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This undated photo provided by Stéphanie Crohin shows traditional baths and murals in Kasuga onsen, or hot spring bath, in Matsuzaka, Mie prefecture, Japan. Japan is proud of its bathing traditions.

It was a cold February day in northern Japan, snow piled high outside the onsen locker room windows as I slipped out of my clothes. Nervously, I stepped into the plumes of steam wafting from the next ...

For many years after I experienced my first Japanese onsen, or public bath, and whenever I was in Japan on my annual trip, I found myself playing a variation of that game recommended to nervous public ...