1968

When we came back to the car, we gathered our towels, wash cloths, and soap, and ambled over to the public bath house that Mrs.(Claudia) Spotts had found for us. It was our first experience with a public bath in Japan. It is almost hidden away ...it was set back from the walk a bit. There was a tile center piece at the front, which may be a sign for a public bath, and a raised platform on either side. You took off your shoes before stepping up on the platform, where there were cubicles with locks for holding your shoes. Women's section was to the left, and men's to the right. As I walked into the women's side through a sliding door, I was greeted by a grunt; I suppose it was something in Japanese, but to me it was just a grunt to call my attention to her being there. A woman was sitting in a raised booth where she could see both sides of the bathroom, and we each paid her. The price was 32 yen.

I found myself in a big room which was partly floored with very clean looking wood, and the other section all in white tile flooring, real ceramic tile. Lockers were around the front end of the room, and this is where one undressed, and left her things in the locker, and by pulling up and out, the sliver of wood locked the cabinet. It really wouldn't be necessary to lock the cabinet because one was never more than a few feet away.

Then one stepped into the white tiled section. Walls and floor were all spic and span clean tile; and low dual faucets (hot and cold water faucets separate, not mixing) lined both sides of this part of the room, and then a low wall through the center of the room had faucets on each side of this wall. At the end of the room were two separate hot soaking tanks. Probably about eight to ten women were squatting on the floor in front of the low faucets. Some had their own little colored plastic bowls; others were using wooden tubs provided by the bath house to wash in. They also seemed to be

shampooing their hair, washing their combs and brushes, and even washing their towels. Most of them were kneeling on the floor the way the Japanese always kneel instead of sitting. With some difficulty, I also knelt on the floor, and did my bathing by just letting out water at the faucet as I needed it, but I emulated them by using a wooden bucket with which to rinse myself, by pouring water over me. When I was ready to get into the soaking bath, I looked around to see where they put their towels, and then it occurred to me that not one of them seemed to have a decent sized towel; all they had were tiny towels, hardly larger than our wash cloth. Anyway, I just left my towel on the dividing bar, and went to sit in the very hot water. A continuous stream of water flows through the hot baths, and it is pretty hot...very few were in the soaking baths although most of the 18 to 20 spaces in front of the faucets were filled.

The room was high ceilinged and was very bright and well lighted. It was only partly partitioned from the men's section, and I could hear talking from that side, but I can't remember the women speaking at all. I'd read that the baths were sort of a social center, but it certainly wasn't here. The women either didn't know each other at all, or else, they weren't about to make any confidences in a public place, just maybe because I, a foreigner, was there. The two tubs adjoining were probably a total of 15-20 feet long, and five or six feet wide. By sitting on the ledge around the inside, the water came up to about my waist. I noticed some of the women squatted to have the water come to their chins.

Well, that was another "experience", or should I say, "EXPERIENCE," in capital letters?