Hot Spring Christmas Part 3 of 4
By Emi Tsuruta


As I've been telling you when I went back to Japan last Christmas, my cousin Namie and I went on a trip to some hot spring inns in the Izu peninsula.  We visited two hot springs on the first day, Shuuzenji and Yugashima, and took a little dip in each.  I love being able to warm up like this in the winter.  The next morning, we took a bus south to Dogashima, where we had reservations at the Dogashima Komatsu View Hotel.  It was a really nice place, probably one of the fanciest hotels I've ever stayed in.  The inside was brightly lit, and everything looked so new.  I knew it must be expensive, but I'd told my boyfriend Ryosuke I wanted to stay in a fancy hotel, so I guess he must have picked this one out for me.  Ryosuke usually chooses cheaper inns out in the middle of nowhere, but I like to be pampered sometimes.  Namie has a bit of a tomboyish streak, but her mom is really into chic clothes and shopping in fashionable boutiques, so I think Namie probably appreciates those things too.

When we walked in, the front desk clerk brightened right up.

"Oh my my my.  What have we here?  Two lovely young ladies coming to stay with us?"

"Yes, I believe we have a reservation," I told him, smiling.

"With your parents?" he asked looking down at the register.

"No, no.  Just us two."

"How old are you?  High school?"

Namie and I both laughed.  I still look pretty young I guess, but Namie was married for heaven's sake.  Probably he was just trying to flatter us, but even so it was kind of nice.

"No, no.  I'm in college, and Namie works."

"Oh, I'm sorry.  It's just you both look so young and perky!"

We both laughed again.  Not too many guys have called me perky!  He gave us our keys, and said,

"If there's anything else I can do for you, just let me know."

I couldn't stop giggling.  He was just so funny, so eager to please.  Anyway, we thanked him, and took our luggage upstairs.  A sign in the elevator told us where all the baths were.

"It looks like none of them are co-ed," Namie said.  I noticed that too.  I thought that was a bit weird because Ryosuke almost always picks out inns with co-ed baths, so we can go in together.  In the end, he hadn't been able to come, but even so, what had he had in mind when he made the reservation?  The sign said that for women, there was one big indoor bath upstairs, and two outdoor baths out behind the hotel, one right on the beach.  We soon found our room, and set down our luggage.  The room was tatami, the traditional Japanese style, but everything looked so new and fresh.  I was kind of excited, and wanted to go try the outdoor baths first while it was still daylight out.  Namie looked at me, a bit suspiciously after what I'd done our last two outings.

"Relax!  It'll just be women this time," I told her.  To get to these baths, you had to go past the reception desk, out the front entrance, and then walk around the building to the back.  There were change rooms out there, so we kept our coats on, and took our stuff with us.  Unlike the last place we stayed, we saw a whole bunch of other guests in the halls and in the lobby.  Out back though, there didn't seem to me be much of anyone around.  I guess it still was pretty cold out, so people were using the indoor baths.  We were pretty far south though, so it seemed a lot warmer to me than Kamakura, but it was the middle of winter after all.

The first bath was sort of half way down the cliff.  We decided to take a look around before going in.  Just at the exit to the change rooms, there was a winding stairway leading down to the other bath.  There was a beautiful view of the ocean stretching out in front of us and a little tree covered island not far off shore.

"Wow!" Namie exclaimed.  It was so beautiful.  Off to the left and right, you could see the roads heading north and south along the coast, and behind us, just above, there were trees blocking the view from our hotel.  Namie looked at me kind of nervously.  She gestured to this other multi-storey hotel just off to the left.

"Do you suppose they can see us?"

"No," I said, trying to sound more sure than I felt.  We walked down the back stairs, and found the other bath.  As I suspected, there was no one there.  It was kind of shaded under this overhang with a wooden fence on the far side, but it was right on the ocean.  There were a couple of fishing boats anchored out in the inlet.  Namie scrunched up her face into a grimace, but I looked out straining to see.

"There's no one on the boats," I announced, fairly certain.  "Fishermen must use them in the summer."

Namie squinted out at them, and eventually seemed satisfied I was right.  Still, it was a beautiful day out really - not a single cloud in the sky.  The change rooms were back up by the other bath, so we walked back up.  I looked around again at the roads and the other hotel, a little bit worried that people might be able to see us.  Namie looked worried too, but I told her we were probably far enough away that it should be OK.  Actually, I wasn't so sure, but anyway, I wanted to try.  I went into the change room, and got undressed.  Namie soon caught up, and started changing too.  I smiled at her happy to being going into yet another bath.  I don't know why I like them so much.  I just do.

