On my eating, bathing and shopping tour of the world, I felt obliged to visit one of the Japanese bathhouses here in Kyoto to do some research. I picked the Funaoka Onsen bathhouse because it came highly recommended and it was close to the Golden Pavilion, which we were visiting in the morning.
As I have mentioned before, one thing that I will always remember about Japanese people is their attention to cleanliness. Never before in my life have I ever visited anywhere as consistently spotless no matter where you go. Public restrooms, parks, subways, sidewalks….I seriously can’t remember seeing one piece of litter anywhere in the entire country. Every once in a while we see cigarette butts on the ground but this, too, has been rare. We went into a McDonald’s the other day so Rusel could grab a bite and I could use the bathroom and even the McDonald’s toilets had heated seats and the “bidet” machine that I have written so lovingly about before. Even McDonald’s is crazy about being clean, something I can’t say about Micky D’s in America.
I wanted to go to the baths here to compare and contrast with the Russian banya system but also because I really love to take baths. As my sisters who hated sharing a bathroom with me growing up can attest, I would rather take a nice, long soak than a quick shower any day. Although there was a laundry list of bad things about my apartment on Thompson Street in the village, (drug addicts sometimes living in the hallway and on the roof, 7th floor walk-up, annoying NYU students and Jerseyites puking on the sidewalks in front of my building almost every night) the only thing that really bothered me was that it didn’t have a tub – just a shower. At my last apartment, the bathroom was so big you could land a plane in it, complete with a nice big bathtub. I loved it.
Anyway, I digress. I rode my bike around for about an hour trying to find the bath, regarded as the best in all of Kyoto. I almost gave up but it was a cold, rainy day yesterday and I was dreaming about heating up. I persevered.
When I finally found it and parked my bike, I was greeted by an “Irrasshaimase,” which means, “welcome” in Japanese, by an elderly lady behind the desk. I took off my boots and put them on a shelf provided and then I walked over to her. Luckily, there was a “cheat sheet” in front of her with the services written in both Japanese and English so I was able to point at what I wanted – entry, a towel, and soap. The total came to about $5, easily the cheapest thing that I have done here in Japan.
On the wall before proceeding into the bath/sauna area was a big poster listing and illustrating the “do’s” and “don’ts” of the bath. Luckily this poster was in English and Japanese as well. Don’t stand up and shower, do sit on the stool and put water into a bucket and clean yourself this way. Don’t get into the baths without first washing yourself. Don’t take your towel into the water. Don’t use soap in the baths. Do rinse off and dry off before returning to the locker room. I read them over a few times to make sure I remembered them.
I took my towel and went behind a red curtain, right next to an entry with a blue curtain. I was crossing my fingers that it was the ladies’ room and not the men’s room and luckily, I guessed right. Hey, the one thing I have definitely learned on this trip is that you never know.
I entered into the changing room, which was just one big room with a bunch of lockers. I wasn’t quite sure what to do at this point. Get naked? The room was pretty cold. I looked around but at the moment, I was the only person in the locker room. I very slowly took off my jacket, hoping that someone else would come in soon so I could just do what she did.
Luckily, a few old ladies entered together and started taking off all of their clothes, so I did too. Unlike the Russian banya, which had a really nice “resting” area in between steams, the Japanese baths didn’t really have a place to do that. Once you were in the bathing area, you stayed in the bathing area until you were finished.
I quickly followed the naked old ladies into a room with a huge sink and a bunch of plastic bowls. They each grabbed one and so did I. Then, we all walked into the big bathing area.
The room was huge and light, with a high ceiling. Everything was predictably spotless and bright. I followed one of the naked old ladies to the “showering” area, which was actually rows of plastic stools in front of individual hot and cold spigots. Everyone sits on a bucket and washes off before getting into the baths.
The lady next to me was really going to town, building up a huge lather and spending long spans of time cleaning just one small area: her feet, her back, her legs each got about five minutes each. I cleaned up, used the bucket to rinse off, and then walked over to the pools.
There were about five separate pools, some bigger than others, filled mainly with old ladies at the beginning but then younger ladies over the course of my visit. There was a regular hot bath, a steam bath, an herbal bath, an outdoor cypress-wood bath that smelled amazing and reminded me of Colorado, and an electric bath. I went around 4:00 and left around 5:00 so people were just getting off of work. Apparently in Japan, like in Russia, this is something that people do often and it is social. Many of the old ladies were sitting around in the baths, gossiping, and relaxing. It was really nice.
The difference between the Japanese baths and the Russian baths was that the Japanese bath was more focused on water whereas the Russian baths were more about the sauna. There was a sauna and a dunking pool here in Japan but the focus seemed to be more on relaxing in the water rather than having your friend beat you with a branch in the sauna. Both were nice experiences though – each had its merits.
For the most part, people just looked at me strangely or gave me a smile. I was definitely the only Westerner there and a bit of a curiosity. In Russia, I looked pretty much like everyone else at the banya but here in Japan I definitely stuck out. I’m much taller than the average Japanese woman and have a much “heartier” build, if you know what I mean. I could tell that some of the women were trying not to stare – in the end, I thought it was kind of funny.
The one thing I did think about was why America doesn’t have this sort of public bath ritual. Each neighborhood here in Japan has a public bathhouse and it is quite common for people to visit them. There are bathhouses in NYC but they’re pretty expensive and inconveniently located. I like this emphasis on relaxation and health and it’s a nice community activity.
I left the bathhouse as clean as a whistle and ready to greet Kyoto once again. The sun had just set and I rode my bike back to the guesthouse in a warm bubble, ready to have Thanksgiving dinner with Rusel.