The traditional Japanese onsen can be a confronting experience if you're not used to casual nudity, but I'm nothing if not willing to try new things. The three-week tour of the country I had signed up for, along with two dozen other young men and women, stopped overnight at no less than two onsen hotels. The first was close to Tokyo, and busy. The amount of local eyes meant a decent chunk of our tour had to sit the baths out, because even the smallest tattoo was a huge taboo. The second one, a shinkansen ride into the countryside, we had to ourselves, and our local guide advised the owners would probably look the other way and not assume we were yakuza if those of us forbidden by little ankle, wrist and shoulder pieces (plus one guy with a full sleeve) decided to take a dip.
It may have helped attendance that we were a lot further into the trip by now, with the group's comradery developed a lot further than it had been at the first resort. Also that the sake had flowed freely over dinner before we were led back to the hotel.
As sundown came to the land of sunrises, I descended to the men's side of the bath and doffed my kimono and the briefs I wore underneath. If you're picturing what you've seen in anime where the characters bathe in an all-around waist towel, forget it. That's just censorship so they can actually air the onsen scenes. You get a little hand towel -- barely a face washer -- that it's considered polite to hold vaguely in front of your junk while you walk around, even though it covers little to nothing! And you certainly don't put it in the water when you take a dip, it gets left on the side or draped over your head. If you're in the water, you're full frontal.
I washed off, soaked and sauna-ed, and wound up in the hot spring pool outside. Here, only a thin (but tall) wood fence separated the men's side from the women's, and the two halves of our group were able to talk through the barrier. By this time, all but three other boys had gone back to one of the rooms to play cards, but half a dozen of the girls remained on the other side. I had to try very hard not to think about how all the pretty girls I'd been travelling with who were now naked just on the other side of the wall as they spoke to me. Maybe if I'd been able to stay concealed underwater I could have indulged my daydreams, but these hot sprints were hot, so every few minutes I was forced to pull myself out and sit on the rim by my discarded towel in the cool evening air until my body chilled out.
I decided to broach a dangerous topic. It was especially dangerous, given that I'd just left the water again. "According to all the anime I've ever seen," I declared to both sides of the bath, "it's traditional for the boys to try to climb the fence and peek on the girls. Or drill a hole, even. You can't argue with a local tradition!"
A ripple of laughter went around. It was hard not to notice the greenery planted along the base of the wall included a few trees that reached past the top. They were flimsy, but they might support my weight. Maybe.
"It's a tradition for anime boys," came the voice of Tamara -- a girl with a dancer's body, a cute face with round cheeks and medium-length dirty blonde hair I'd enjoyed getting to know so far. "But they don't have to worry about sexual assault laws or getting cancelled on Twitter like real boys do."
"Point taken," I conceded, "I was just thinking about the authentic experience the tour promised."
There was a splash from the other side. "Hell, we are here to get to know other cultures," she mused. "And we're the only ones here right now. Ah, but this is real life, not an anime, isn't it?"
My mind raced. She was being coy, but it almost sounded like she was consenting to a quick look over the wall. There were no objections from the other girls with her, only muffled snickering. And what was that splash? Had someone slid into the water up to their neck, to hide from the expected voyeuring? Or had someone come out of the water to sit on the side like I was? I fought to keep my cock from visibly stirring. It sure felt like an offer, but I've misinterpreted signals before, and the last thing I ever want is to make the people around me uncomfortable.
I glanced to my companions on the men's side looking to see what they got out of Tamara's words. There were some dudebro types on the tour who I imagined would have leapt at even the most dubious permission to spy on naked girls, but they were the group who'd retreated to the rooms. I'd been left with one of the shyer guys, Jim, and a gay couple, Liam and Terry. Jim shook his head at me. "You're asking for trouble," he whispered. The other two just shrugged. They didn't have a horse in this race, after all, but Liam gave me a quick, judgemental look. He got to go in the baths with the kinds of people he was attracted to, and he was judging me for wanting to get an eyeful of my own? Bah!
I sighed, reclining on my poolside perch to look at the stars. "I'd hate to break my gentlemanly streak over an anime trope," I told them all. "Just an idea that popped into my head."
There was a moment of giggling and inaudible girl talk as I enjoyed the sky. Then there was laughter and the sound of branches rustling.
"Woooooo!"
I sat up to see Tamara's pink-cheeked face at the top of the fence, wreathed in the branches of one of the girls'-side trees. The other boys were laughing, sitting waist-deep and concealed in the milky water of the spring, but I was cooling on the side, legs apart enough to get some airflow. That is to say, she could see everything. At least we hadn't been in cold water.
The girl laughed uproariously as I startled my way into the pool, submerging myself all the way to my eyeline. I'm a little bit of an exhibitionist deep down, but she caught me by surprise here. The idea that other people, especially people of other sexes, shouldn't see you in the nude is drilled in deep enough to cause some instinctive reactions.
"Jesus, Tamara!"
I felt my cheeks turning pink for reasons that had nothing to do with the hot water. My heart pounded.
"What?" she teased. "Someone's gotta keep up the traditions. Hey, you don't have to be so shy, it's not like I've never seen a peen before."
"You've never seen mine," I objected, but I was fighting not to smile and laugh about it.
"Uh, I kinda did now, dude." She leaned forward, crossing her arms on the top of the fence, looking down on us all, but mostly me. Which is fair, because I instigated the whole thing. "So what've you got left to hide, huh?"