We went outside, but we ended up crouching down, so that the people on the highway or in the other hotel couldn't see us.  There were extendible shower heads on the deck, so we quickly showered off, and rushed to get in the bath.  It was deliciously warm.  After a while I said,

"Let's go down to the other bath."

Namie opened her eyes wide, as I got out, and headed toward the stairs naked.

"W-w-where are you going?" she stuttered.

"Come on!  Let's go," I said, motioning for her to follow.  She just sat there in the bath for a moment, a bit afraid to get out.  I took the rubber band off my wrist, and tied my wet hair back in a ponytail.  I looked over at the hotel wondering if anyone was catching my little show.  I felt so charged up.  I just love being able to run around naked outside.  Namie finally got out of the bath, and wrapped her towel around her.

"Aren't you going to bring your towel?" she asked anxiously.

"That's OK.  I'll just leave it here, and come back when I need it."

Namie gave me a disapproving look, but anyway, she followed me down the stairs.  I was proud of myself for being so daring.  Even so, I felt a bit nervous heading down the stairs.  There were high bamboo fences on either side, so no one could see us most of the way down, but we couldn't really see where we were going till we got to the bottom.  When I first stepped out, I felt this sudden rush of embarrassment.  The fishing boats were still there, and we could hear men's voices.  I suddenly realized that the fence along the left side was separating us from the men's bath.  Even worse, the posts of the fence were spaced a bit apart from each other, so we could kind of see them and the hotel behind them.

Namie took off her towel, and quickly slid into the water up to her neck to hide.  I knew I should probably get down too, but I was a bit curious to see who was over there.  Namie kept gesturing for me to get down, but I waded into the pool, and tiptoed over towards the fence.  I could see several men maybe in their thirties through the slats.  They were sitting deep in the water, so all I could see was their heads, but they looked pretty handsome I thought.  Suddenly, they stopped talking, and looked over this way.  I crouched down into the water wondering if they'd seen me.  Namie narrowed her eyes sternly, angry perhaps that I'd gone, and let them see me.  I just motioned for her to stay quiet.

"Hello," one's voice rang out.  "Is there anybody over there?"  They had seen us.  I felt a shiver run up my spine as our eyes met through the fence.  Namie was gesturing for me to keep quiet too, but I couldn't hold back my curiosity.

"Hello," I called back, my voice cracking from nervousness.  "How's the water over there?"

"Nice and warm," one called back.  "Would you like to come over, and join us?"

Namie was shaking her head back and forth no over and over.  I thought the whole situation was kind of funny though - all five us sitting here in the nude having a conversation.  I decided to tease them a bit.

"I don't know.  The woman's bath is nice enough.  Is that one any better?"

"Why don't you come over, and find out?"

I could just see parts of their faces, so it was hard to tell if they were serious, but anyway, Namie was having a complete bird, so I decided to let it go.

"Maybe next time," I said.

"Or we could come over there?"  The one who talked the most stood up, and waded over to get his towel.  I could see his naked rear, quite muscular I thought.  Namie was starting to freak out, so I moved back from the fence, and got ready to get out too.

"No, I don't think that would be such a good idea."  I got up out of the bath, and stood on the edge motioning for Namie to get out too.  The three of them were craning their heads back and forth trying to get a better look at us.  I was getting all excited, but anyway, once Namie got her towel on, we made a dash for it back up the stairs.  I took one last look at the men's bath as we rounded the corner.  Luckily, it looked like they weren't really planning to come over this way anyway.  Once Namie caught up, she got all angry at me for teasing them,

"What on earth were you doing?  There were right there."

"Relax, I don't think they could see us very well.  I couldn't even really see them."

She let out a nervous laugh, perhaps a bit fed up with my games.  After that bit of excitement, we got back dressed, and headed up to our room for supper.  It was a delicious seafood dinner - real crab, sashimi and mountain vegetables.  After supper, we lay around relaxing for a while.  It was getting cooler by then, so I suggested we go check out the indoor bath.  She eyed me suspiciously then finally laughed.

"OK, but no funny stuff," she scolded me in a good natured way.  I just smiled.

