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If you visit an onsen in Japan, you may see posters telling you to drink milk afterwards or even find a vending machine selling cartons of milk nearby. But why? And is it a good idea?
Why Did Milk Become The After-Onsen Drink
It’s mostly down to the fact that at one point, sento, the onsen-like public baths used by many communities in Japan instead of bathing at home, were one of the few places to have fridges – and therefore, they were one of the few places able to actually store and sell milk before it went off.
In addition, in the 1940s, a company selling a milky coffee drink also needed to keep it cold, so they decided to put it in centos. It was a huge success and the idea of drinking something milky after the bath stuck.
Now, at many onsen and sento, you’ll find plain milk, flavoured milk, yogurt, probiotic drinks, or ice cream available for consumption after the bath.
Is It A Good Idea?
Yes. While most of us think water is the most hydrating thing we can drink, it’s not.
According to a recent study by the University of Stirling in Scotland, skimmed milk is the drink that helps rehydrate you the most. Not only does it contain fluids, but it also has fat, sugar, salt, and nutrients that help your body retain the liquid you take in better than when you simply drink water.
There is a Milk Drinking Pose
According to the Japan Dairy Council, there’s even a traditional pose for drinking milk after your onsen: standing with your hand on your hip as you glug back your mini bottle of cow juice.
It’s also commonly seen in Japanese anime when characters drink milk after an onsen (check out Episode 10 of My Senpai is Annoying), and there’s even a poster doing the rounds on Reddit explaining the correct way to position yourself!
Sadly, I can’t find out where this originated or why!
As you can tell by the unusual number of fingers, this image is AI-generated! If I use an AI image on this site, I will always tell you – if you can’t tell by the fingers!
The Dairy Council did try to put together an Instagram campaign to get people posting in the pose with the hashtag JapaneseMilkStyle, but it hasn’t seemed to take off massively (probably because of the whole being nude in the onsen thing).
So, there you have it. The slightly unusual but very sensible thing that Japanese people do after taking an onsen – and now you can do it too. If you’re new to visiting the onsen, you might want to check out our step-by-step guide to using an onsen like a local if you haven’t read it already.
