hot spring

I visited my grand mother in Fukushima prefecture. Fukushima is up north, I assumed it would be much colder but it was not so bad. I was planning to stay one night and come back Sunday night. However my cousin offered me to go to hot spring together if I could stay one more night. Of course I changed my plan and well, I came to the office this morning by a bullet train! My granmma was too tired to go, but my aunt joined and three of us drove 40 mins to the mountain. It is a public facility but far out from the town, in a mountain. We went little bit late, around 7:30 to avoid croud. However, there were so many people enjoying hot spring from a baby to a old woman. General speaking, people from country side are very friendly. Sometimes they just speak to us like we know each other. I was surprised my aunt told me how old all the kids were there, she talked every mom. Well, kids are so cute so no wonder she wanted to talk about them. Hot spring....all of us are naked. For me, hot spring with bathing suits is not Onsen (=hot spring in Japanese), but a pool. Japan has so many hot spring spot, everybody took bath naked, we share the big bath tub. I think the way we share the moment of feeling good and relaxed make us friendly. We feel like we are sharing something in a baby's clothes. My cousin asked if there were hot springs in L.A.. I told there were some spas but we have to wear a bathing suits. Then she told me it does not have all the goodness of taking Onsen. I totally agree. My skin feels so soft and supple because of minerals of hot spring. We took a bath almost 2 hours. There are a hot tub outside, looking at Japanese style stone garden. The coldness of the air feels great when I am in a tub. If you know some hot spring place where we don't have to wear a bathing suits, please tell me!