The price of a relaxing soak in one of Japan’s famous onsen is going up as towns across the country look to offset shrinking revenues from other sources and cover the costs of an ageing population.

Japanese monks have been skipping ... on Twitter doing agile acts with the hashtag "I can do this in monks' robes". And it's not just skipping ropes - many of them are taking on more ambitious ...

In particular, it was the ritual of the Japanese onsen – whereby bathers soak in the thousands ... the role that textiles play in such bathing practices; how towels and robes become an essential ...