. A SECIA'DRD OX THK WRSTRRN OfTi^ OI-' THIv MAIX OK TUK XORTIIHRN JAI'ANKSE ALPS. of their friends. Although in some cases one now finds separate compartments reserved for those who prefer to bathe privately, it is much more usual for a number of persons to bathe together without distinction of age. sex, or class. At one time in some of the towns, out of deference to European ideas of privacy, a cord was stretched across the big wooden tanks with the notice, " This side for ladies: that for ; But in the country-side such refinement is rarely observed
. A SECIA'DRD OX THK WRSTRRN OfTi^ OI-' THIv MAIX OK TUK XORTIIHRN JAI'ANKSE ALPS. of their friends. Although in some cases one now finds separate compartments reserved for those who prefer to bathe privately, it is much more usual for a number of persons to bathe together without distinction of age. sex, or class. At one time in some of the towns, out of deference to European ideas of privacy, a cord was stretched across the big wooden tanks with the notice, " This side for ladies: that for ; But in the country-side such refinement is rarely observed, yet everything is conducted with the utmost propriety and decorum. Among the more educated habitues of the onsen are found young men of the student class, holidav-making they differ seriously from the ancient Greeks, whom in so many other ways they resemble, for the Athenians considered noisy singing in the public baths a particular sign of boorish behaviour. One of the onsen in the Xorthern Japanese Alps, Shirahone in Shinshu. has been in the possession of the family of its present owners for three hundred years. WTien my wife and I visited it in 1914. we noticed the edge of the main public tank was hncd with a number of large water- worn boulders from the bed of the neighbouring moun- tain torrent. These, we were informed, were for the use of the bathers, who lay them in their laps at night when going to " bed " to prevent them from " turning
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