale radon gas here at my accommodations
There are also several freely available foot baths and a ¥400, very hot original source of the bath (I’ll share some snaps in a future dispatch)
Importantly, yesterday I went to my favourite place, the kawara open bath on the side of the river, running right through town, with shops and hotels in clear view
I first went here in 1993 and has lived in my heart since then – return in the tumultuous yet magical summer of 2018 and here i am again
Now a bit of a privacy screen to minimize the onlookers crossing the adorable bridge but of course, you’re out in the open which you know, is fine with me but whatever…
Aside: i remember doing paintings/drawings of the bridge with two other people, each our own interpretation, the originals exist somewhere in a dossier in the archive
And the mountain off in the distance (my photo doesn’t do it justice & keep in mind cameras around nekkid baths aren’t really appropriate) was the inspiration for the beginning of a haiku book called “January in the Hot Springs”
I made a handprinted on hemp/cereal straw paper, top-folded and hand-sewn run of maybe 30 editions and mailed out to global friends in 1994/5
Never heard if anyone liked it but, decades later, found the originals and slowly putting up to my creative life archive
This is where it all began and more importantly, this is where I am now
Soak on radon vibes
PS Slip into this onsen ♨️ for more from Misasa:
Take a soak for more from Misasa, Tottori hot springs including video field notes – from short videos, out-and-about riffs, long soliloquies – plus poetry zines, and archival goodness, all flowing freely
