銭湯 Adventures

That evening we decided to take Resident Director Ogawa’s advice and took our free public bath (銭湯 sentou) tickets and tromped off for an adventure in the basement of the hotel which also has a small shopping mall and a bookstore located within. It must have been strange to see the group of us, all foreigners, going to the bath, where I suspect few Americans venture due to the nature of it. We certainly got enough stares—not that this is at all uncommon as I am quickly learning—to suggest so. Three of the boys from the program (Kyle, Ben, and Patrick) came with us (too many fabulous ladies to mention), but obviously tromped off to the men’s bath. It certainly is an interesting bonding experience, getting naked with new friends for the first time. In fact I can’t recall having been fully naked with most of my friends ever, even the very good ones. I digress. When you enter the baths, you hand your ticket to a friendly clerk who then hands you a small washcloth. You then remove your shoes in the entrance hall (玄関 genkan) and place them in a small shoe locker from which you lock and remove the key and slip its strap on to your wrist. Padding through the cotton doorway which reads in a large kanji 女 you proceed to another set of lockers in which there are baskets for your clothing. Once fully disrobed, you enter the baths through a glass sliding door, steam billowing out when you do so. In the center of the room is a large bath in the ground and around the walls are mirrors, buckets, and small stools. Before you enter the bath, you must fully wash off. Water in Japan is expensive, however, so in between scrubbing and washing off, you must turn off the water. Only once you are completely clean and free of soapsuds can you enter the bath. The water is very warm so it’s difficult to stay for very long if you’re not used to such hot water, but it instantly relaxes all the muscles in your body, which is wonderful after a long day of walking and sweating in the hot, humid Japanese summer. Despite my previous apprehension, I ended up having a wonderful time and felt fully refreshed.

After the bath, we decided to use our other free ticket for Kyoto Tower, which gives our hotel its name. On a clear day you can see Osaka from the tower—about an hour drive—but we went at night and were rewarded with an absolutely stunning view of our new home. The entire city is lit up all around and from the tower you can see Toji and the mountains Kyoto is encased in. Beyond the mountains must be more towns because they are lit up from behind in the most beautiful and stunning tiered silhouettes. That night I fell asleep watching an Arashi variety show and talking with friends. A day well spent indeed.