Rub-a-Dub-Dubb!

So I know I already did a little post on onsens, but last night was my first bath house experience.

Bath houses are different from onsens in that there is no natural spring water at a bath house. Onsens thrive off of their projected image that it is a very natural bath and that you are bathing in the earth's very own water pools. However bathhouses on the other hand  are just that, a bathhouse. Sometimes they will have saunas too, and typically more than one type of bath, as they normally have to offer more than you can do at your own home so that they maintain a draw for people to come to the bathhouse.
It is not that I haven't gone for any particular reason. It is just cold out, I have to ride my bike there, it is mostly old biddies, I would get stared at, I have to pay to bath where I have a nice bath at home, I have to bring all my toiletries. I mean there is a whole list of little things always holding me back.
Well last night I decided it was sauna time. And where best to go to a sauna, but a nice bath house.
When I got to the bath house, I could tell immediately it was very old lady-ish/man-ish. Basically the style was pretty outdated and only biddies were the occupants on my side. What makes it outdated? Well the floor was tatami, which in itself is not really enough to make it outdated, after all my new apartment has a room with a tatami floor. But the making up mirror, was lacking in space and efficiency. The hair dryer was from the 60's, all the room decor seemed from around the same era. It was just all plastic and cheap looking and perfect. I mean I am not looking for any fancy place like those marble floored jimjilbangs in Korea. Though I sincerely love those places. Best bathhouses ever. But this place had a real Termae Romae feeling. If you have no seen that movie, put it on you list. Highly amusing. Basically, I was in the exact same situation, a young gaijin in a fairly outdated in function and patronage environment looking to take a bath. I even heard one of the biddies mention that name under giggles as she directed me about the room grabbing baskets for my clothes and toiletries and what not. I think she actually enjoyed herself.

So step one as always was to get naked. Check.
Proceed to baths and hose off and enter sauna.
Recently I read something interesting on the effects the saunas on skin and I was interested in trying it out. Pretty much you wash, but with only water, you enter the sauna and stay for 10 minutes and then you exit and pour cold water over your body starting with the extremities and working inwards. Basically toes to thighs, fingers to pits, and head and then back. You don't want to pour the cold water directly over your heart to start but cool the blood down from the farthest point and work inwards are the blood is pumped back to the heart. Once you have cooled yourself thoroughly, and I do mean thoroughly, you once again enter back into the sauna for another 10 minutes. and repeat a few times.

This bath house in particular I am fond of, even though I had never been before, on the outside of their doors, they would always list the bath of the day. And I just think it is pretty neat that they change the flavors every day or so. Last nights stew was blueberry. It was a violent shade of  violet, the kind where your skin looks a healthy shade of magenta when you look at it from above the water. So after my final sauna repetition, I showered off my sweat and entered into the blueberry bath. Now that is not something you type everyday. It's smell was a bit off from blueberries, but I suppose it was close enough. And just so you know, when they say blueberry bath, they don't mean real blue berries. It is likely a packet or mixture for the stew that they pour in there to simulate the effects and color of blue berries. Come on. It can't be real blue berries. It was only 300yen to get in. Now Ryokans, I am pretty sure some of them will have real flowers, teas, or yuzu floating around in their baths, but then again you pay more like 15000yen to get in to one of those if not more.

