Oushuu33Kannon Temples 11-12-13 Part 2

We continued through the town of Izaka, finding very few people and almost no open buildings. This seemed strange in a onsen (hot spring) town, but the terrible state of the economy has had a devastating effect on tourism in general and we guessed that that was the cause. As we approached the northern end of town, we saw a car stopped at the side of the road and some people taking pictures. As we got closer, we could see that they were interested in an old-looking wooden building and the park-like grounds around it. When we finally had advanced enough to see it, the building (in the center of the picture) was clearly an old fashion design - columns and windows, rather than walls.
The first floor windows were covered with paper on the inside to prevent people from seeing in but still providing some light. Although I called them windows, they are more like doors since they reach from the floor to above head height and slide sideways to open. We were also intrigued by the torii between the building and the street. The torii meant that there was a Shinto shrine nearby.
The small shrine was the next building north of the main building and beside the shrine there was a water tower. It was at this point that we saw a sign saying that this was a public bath, with water from a hot spring.
The little shrine was unimpressive but nice. We did not bother to stop and pay our respects (ring the bell, leave a coin, clap our hands, and then meditate briefly). Our goal was Buddhist Temple 11 and we still had a long way to go, because the temple was north of the town at the base of the mountains.
The dark building with all the windows, er, doors, was apparently a place for visitors to stay over night, because the next building past the shrine was obviously the baths themselves. We knew because the sign on the doors said so. As usual, the baths were divided into a men's section and a women's section with separate doors into each.
Forty years ago when I first came to Japan, many of the baths were not so strictly separated. I remember seeing a bath in Kyoto, just a couple of blocks from the train station, where the only separation was a rope across the middle of the large bath. Also in the country side there were many places where everyone bathed together in one large, swimming pool sized bath. However, times have changed and I know of no public places where mixed bathing is still allowed, although there might be some deep in the mountains.