Explore everyday life in Japan
Bathing in Japan is very much a part of the social fabric here. It is something that people often do together. Going to a public bathhouse, or a hot spring with your friends, your family, or your coworkers is a very common way of spending time together in Japan. And bathing at home is also given serious attention.
The nighttime bath in Japan is how many, if not all, Japanese people end their days. It is much looked forward to as a way to relax and wash the stresses of the day away. Knowing the way that bathing is valued in Japan, it is not surprising to see that a common feature of modern Japanese houses and apartments is a digital water heater and bathtub control panel.
In a typical house, you will find a control panel like this in the shower room itself and another one in the kitchen. In smaller apartments, you may only find one of these control panels. If so, that control panel will most likely be in the shower room. These control panels are amazing, and I’m really surprised that they haven’t been adopted all over the world. One thing they do is allow you to choose how hot your water will be. With these control panels, you don’t have to spend time mixing hot and cold water trying to find the perfect temperature for your shower. You don’t have to worry about suddenly being scolded by temperature spikes in the water. You don’t have to worry about your children playing with the hot water and getting accidental burns because the water will never be hotter than the temperature it is set to be.
In addition, this control panel allows you to choose the depth of the water in your bathtub. If you like deep baths, you can choose to have a lot of water put in your bathtub. If you have children and are worried about the water being over their heads, you can choose to have a shallow bath. Fifteen to twenty minutes before you are ready to take a bath, just push a button and your bathtub will fill up to the depth of your choice with water that is the temperature of your choice. The water heater will then continue to maintain the temperature of the bath water until you turn it off.
Bathing in Japan follows a different order than that which I grew up with. In America, when I took a bath, I filled the tub with water, soaked in it, and washed myself afterward. In Japan, you clean yourself prior to entering the bath. In this way, many people can share the same water as you, and the water can be used for more than one day. I think it is common in Japan to use the water of one bath for two days. Because of this, these control centers also have a reheat option. When you push this button, the cold water from your bathtub will be siphoned through a heater and reheated to the temperature of your choice. Also because of this, houses and apartments are designed to have a space for a washing machine that is located in a room next to the bathing room. Japanese washing machines have a bathtub water option and a hose that allows you to siphon the old bath water from your bathtub and reuse it to wash your clothes.
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting daily updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.