The Superiority of Onsen Towels
An attempt to understand and share my obsession with onsen towels
This newsletter is about the inner conflict of a Gorilla struggling with Anxiety & Depression who desperately wants to walk The Path of the Every Day Santa. To paraphrase Dorothy, "Anxiety, Depression, and Joy! Oh my!" All will be discussed here.
What to Expect
A reference to a book.
To wonder why you are reading about my towel obsession
To learn the magical utility of Japanese furoshiki and how to combine it with sarongs as a travel hack.
To learn why you, too, may want to begin collecting onsen towels.
A reference to Linus Van Pelt and comfort objects.
A Reference to a Book
I don’t recall how I came across The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but I am glad I did. It fell into my lap at just the right time, as I believe good books should. I was in my late teens, so the Adams’ humorous prose hit the sweetspot. However, at the time, one thing struck me as odd. What was with the Guide’s obsession with towels?
“A towel, [The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy] says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value. You can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapors; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a miniraft down the slow heavy River Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (such a mind-boggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can't see it, it can't see you); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough.”
― Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
In the decades since reading the series, I have traveled thousands of miles around the world, and have come to understand the value of a good towel. In fact, there are three kinds of towels in particular that I carry on a nearly daily basis; an onsen towels, a keffiyeh, and sarongs.
Sarongs
Last to first, I learned the value of a sarong while vacationing in Thailand back in the summer of 1998. I was down in the islands and they were selling sarongs everywhere, so I bought one on a whim. My girlfriend used hers as a skirt, but I figured I could at least use it as a towel when sunbathing. However, by the end of that trip I had found more uses for my sarong than a Swiss Army knife.
I used my sarong as a blanket at night, as a skirt rather than wearing shorts, something to lay on at the beach, a useful bit of cloth to carry things in. I used it numerous times each day. In fact, I still have a number of sarongs I bought back then. I still use them as blankets in the summer, and always use one when I travel.
Sarong Travel Tip
Lay your sarong out flat on your bed and lay your cloths on it. No horizontal folding. Just fold the edges of shirts in so they match the width of your slacks. Roll them all up in the sarong and drop that in your suitcase. Then, when you arrive, all your clothes are in a nice tight bundle, you have a spare sheet to sleep with, and a handy laundry bag to boot. Just drop the sarong in the wash with the clothes and use it to carry the folded home back again when done.
I also use sarongs when I go touring on my motorcycle. Why pay for expensive liners for topboxes and panniers when you can just use a multipurpose sarong instead?
In these ways, I have used my sarongs much in the way that Japanese furoshiki are intended to be used. While sarongs are intended as clothing, furoshiki are more utilitarian. The video below is a great introduction to furoshiki and how they are used.
Keffiyeh
The keffiyeh, like a Japanese furoshiki, is essentially a square peice of fabric. However, keffiyeh usually have knotted tassles along the edges. They are intended as headwear in middle eastern cultures and have been adopted by most military forces in that region. Of course, this means that they are pretty big with the paint ball crowd as well.
I purchased my first keffiyeh for motorcycle touring, as I wanted a multipurpose scarf for riding. It keeps my neck warm in the winder, and protects my neck from the sun in summer. And, once I arrive where I am going, I can aways use it like a furoshiki to bundle up my helmet or riding gear. It is a handy bit of kit.
Onsen Towels
My favorite kind of towel is the onsen towel. (In my home we call these “Gori Towels”, as my family calls me Gori and I always have one on me.) I actually came to the embarrasing realization a few years back that I collect them. I had just been doing it unconsciously until one day we were having lunch at an onsen resort, and near the register they were selling towels. I heard myself say, “Ooh, they have towels!” I paused, looked to my wife, and asked, “Should I get the pink or yellow?” She just laughed at me and told me to get both.
I basically carry an onsen towel with me everywhere I go between the Spring and Autumnal Equinoxes. It is muggy in my corner of the world, so a good onsen towel comes in handy. Uses I have for onsen towels:
Bringing to the onsen. (No! That is like bringing sand to the beach. I buy a new one when I get there. 😂 )
Wearing as a headband when working outside to keep the sweat out of my eyes.
Wearing around my neck while walking outside to protect myself from sunburn.
Wrapped around my wrist as I walk the dog. (This causes so much confusion, but it entertains me. I hold one end, wrap the towel around my wrist, and then close my fist on the other end. I then use the towel to wipe sweat from my brow. However, people always ask me, “What happened to your wrist?” as they think it is a cast.
Placemat on muggy days. I don’t like my forearms sticking to the table, so I use my onsen towel.
Toddler wrangler. Recently, I have found my onsen towels quite useful for lassoing my granddaughter and picking her up.
Etc…
What Do Towels Have to Do With Mental Health or Santa Claus?
Maybe, just maybe, my blankets make me feel safe. While I do not claim to be a man in his mid-fifties who needs his ‘blankie’ everywhere he goes, I do recognize that I tend to become more grumpy in the hotter half of the year. In this months, my onsen towels help me cope with the inconveniences that trouble me. In that sense, they bring me comfort, much like the comfort Linus Van Pelt gets from his blanket.
Cambridge dictionary defines security blanket as “a soft object such as a small piece of cloth or a toy that is very familiar to a baby or young child and makes him or her feel safe.” This is only an example of what is called comfort objects, which is what I prefer to consider my ‘Gori towels.’
A comfort object, more formally a transitional object or attachment object, is an item used to provide psychological comfort, especially in unusual or unique situations…
Hello, my name is Steve. I am 56 years old, and my towel is my comfort object. Does that sound strange?
In the end, I find I quite agree with Douglas Adams and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Wherever you may find yourself in your travels, or in your life, a towel is a handy thing to have.
Reflections
Is there something you keep at hand that just makes you feel comfortable?
As an adult, how do/would you feel ascribing the term ‘comfort object’ to something you carry around?