We got in the elevator, and headed up to the baths.  They were on the top floor among the penthouse suites.  There was a woman sitting behind a counter at the entrance, and she gave us keys for the lockers and fresh towels.  The locker room was really large and filled with people.  There were quite a few mothers and daughters running around naked and even a few young boys.  I was a bit surprised at first, especially 'cause one of the boys looked familiar.  I'd gotten so used to things in the States where you almost never see boys in the girls changing room.  In Japan, no one seems to care much where children go.  This one boy though reminded me a bit of Brandon, my host mom's son back in California, or some other neighborhood boy I knew pretty well.  It felt kind of weird the thought of stripping in front of some boy I knew.

Anyway, Namie and I made our way through the crowded locker room, and finally found our lockers.  A whole bunch of women and kids kept walking past the end of the aisle or coming down our row.  I looked over at Namie, and she looked a bit daunted at getting undressed in front of all these people.  Still, half of them were naked anyway, so I decided to go for it, and started unbuttoning my jeans.  Namie stood there for a while longer just looking around, and then finally took off her sweater.  I pulled off my jeans and panties, and got a little thrill as I squatted down to stuff them in my locker.  I don't know why, but I always get a little excited getting naked in public even if it was only the women's change room.  I stood back up, and looked over at Namie, grinning.  She was still looking all around, seemingly even more nervous now that she was down to her undies.  We stripped off our last bit of clothes, grabbed our towels, and scurried off towards the baths.  I was impressed because Namie just carried her towel in her hand without bothering to cover up her body.

There were a couple of different baths.  One was sort of like a swimming pool with chairs on the deck for stretching out on.  The Japanese style bath was gorgeous.  It seemed to be made of Japanese cypress, and the light from outside reflected off the surface of the water making it look deep and warm.  We sat down on these plastic stools, facing the extendible shower heads.  I tied my hair back in a ponytail, rolled it into a bun, and then showered off.  We both got all lathered up, and took turns scrubbing each other's backs.  When we were finally rinsed off, we headed over to the big Japanese bath.

Just behind the bath was a huge picture window looking out over the ocean.  All the other women were staying away from the window, but I was curious to see what was out there.  I moved closer.  On the far left, you could see the highway with all these cars going by.  Namie grabbed my arm, and tried to pull me back away from the window, but I still wanted to see.  I went right up to the window, and stood there peering out at the cars.  I could just barely make out the drivers' heads and shoulders, and I wondered if they could see me standing up here in the nude.  I was starting to get all excited.

"Emi!  What are you doing?  Get away from there," Namie whispered.

"No, no, come here.  I want to show you."

She looked at me obviously horrified at the idea of standing in the window, but she finally got out of the bath, and came up to stand next to me.  She covered her mouth when she saw how many cars there were heading this way up the highway.

"Isn't this great?" I beamed, positively thrilled.  I put my hands on my hips proudly showing off my body.  Suddenly though, one of the cars started slowing down, and then made a u-turn.

"Oh no.  He saw us," Namie shrieked.  We both ran back, and got in the bath.  We looked at each other for a moment, and then broke out laughing.  I guess she knew we were perfectly safe up on the top floor of the hotel.

Soon we got out of that bath, and went around to take a look at the other ones.  The big swimming pool was kind of cool.  The other baths were just made of small tiles, sort of like a sento.

"I think I like the cypress one best," I said.  We headed back there, but it was getting time for supper.  We rinsed off one more time, and then I headed for the change rooms with Namie close behind.  The change room was packed.  I saw the same boy I saw earlier, and finally, figured out who he reminded me of.

"Do you see that boy?" I said excitedly pointing him out to Namie.  She turned to look as I fanned myself with my soaking wet towel.  "Doesn't he look like Hideki's best friend?"  Hideki was Namie's younger brother.  This boy was of course much younger, maybe 11 or 12, but they really did look alike.

"Hiroyasu, you mean?" she asked.

"I guess.  No one ever told me his name."

We both stared at the boy till he noticed us watching him, and then we quickly looked away.

"Yeah, I guess," she laughed.  I put my wet towel into the locker, and pulled out a fresh one.  Namie took out some moisturizer, and sprayed her skin with it.  "Here.  Do you want some?" she asked.  I took it from her, and sprayed a bit on my breasts.  "Feels nice, huh?"

