TOKYO — Japan is proud of its bathing traditions. For many Westerners, though, the fact that these traditions involve being naked with strangers is awkward at best, even though men and women bathe ...

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 ...

I'm all for riding bullet trains, enjoying the bright lights of Tokyo and attending the sumo wrestling when in Japan, but I reckon a visit to an onsen or hot-spring resort is the country's top ...