Crash Course In Japanese Culture (Part 4 of 5)
We went into Sachiko’s room and she brought out a large towel, a fresh change of underclothes, a pair of socks, and a pair of sweat pants with a matching sweat shirt. I started to remove my clothes and Sachiko left the room.
I opened the door and slid it closed behind me as I stepped into the slippers. With a towel around my waste I instantly felt the cold air around my legs and chest as I walked the couple of steps to the bath room on my right. I was still amazed that I couldn’t smell anything from the open pit toilet next to the bath room. The door to the kitchen was closed and I heard Sachiko and her mother talking.
I slid open the door to the bath room, stepped out of my slippers, and stepped down onto a quite cold, wet floor. It was quite steamy in there and the small window was slightly ajar.
The bath room was quite small and square with a concrete floor and a drain. The bathtub was the smallest I had ever seen. It was pale blue in color; about 3ft square, about 2ft in height, and was covered with a removable serrated cover. There was a spigot over the tub. There was also a long, silver flue that came from the side of the tub and exited the wall near the ceiling. It looked like you lit it somewhere on the bottom and this was how the water was heated. Also, on the floor were two plastic basins and a small, plastic thing with a hole in the center about a half foot high. It looked like you could sit on it. On the wall, about two feet from the floor was a small soap dish with a bar of soap in it, a small rack that had what looked like a thin, pink wash cloth on it and another spigot. That’s pretty low. I’ll have to reach for the soap. And why is there another faucet down there? I remember thinking. In the corner were two bottles of what I assumed to be shampoo and rinse.
How does one take a bath in that? I thought to myself as I stared at the bathtub and started to shiver a little. Sachiko then opened the door from the kitchen and mentioned that the water would be a little hot. She pointed to a pink, plastic, plunger looking type thing in the corner and said I should mix the water with it. I looked at her quizzically and she stepped into the plastic slippers, removed the cover, folded it, and placed it in the corner. She took the plunger, placed it in the water, and mixed it around. She inserted her hand and said, “There, that should be ok.”
“Thanks,” I said to her. She exited the room and slid the door closed behind her. I removed my towel and placed it in the towel rack. Standing there naked, I started to shiver a little as I put my hand into the crystal clear water. Wow was it hot! It didn’t burn me or anything, but it was hotter than any bath water I had felt before. I lifted a leg and placed it into the water. Man was it hot. I instantly removed it. After a while I tried again. It started to burn a little as I gently eased my leg into the water but continued doing so. Upon my foot touching the bottom of the bath, I eased my other leg in.
Man was it hot! There I was standing there in this really hot water that reached a little above my knees with my arms crossed and my hands clutching my shoulders to try and stay warm. It was so hot that my legs started to itch from the heat. I instantly got out and wondered if I could stand the heat and take a bath. Is this some kind of joke? Maybe she made it a little too hot, I thought to myself standing there like a fool. I looked at my legs and they were distinctly pink where the water reached.
I had no concept of a Japanese bath at the time. I had no idea that the water of a Japanese bath is really hot, but not hot enough to do any damage. The heat was supposed to sooth you and your muscles while you relaxed in the water.
Trying again, I eased a leg into the water. This time it didn’t feel all that hot. I eased the other leg in and it felt the same. Hmmm. It’s not that hot now. I put my hands on the side of the tub and gently eased the rest of my body into the bath. After a couple of inches I bolted upright again.
Sh*t, this is too hot for me! I said to myself. Maybe, I’ll just pass on the bath, make a little splashing noise, and pretend that I took one. But it was still cold in there and I didn’t think I could just stand there for fifteen or twenty minutes.
Trying yet again, I gently eased my body down into the water. It must’ve taken me a full five minutes to get my entire body into the hot water inch, by burning inch. I would lower myself a little lower than the previous time and get up again. I repeated that process and soon I was sitting there, cross legged, with water up to just below my neck and my body itching from the heat while water spilled over the sides of the tub.
After a while, the itchiness was gone and it was still hot, but not uncomfortable, and I started to relax. I eased my head back and rested it on the edge of the tub and looked at the ceiling of the steamy room while I let the heat penetrate my body. It really began to feel good.
After a few minutes of this I noticed that my forehead was starting to sweat. Well, I guess I better wash up, I thought. I reached down for the soap, grabbed the thin washcloth and brought both into the bath. I was surprised that the washcloth was not cloth at all. It was kind of rough nylon, felt a little like sand paper and was quite long. I wet the cloth, rubbed the soap on it, stood up, and proceeded to wash myself right there in the tub as I was accustomed to! I also noticed that my entire body was pink, almost like I was sunburned. I sat back down and let the soapy, hot water sooth my body again. This was not too bad now and it really felt good after all.