While I was toweling off, down at the end of our aisle, I noticed the Hiroyasu look-alike, looking this way.  I was right out in the middle of the aisle where he could see me, so I tried to pull the towel around me to cover up, but I kept losing my grip.  I wrapped it around my waist, finally managing to hide my pussy, but then he looked away.  Figuring it was safe, I bent forward to dry off my legs, but then all of a sudden, he was right there behind me.  I jumped back a bit frightened.  Had he been staring at my pussy as I leaned forward?  I hurried to pull the towel around me, but I tied it too high, and you could still see my pussy.  I guess he'd seen us staring at him, but was that why he came over?  What was he doing in the girls' locker room anyway?

He wasn't really looking at me though, and it turned out that his locker was right next to ours.  He crouched down in front of me, and opened his locker, not paying much attention to me anymore.  Namie hadn't even noticed him.  She was just calmly getting dressed.  I realized I was proabably getting all upset over nothing..  I took my towel back off, and wiped off my ears still feeling a little bit jumpy about lounging around in front of this boy in my bare scuddy.  I finally put the towel back in the locker, and took out my white cotton sports halter.  I kept looking down the aisle though to see if anyone else was coming this way.  Namie had her panties on already, and told me to hurry up.  I nodded obediently, and finally pulled my undies on as another lady stopped at a locker across from us.  I looked down at the boy as I straightened out my panties, but when I got out my t-shirt, he headed back to the baths.  Maybe it was no big deal, but I sure felt weird.

Back in our room, our futons were laid out for us.  The room was warm - a bit hot even, so I took off all my clothes, and lay down in the nude.

"Aren't you going to put on your yukata?" Namie asked, undressing herself.

"It's too hot.  Don't you ever sleep in the nude?"

"Not in a hotel!"

"So you do sleep in the nude!"

"I didn't say that!"

"Yes, you did!

"No, I didn't."

"Well anyway, promise me you will tonight!"

She gave me a strange look, but finally took off her underwear, and sat down naked on her futon.

"I feel silly."

"It's better for your skin to sleep naked."

Namie didn't seem convinced, but anyway she lay down on her back staring up blankly at the ceiling.  We lay there chatting for a while till I slowly drifted off to sleep.

I woke up in the middle of the night with my mouth all dry.  I got up, and flipped on the light, accidentally waking up Namie.

"What?  What's wrong?" she asked sleepily.

"Aren't you thirsty?" I asked.

"I guess.  What time is it?"

I dug out my watch.

"3:30.  I'm just going to go see if I can find something to drink."  I picked up my key, and walked to the door, but all of a sudden Namie started yelling excitedly.

"Whoa!  Whoa!  Stop!"

"What?"

"You can't go out like that!"

I looked down, and suddenly realized I was still naked.  Oops!  I knew I was forgetting something.  Namie got up, threw my yukata at me, and pulled her own on.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm not letting you go out there alone.  There's no telling what you might do."

I laughed, and pulled on my yukata.  I still think it would have been fun wandering the halls naked.  I don't know why, but I just love doing stuff like that, if I'm pretty sure there is no one else around.

We both slid on some slippers, and headed out.  The halls were so quiet.  There didn't seem to be any drink machines on our floor, so we ended up going down to the lobby.  There was a light on in the office behind the front desk, but we couldn't see or hear anyone.  We finally found a drink machine, bought some barley tea, and sat down on the sofas near the picture window that looked out over the dark ocean at the back.

"So peaceful, isn't it?" I said.

"Mmm," Namie nodded, smiling sleepily.  I glanced over at the front desk again.

"Do you suppose anyone is up?" I asked, curious.  It was eerily quiet.  I went over to the counter, and called softly, "Hello, is anyone there?"  There was no answer.  I thought I could hear someone snoring.  "The night clerk must have fallen asleep."

I walked over to the front entrance, and peered out.  It looked cold outside, and I could kind of hear the wind whistling by.  I felt restless though.  I wanted to do something.  I looked back at Namie wondering what she was thinking.  I came back to the sofa, and sat back down.

"Have you had a good time so far?" I asked, more awake now.

"Uh-huh," she nodded.

"You must think I'm pretty crazy, huh?"

She looked at me for a moment, and then smiled.

"Like I said, you seem a lot wilder than when we were younger.  Does your mom know you do these things?"

"Oh, don't you dare tell her!  She'd have a fit, I swear."

"Don't worry.  I won't," she assured me.  She paused, and then went on.  "My mom still talks about that time you were running around our house with no panties on.  She thought that was so funny!"

