Designing the After-Bath Moment: Open-Air Cooldowns, Ramune, and a Furin Wind Chime

When I look back on my memories of hot springs, strangely enough, I remember very little of the time spent in the bath itself. What I remember is what came after. The evening breeze on flushed skin. A furin wind chime ringing at the far end of the corridor. The ceiling above me as I lay spread-eagled on the tatami. The best part of a bath, it turns out, comes in the after-bath moment.

If that is so, then the after-bath moment can be designed. First, chill a drink before you get in. Barley tea or a bottle of beer will do, but the summer recommendation is ramune (marble soda). The sound of the marble dropping, the narrow neck of the bottle, the carbonation that fizzes a little too hard. More than the taste, it is the ritual that works on the after-bath moment. Next, decide in advance where you will sit. On the engawa veranda or in a chair on the terrace, one seat placed in the path of the breeze. What sauna lovers call the open-air cooldown deserves to happen after the bath as well.

And in a whole-house rental, no one interrupts this afterglow. There is no crowded changing room outside a communal bath, no corridor hurried down for fear of catching a chill. You sit on the engawa veranda with your hair still wet and gaze at nothing until the sun goes down. A bath taken somewhere that allows this becomes a different thing, even in the same water.

A famed spring and an evening stroll through the onsen town: Arima Kotori

Official siteVillaArima Onsen · Hyogo有馬温泉の宿 小都里(ことり)Up to 6 guestsView this stay →

A casual little inn within walking distance of Arima Onsen Station. On the whole-house plan, you can enjoy the famed Ginsen (“silver spring”) of Arima and a wander through the hot-spring town. Here, the after-bath moment is best taken outdoors. Stroll the lanes of one of Japan’s oldest onsen towns until the flush fades from your skin. The smell of tansan senbei (carbonated-spring crackers) drifting up halfway along the slope is part of Arima’s open-air cooldown.

An open-air cooldown facing Nanao Bay: WAT RESORT Okunoto

Official siteVillaNoto Peninsula · IshikawaWAT RESORT シーフロント奥能登From JPY 55,000 / nightView this stay →

A rental villa for one party per day, standing on the shore of Nanao Bay. It is a private resort with a magnificent view of Notojima Island, where you can spend slow seaside days in Okunoto with a sauna, a bonfire, an onsen bath and BBQ. With the sauna, the hot spring and the fire all there to heat you up, the sea breeze after the bath becomes the finest supporting act. Nanao Bay in the evening calm has a stillness that seems prepared expressly for the open-air cooldown.

Spread-eagled on tatami with the Pacific in view: TSUBAKI ROOMS Shirahama

Area imageVillaNanki-Shirahama · WakayamaTSUBAKI Rooms(ツバキルームズ)白浜Up to 10 guestsView this stay →

A large resort villa for one party per day, overlooking the Pacific at Nanki-Shirahama. With an onsen bath and a private pool, up to 10 guests can have Shirahama’s spectacular scenery all to themselves. Watching the sunset from the poolside after your bath is a combination no onsen ryokan can offer, and here it is possible. By the time everyone in the family has finished bathing, the sky is turning just the right shade of madder red.

The afterglow is part of the bath

In the rush of everyday life, a bath rarely leaves even five minutes for the afterglow. A bath on a trip is a chance to reclaim that lost time. On your next onsen trip, try choosing your stay not only by the quality of the water but by where you can cool off after the bath. The furin wind chime does not even have to be ringing. As long as there is a path for the breeze, the after-bath moment can be designed.

• Find stays with onsen baths
• The pleasures of private onsen time (companion piece)