Taking a bath in the hot spring creates a moment when you can both observe the place around you and also become the main actor in it–after all the bath is built there for someone to enter it. The hot spring and its minerals literally become part of you, same as the tiny parts of you, your dead skin, stay in the water. This dialectical play between the subject and the place is not unique to onsen, but it is very visible there.

I am not sure I will be able to articulate well enough my thoughts on how the hot springs influence the geography and the character of the place in one text or even in a series of texts. It will take time to develop this idea fully and to explain the different sides of this concept which will definitely require venturing into the realms of psychogeography and heterotopia at some point, and those are tricky subjects by themselves.

At this point, I would like to finish with the words of one of my favorite authors, M John Harrison: “the moment you step into a landscape it becomes another one“. I feel that natural hot springs allow for this to be felt almost physically. As long as you are paying attention.