"Yeah, your mom is a real hoot," I laughed.  "Why do you suppose she got such a big thrill out of seeing me like that?  It was half her fault you know, the first time."

"I don't know.  She's always liked racy jokes.  Hideki too."

"What about you?" I asked.  She laughed.

"You've talked me into doing some pretty wild stuff this vacation."

"So it's my fault, is it?  You know, there's something I've been meaning to tell you," I told her.

"What?"

"Promise you won't get angry."

She looked at me a bit worried, but finally said,

"Yeah, OK."

"Hideki and his friends were out in the backyard that day."

"What day?"

"You know.  The last time I was here.  We were over at your mom's house, and I was trying on some of your old outfits."  She stared at me for a moment, and then finally opened her mouth wide in shock.  I guess it was the Christmas before.  Hideki had stormed in on me while I was changing in their living room, but then we thought he'd gone out.  We got to talking about Namie's sex life as a newlywed, and it sounded like Ryoichi, her husband, needed a bit of a push to get things started if you know what I mean.  I talked her into stripping and giving her hubby a call, but unfortunately, Hideki had gathered up his friends, and was spying in on us.  They must have been so shocked to see Namie sitting on the window sill naked.  "I swear I didn't know they were there at first!" I bowed in apology.  Namie looked so upset she could hardly speak.  "Anyway, it's OK.  It's OK.  Nothing happened after that, did it?"

Namie shook her head.

"Oh god.  Last time I saw Hiroyasu he kept staring at me.  I never even imagined."

"So he saw you naked.  It's no big deal."

"Emi!  I don't know how you can take these things so lightly."

"Well, think of all the people who've seen us this week: those tourists, that guy on the bridge, the other man and his mistress, those men out back."

"No, but I mean, we're never going to see any of them again."

"So what you're saying is it's alright as long as you don't see the people again."

"That's not what I said."

"Almost!"  I sat up straight, and glanced over at the front desk.  We'd been sitting here for quite a while, and no one had come along.  I was feeling all hot and sweaty.  I reached down, and undid the belt of my yukata.

"Emi!  What are you doing?"

"I just want to cool off for a sec."  I stood up, and pulled the yukata off my shoulders letting it fall back onto the couch.  I was now standing there naked in the front lobby of the hotel.  I smirked at Namie - who was having a complete bird - and then walked over towards the front door.  Namie got up, and grabbed my yukata, but I motioned for her to be quiet.  I could still hear the snoring behind the front desk, but my heart was pounding away like a jackhammer.  I stepped down into the genkan (entranceway), and pushed open the glass door.  The cool wind whipped around my naked flesh, exciting me even more.  I walked right out to the street, getting higher and higher on the feeling of being naked outdoors.  I suddenly glanced back at the hotel realizing that some people could probably see me from their windows.  Namie was standing at the front door with my yukata, desperately waving for me to come back.

I stood there basking in the cool breeze a moment more, but soon I could hear a car coming in the distance.  I turned to face its headlights getting more and more excited with each passing second.  It raced by, a sports car of some sort, but then suddenly hit the brakes.  The driver must have seen me!  Drat!  I ran back to Namie, and took the yukata from her.  As we dashed past the front desk, we could hear the clerk waking up.  Luckily, I managed to pull my yukata on, and make it to the stairs before he saw us.

"You are crazy!  Do you know that?" Namie puffed, coming up the stairs behind me.

"Says the girl whose brother's friends are all lusting after her!"

She grabbed a hold of my belt.

"Hey, what are you trying to do?  Strip me naked?"

"Keep your voice down."

I turned, and tried to pull off her belt, but soon we could hear the clerk's footsteps in the stairwell below.  We dashed back to our room, and raced in.

"Wow!  That was amazing!" I shouted still on an incredible high at having gotten away with it.

"Settle down, will you?"

Outside in the hall, we could hear the clerk coming this way.  It sounded like he had stopped in front of our door.  I doubted it was the same guy we saw that afternoon, but then how did he know what room we were in?  Both Namie and I stood stock still not even daring to breathe.  Soon, though he went away.  I slowly managed to calm down, and then the two of us went back to sleep.  That next morning, we had to leave really early because we had a long way to go to the next hot spring.  I'll tell you all about that next time.

Emi Tsuruta
My web site:
http://www.asstr.org/~emitsuruta/