I had no inkling at the time that I had made a major cultural blunder here. No one had explained to me that, in a Japanese bath, you are supposed to wash yourself outside of the tub and rinse yourself off with the hot water from the bath with the basins. When you are completely clean and free of soap, you then get in and relax. This is very economical and the whole family can take a bath using very little water and gas.
Anyway, I got out of the tub and rinsed out the cloth with cold water from the faucet near the floor and hung it up. Man was that water cold. I reached into the tub, grabbed the chain, removed the stopper and let the water drain onto the floor. I grabbed the towel from the rack and proceeded to dry myself off.
After a minute or so Sachiko opened the door to the bath room and I almost fell over trying to get the towel around me. “What are you doing?” she said. “Don’t let the water out. We have to use it again.”
“Why? The waters dirty from my bath.”
Her eyes widened as she looked at the tub and the soap ring and she said, “Did you wash in bath?”
“Of course,” I answered. Doesn’t everybody? I thought to myself.
“Oh no!” she said. “My fault! My fault! I should of explain to you how take Japanese bath. I thought you know,” she said with a somewhat shocked look on her face.
Motioning me out of the bathroom she went in and started running the water. She left and came back with a rag and proceeded to clean out the tub while I stood in the hallway watching her and thinking that I really screwed up here. I remember wondering if she was pissed off at me. How was I to know? No one explained it to me. I also remember that I felt no cold whatsoever out there in the hallway. My body was so heated from the tub that it couldn’t feel the cold. As Sachiko cleaned out the tub I walked back into her room.
I put on the sweat pants, tee shirt and socks, and sat on the floor at the small table and lit a cigarette. I felt really dumb and embarrassed, but didn’t let it bother me too much because no one explained the technique involved in taking a Japanese bath. After a few minutes I heard water running again. Sachiko went into the kitchen and then came into the room with a small tray that held a bottle of beer and two small glasses.
She sat at the table and poured the beer for the both of us. “Sorry,” I said. I didn’t know about a Japanese bath.”
She looked at me, smiled, and said, “That’s ok. No probrem. I should explain to you or ask you if you know about Japanese bath.”
She held up her glass, said “compai”, “cheers,” and we touched our glasses together. Man, did that cold beer taste good after that bath. I quickly drank it and Sachiko refilled it. She went on explain the fundamentals of taking a Japanese bath:
When taking a bath one first rinses oneself off with water from the bath with the basins. The feet are washed first. If the body is not extremely dirty, one can then enter the bath and relax a bit. After a while, you remove yourself from the bath, sit on the small seat and fill two basins with water from the bath. If the water is too hot, you can add cold water from the faucet. You then pour water from one of the basins over yourself once or twice. Afterwards you proceed to wash your body. You also shave and wash your hair if needed. Then you rinse yourself off with clean water from the bath with one of the basins and do it again until your body is completely rinsed off. Then, you get into the tub and let the hot water relax you and take all your cares away.
Sachiko went on to explain that I would have to take a bath again to cleanse my body of the soap film that was probably on me. I had never thought of this before, but in a way it did make sense. It made very good sense.
I heard male voices coming from the kitchen and realized that her father and brother were home. Sachiko left the room to turn off the bath water and start the heating process over again. This would take about another 40 minutes and therefore, dinner would be delayed due to my not knowing how to take a bath.
Anyway, I remained in the room and drank the rest of the beer and listened to the radio while the bath heated. When it was ready, I again took a bath and washed my hair. I thought the father and brother would go first, but because I was the guest, as Sachiko explained, I went first.
This time I did it right as Sachiko made clear. I entered the bath room, sat on the small seat and filled the two basins with water from the tub and proceeded to wash myself outside the tub. I then rinsed myself off with clean water from the bath with the other basin. I then washed my hair and entered the tub to relax. It was still hot, but not as hot as the first time. I relaxed in there for a few minutes until I felt myself starting to sweat. Then I got out, dried myself off and went back to the room.
Sachiko then invited me into the family room where I sat on a zabuton on the floor at the short rectangular table. She brought another beer, poured it for me and turned the TV on. Her father had already entered the bath. I glanced at the clock on the dresser and it was a little past 7. The heat from the bath still warmed me.
Here I was about to eat my first Japanese dinner, while sitting on the floor, in a Japanese house with a Japanese family. I still couldn’t believe I was in this place and experiencing this strange culture first hand. It was all so surreal. I hoped nobody was pissed off at me for screwing up in the bath and delaying dinner.
Continued here (part 5)
SOURCE : www.jref.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18391
