Japanese onsen / sento with toddler - diapers?
 

Any Japan 'old hands' on here who can advise me on going to onsen hot springs / sento bathhouses with a toddler?
He's not fully toilet trained... Is it acceptable to use swim diapers?
Does anyone have any experience of this??
(Obviously I can ask when I'm there, but it would be a great help to know if I need to lug swim diapers half way across the globe!).
Many thanks,
Firefly

Absolutely no to the swim diapers. Babies typically do not go into the baths, but just use the shower part with mom. The bath water is too hot for babies and small children.

Your toddler would not care to go near the onsen. It is so hot that it would be absolut suffering if not danger for him.

Beyond the danger of a hot bath for an infant, the Japanese wash and scrub the heck off their bodies before entering the water. Totally rude to leave hair or similar in the water, so even if your diapers were 100% leakproof, just the thought of them leaking would spoil the bath for others.

If you have one of those toddler bath chairs, you could let him sit outside the tub, but I was always more comfortale leaving daughters with my husband while I bathed.

The hotspring I went to might have smelled suphur. That stuff could be harmful to toddlers.

I guess it is worth the while to check it out before you go.