So, here are 8 rules for onsen bathing,
The host in the video recommends Kadensho Ryokan, which is in Arashiyama area of Kyoto. Arashiyama is famous for their bamboo forest, and monkey park.
Anyway, it is my hypothesis that onsen were a way for the Japanese to warm themselves up economically. Roaring fires were not the norm in a Japanese home. The main way the Japanese kept warm for the most part was with a kotatsu - a low table, with a blanket covering the sides of the table to the floor, and with a heat source under it. The family would stick their legs under the kotatsu for warmth.
Or they could go to a onsen, which would be heated by geothermal heat (so, free), and pay to warm up in the hot pool. The video supports the idea that the purpose of the onsen was NOT to bathe or clean yourself. You do that BEFORE you enter the communal hot pool. Hence the translation of "onsen" to "hot (public) baths" is due to the absence of any similar institutions in the English Language for "a shared pool of hot water where people sit together to get warm."
"Public Bath" was the closest analogous institution, but it had the denotation of laving one's body. Which is simply not done in the onsen proper.
[Like everyone else (or anyone of an average influence and means) I have been stuck here at home because of Covid19. I do not know when I can travel again. If ever. But my mind is still free...]
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