But the blueberry bath was actually not what was most special, it is only what I thought would be most special. What was most interesting was the electrocution bath next to it. You think I'm joking don't you?I was chilling in the blueberry stew and as I usually do, I test the water of the bath next to mine. I like to plan and test things in preparation for the next stew I would like to get into. Immediately upon placing my fingertips in the water, I felt this buzzing sensation. Like when you go to some sciencey store that is geared towards kids and they have that big electric glass ball where if you keep your hands on it for long enough your hair will stand on end.I probed further. and put up to my wrist in. I felt this jerking sensation. I pulled my hand out. Nothing. Back in the blueberry bath. Nothing. Back into the neighboring pool. Electrifying. Ok interest piqued. Yeah it doesn't take much. Just something mildly dangerous. So I get out. Unsure of the protocol, I use cold water to rid myself of the blueberry dashi so I don't contaminate the next pool, meanwhile cooling myself down. I make my way back to the electrocution pool. I sit at the edge and ease my toes into it. Not so bad. I go to my knee. My leg starts compulsively jerking around in the water. My whole body is shaking with the reaction. I am still in control of my body and senses. It is not like I am really being electrocuted, just merely like someone hooked up some electrodes to my knee and set them to high. I get curious about my thighs. There are not reflex point there. I slip the one leg in further. And tense. The current still has my leg shaking but to a much lesser degree. Now it is like a first date leg jitters and I discover is I put more concentration into maintaining the stillness of my leg, it still less and I am effected less. Let me give you more of an explanation of the currents effect on my leg. When applied to my calf, the current makes it spasm in rhythm to its pulses which are often and frequent. Maybe less than a second apart. This current at that location feels like I could easily be cramping up soon and have the worst charlie horse of my life. So what do I do, of course? Go in further. Duh, no brainer. I get brave and put both legs in and watch them spasm uncontrollably a bit longer before I decide to ease myself in more. I touch bottom. I am standing towards the side where the currents have less power. I slowly make my way between the fields. And pain. Such bright hot pain. I have not ever really felt that way before. Vision going hazy just a bit. My back, which has been hurting for a while is not actually spasming, but something inside is highly displeased with my action. Vision regained, I most back to the side. Think about it and try my other side. Fine. Until that one location on my right side. So either there is an organ there that dislikes what I do to it or that part of my back is a lot more distressed than I thought. Meanwhile. I am standing nearly wholely between the two fields. It makes my stomach feel a little funny. So I stand still and lean against one of the walls of the bath with my arms outside and my body standing inside. I was admiring how if I merely slip my elbow into just a bit of the water my arm will go haywire. Flopping all around. I must have seemed like such a child to the biddies there, who were doing their best to ignore my antics. Of course when my elbow was not in the water, my arm would still involuntary jerk a bit. It was a bit grotesque to see the skin jumping back and forth as it is strained and relaxed, my whole arm slightly twitching because the rest of my body is in the pool. I experiment further. I sink a bit. My shoulders are in the water. Shoulders are always a weak point. My heart is submerged. I can feel it start to speed up. Like I am having a serious adrenaline rush. And then decide that this bath is certainly not for the elderly. I notice an underwater tiled bench and think who is crazy enough to even try to relax in this bath. The current is way too high to attempt sitting. I rise up deciding that for my first time, heart submerging is not the best idea and reemerge a bit. I only decide to stay in a bit longer before making my way out  and to go into the final bath. A normal hot water bath. Normalcy. After removing myself from it. I feel light headed. Very much so. Hazy vision again. I closed my eyes and regained balance and composure. I can't have these biddies laughing at me for falling on the floor now. So note to self. Upon exiting that bath. Exit slowly. And don't faint. That would be embarrassing. And I have had quite enough of that.
So besides the electrocution bath, the only other baths were a very normal bath with normal hot water and the cold bath where I had been splashing myself with cold water and cooling down. Nicely normal. Apart from the baths and the sauna, the walls are lined with faucets and shower heads for washing up. I finish up, shower, and leave.

Back to the changing room, there is a short row of sinks for face washing and teeth brushing and whatever else you felt too uncomfortable to do in the bath. Drying, and dressing, I participate in the all too typical after sauna and bath affair of drinking a nice cold glass of milk coffee out of the fridge. Most every place will have a fridge full of beverages for whatever you desire(beer, milk, cider, soda, coffee, juice), they also might have hard boiled eggs. For whatever reason, hard boiled eggs are commonly found and eaten at these places. Hair dryers are also found at these places, and the nicer places, these will be free, but at this one it was all of 10 yen per minute. Not bad.
Now for the bike ride home with the new falling snow. Best thing about these places is they make you nice and warm for hours to come.
Needless to say, I'm going back next week.


THERMAE ROMAE trailer with English Subtitles