Ah onsen!

The onsen is a marvellous place to reflect. Sitting in a hot taupe bath of mineral water that has come straight from the heart of a volcano you can’t help but think, ‘Damn I’m a lucky bastard!’

Hokkaido, Japan, is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful parts of the world. Lake Toya, a caldera lake in Shikotsu-Toya National Park, is surrounded by volcanoes and nurtures a cluster of small, fluffy, forested, conical islands. This is somewhere that would be a challenge to get to by flying. This is somewhere that we have travelled 10,600 miles by land and sea to find. However, unknown to us before arrival, this small town was also discovered earlier this year by the G8 leaders as they met for their annual summit. I wonder if Brown, Bush and Sarkozy swapped their keks for kimonos and slipped into the steaming waters of an onsen together. In Japan there is a phrase for the way people speak to one another in the onsen - Hadaka-No-Tukiai - or Naked Communication. Perhaps the healing effects of the watery sulphur, calcium and iron combination will have helped them right some of their wrongs. I haven’t seen a British broadsheet for some time, but I somehow doubt it. Nevertheless, the waters have been very good to me, helping ease away the aches and pains from picking and packing tonnes of sweetcorn and potatoes on a Japanese mountain farm.

Onsen etiquette is somewhat complex: wash before bathing, no towels in the bath expect for on your head to prevent fainting and don’t shower standing up. Despite following the rules carefully, there was very little Hadaka-No-Tukiai, or any kind of communication infact, between me and the locals. So instead I watched the mountains in the lake drift in and out of cloud. The piping hot onsen water is a result of volcanic activity, the most recent of which was just eight years ago. Yet people still live here and tourists still visit. The draw of the onsen is just too great to deter human beings, although the crushed cars, tangled power lines and lava flooded road we passed on the bus are a stark reminder of the volatile ground we are treading.

There’s something deep in that, but at a certain point in the soaking process the heat and minerals turn reflection into relaxation and all you can think is ‘Ah onsen!’