Class12 Japan Exploration 2017: Day 5 Shiga Kogen Prince Hotel Public Bath

Japanese Public Bath Culture

I first went into the public baths in The Prince Hotel on the 22^nd of March with Kiara and Jessica, and again on the 23^rd with Jessica, Summa, Tiffany, Indra and Lily. It was an interesting experience and one I would definitely recommend to any who decide to visit Japan themselves. So, when you first enter the baths you must take off your shoes and leave them on a shelf by the entryway. After this, you enter a room and find an empty shelf to leave your belongings, strip off and then leave your clothing on your chosen shelf. Fortunately, if you don't feel comfortable changing in this room there is a toilet you can change in. After this, you must take a shower and rinse yourself off before entering the baths themselves. The walls for the stalls are extremely short, only coming to just above my waist. Fortunately, they have stools you can sit on while you rinse yourself off (the stools were so short I felt like I may as well have sat on the floor!). After this, you are finally allowed to enter the baths themselves, there are no towels allowed in the baths, although you are allowed to have it on your head if you don't want your hair to get wet as well as this, you are not allowed to wear anything into the bath itself, this includes swimwear. You must go into the bath completely nude but no tattoos are allowed. The bath was the size of a swimming pool although not as deep and a lot warmer (the water was 40° Celsius to be precise). Stream drifted throughout the whole room and above the water itself, affording a sense of privacy I was not expecting as the steam made it so others were barely visible. On the opposite wall to the entryway four bamboo blinds covered the wall from the top to the bottom, when it was rolled up, we were surprised to discover that these bamboo blinds were actually separating the baths from the snow outside! Most of us congregated to this area as the steam made it quite difficult to breath after a while.

I personally did not feel awkward during this experience and I have the people I did it with to thank. As I stated before, I recommend that if you do go to Japan you do try this out as it is definitely something you will not experience in the Western part of the world.

So, on the recommendation of Indra, I have been told to share an interesting little story from the baths. As I have already said, there were these bamboo blinds that separated the baths from the outside world. After rolling them up, we discovered a beautiful iced over river was sitting just outside. Great white walls of snow surrounded the river with icicles hanging down. One of these walls curved back into the wall of the building and brought with it several icicles. So, while we were sitting there, I got the idea to sit on the shelf and lean out into the snow and grab myself an icicle. This occurred before the arrival of Indra, Summa and Lily, so, I lifted myself onto the wall, ducked under the bamboo blind and leaned out over the river to snap off an icicle to share between Tiffany, Jessica and I. Shortly after doing this, the others arrived and Indra dared someone to jump into the river, I was instantly suggested by Tiffany and Jess to do it. So, once again I ventured out into the cold and found a section of the river that had melted. To test the temperature of the water, I dipped my feet into it and instantly regretted it. The water was absolutely freezing. Due to this, I did not hesitate to chicken out and jump back into the bath. Another mistake as my feet experienced the most stabbing pain they have most likely gone through in my life. I honestly can't say I regretted any of it as it did prove to be quite entertaining for everyone.

Hoping to have even more strange experiences,

Amber

Friday 24th March, 6:30 am: - 9 degrees and the snow keeps falling on the morning of our departure. The bus is fitted with snow chains but for the first hour the heating system stays a block of ice and the drive down the mountain feels like being in a refrigerator.

At 1pm we arrive at Tachibana High School in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo

Pat Shirvingtons BANKSIA painting is presented to the principle and he really really liked it.

The grade 2 students (class 11) who had their last day of their school year this afternoon presented a traditional tea ceremony in their special tea room class room to us.