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        <div class="chapter_number">Chapter 11: Cultural Notes</div>
        <div class="chapter_name">Ofuro</div>
        <div class="blurb">Perhaps nowhere is the difference between Japanese and
        Western culture so apparent as in the realm of bathing practices. From the way
        bathing works at home to the way it works in public (!), it&rsquo;s probably
        different from what you&rsquo;re used to.</div>
        <div><img src="divider@2x.png" class="divider" /></div>

<p class="bodycopy">It all starts with the <i>ofuro</i>,
        or Japanese bath. For Westerners, a bath is a place where dirty people get clean.
        But in Japan,
        the bath is a place that can only be entered by already-clean bodies. The idea
        of a dirty person getting into a bath is shocking.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">The bath-room, or <i>ofuro-ba</i>,
        in Japan
        is always its own affair, totally separate from the room with the toilet. The
        <i>ofuro-ba</i> is divided into two parts: a deep soaking tub where the aforementioned clean people may go, 
        and a shower area with a drain in the floor, which not-yet-clean people use to change that fact. 
        When you enter the room, you step into the shower area.</p>

        <div class="photo_container">
            <div class="photo_box">
                <div><img id="modern_ofuroba" src="modern_ofuroba@2x.jpg" class="photo_image_withcaption photo_fill" onclick="showFullScreenPhoto('modern_ofuroba_full');" /></div>
                <div>
                    <div class="photo_credit"></div>
                    <div class="photo_caption">A typical Japanese <i>ofuroba</i>. Note the drain in the floor on the <i>outside</i> of the tub.<span class="photo_location"></span></div>
                </div>
            </div>
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        <p style="clear:both;height:0px;"></p>



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                <div><img id="ofuroba_classic" src="ofuroba_classic@2x.jpg" class="photo_image_withcaption" onclick="showFullScreenPhoto('ofuroba_classic_full');" /></div>
                <div>
                    <div class="photo_credit"></div>
                    <div class="photo_caption">A traditional wooden <i>ofuroba</i>. Note the shower at right.<span class="photo_location"></span></div>
                </div>
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        </div>


<p class="bodycopy">The soaking tub is covered when not in use, and the door is
        water-tight, so in the shower area, you are free to splash up a storm.
        The traditional way to bathe is to sit on a small stool, fill up a pail of hot        
        water either by scooping it out of the bath or by filling it from a spigot, and
        dump it all over oneself. The bather then scrubs up in the usual manner,
        dumping more water on himself as required until satisfactorily clean. Only
        after a final dousing to remove any lingering soap suds does the bather have
        clearance to enter the guarded waters of the <i>ofuro</i>.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">These days, the stool technique is giving way to the standing shower
        as a faster means of accomplishing the same thing, but the outcome is the same:
        the bather gets completely clean before setting foot in the tub.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">The one and only purpose of the bath itself is to relax. The
        average Japanese might spend 10 to 15 minutes in the bath each day, just taking
        a timeout from their busy lives. The water is usually kept quite hot (perhaps
        like a very hot hot tub), and more hot water is added at intervals to keep it
        up to temperature.</p>


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<p class="bodycopy">Almost universally, Japanese people take their baths at night. This
        provides a pleasant wind-down from the busy day, and it also means that beds
        are only inhabited by clean bodies. Actually, when you consider this
        fact, along with the habit of not allowing shoes in the house, you get a
        picture of a basic tenet of Japanese cleanliness: keep the dirt outside of the
        inner sanctum of home.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">Another important reason that only clean bodies are allowed
        into the bath is that the same water is shared among all the members in a family.
        The tub will be used in turn by each member of the family until they have all
        had their nightly bath.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">Typically, the family will sit around the kitchen table
        while waiting for their turn in the bath, the children doing homework as the
        adults chat or watch TV. One of the best moments in ordinary Japanese life is
        sitting around the table in your <i>yukata</i>,
        a robe you wear after getting up from the bath, sipping cool <i>sake</i> and chatting with visiting friends
        and family during the holidays.</p>


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    <title>Ofuro 4</title>

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        <div class="subheading_level_1">Public bathing</div>


<p class="bodycopy">In days prior to the advent of individual indoor plumbing,
        Japanese people living in cities stayed clean by visiting the public bathhouse.
        After World War 2, in an effort to put up cheap housing, many apartments had
        toilets but no bath facilities, so the public bathhouse continued to be an
        important part of life.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">Today, most people have access to private baths in their own
        homes, but the concept of the public bath lives on in the <i>onsen</i>. An <i>onsen</i> is a
        natural hot water spring, often thought to have curative powers. While there
        are some <i>onsen</i> that allow you to
        directly sit in natural outside bowls where the water is exactly the right
        temperature, those are comparatively rare. Most <i>onsen</i> are facilities that have hot spring water piped into
        something like an upscale public bath.</p>

        <div class="photo_container">
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                <div><img id="onsen_outdoors" src="onsen_outdoors@2x.jpg" class="photo_image_nocaption photo_fill" onclick="showFullScreenPhoto('onsen_outdoors_full');" /></div>
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<p class="bodycopy">The rules for both public baths and onsen are the same.
        Bathing is usually segregated by sex, although in some remote locations you can
        still find mixed bathing locations. Bathers strip all the way down and put
        their clothes in lockers. A towel permits some modesty while walking around,
        but swimming trunks and bathing suits are definitely not allowed.</p>


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    <title>Ofuro 5</title>

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        <div class="photo_container">
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                <div><img id="onsen_stool" src="onsen_stool@2x.jpg" class="photo_image_withcaption" onclick="showFullScreenPhoto('onsen_stool_full');" /></div>
                <div>
                    <div class="photo_credit"></div>
                    <div class="photo_caption">Just like at home, get yourself cleaned up here before heading into the <i>onsen</i>.<span class="photo_location"></span></div>
                </div>
            </div>
        </div>


<p class="bodycopy">Just like at home, the bather sits on a stool (in a long
        line of stools) and washes up before entering the <i>ofuro</i>, which might be the size of a small community pool 
        (but not deep enough to allow actual swimming).
        Once inside the <i>ofuro</i>, people sit and chat while
        using their towel to wipe the steam from their brows.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">Some <i>onsen</i> have
        different pools with different kinds of water in them. For example, one pool
        might have water with tea leaf extract in it, where another might have some
        other herb in it.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">As a foreigner, you&rsquo;ll probably get a couple curious stares
        if you visit an <i>onsen</i>, but I
        recommend it at least once. It&rsquo;s relaxing, and it&rsquo;s something we simply don&rsquo;t
        do in much of the Western world.</p>

<p class="bodycopy">But even if you decide not to try out public bathing, you&rsquo;ll
        definitely enjoy the way the <i>ofuro</i>
        works at home. It&rsquo;s one part of Japanese culture that everyone loves.</p>

    
          
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