Yesterday, I took a japanese bath at our hotel in Narita.  ‘So what?’ you say.  Well, a Japanese bath is not similar to an American bath.  It took us (myself and three other girls) a good 15 minutes of instruction reading (yes there were instructions) and cooperative thinking to figure these baths out.

Going to the bath, you wear slippers and a robe.  Then you enter a room where you take off the robe and your slippers.  Next you walk into the bath area.  There is room outside of the tub to sit, wash, and shampoo your hair.  There is also I shower head in the same area to rinse off.  Then, is when you enter the actual ‘bath’ which is more like a big hot tub.  Basically, you sit there and ‘soak’ with everyone else.  Yes, with everyone else.  There is no privacy.  It may seem weird.  However, let me say that I was very hesitant to try this ‘ofuro’ at first, but once I was persuaded by a few friends to accompany them, it turned out to be really neat.  We were all laughing by the end and we had some great conversations while ‘soaking.’ Once you are done soaking, you dry off in the area where you had previously washed.  You must not be dripping wet when going back into the other room to retrieve your robe.  A lot to get right and I’m sure we did a few things wrong anyway.

While we are on the subject…. slippers are not only used to walk to the bath, but are also used in the home restroom when one wants to use the toilet.  They are specifically for that room.  No one should wear the slippers out of the bathroom.  Everyone will have a great laugh at your expense if you do (no, I did not do this… yet).  In our hotel, we had the ‘high tech’ toilets.  These have buttons that will wash your hind end when you are done.  I was too chicken to push any buttons other than the ‘flush’ one. 

Here are some pictures for you all:  On the left is the restroom with the appropriate restroom slippers; in the middle are a few fellow IES students in the hotels ofuro bath robes; and on the right is a zoomed in picture of the buttons on the arm next to the toilet that you see in the picture on the left (for your entertainment).  Sorry the pictures are a little dark.

Another little fun fact we learned today – if you want to use a swimming pool in Japan….don’t get a tattoo!  People who have tattoos are NOT allowed to use the swimming pool.  This is because of the negative connotations connected with tattoos in Japan (many Yakuza members have tattoos).  As we were going over the facilities and proper etiquette for them, our instructor said “please do not have tattoos.”  A fellow student who had a tattoo asked, “What if we have a tattoo?  What do we do?”  To that she said, “Please do not use the pool.”  Maybe I should wait a bit on that tattoo if I am planning on coming back!  =)

Location: Narita, Japan