Around the corner from the house is a public bath. Seth & Tod were having a poker night (no girls allowed), so Tara and I went to soak in the hot tubs of the sento.

The price of admission is 400 yen. After stripping your clothes into a wicker basket, you take your soap and shampoo into a big open room with taps and low showers lining the walls. There is room for two dozen women to wash.

The baths are hot and full of fun accessories. Not rubber ducks, but air jets, medicinal waters, even an electric bath that I dipped a hand into. The water tingled the way I imagine it would with a hairdryer in the bathtub. Definitely not my idea of a relaxing bath. One middle aged woman sat in that bath for at least ten minutes with no ill effects, but why?

Tara and I bathed until we were boiled like lobsters, then got out, dressed in loose clothing and drank cool green tea until our skin lightened to a healthy shade of pink. We walked limply home and flopped into bed while the boys played poker downstairs. Posted by kuri at April 14, 2001 07:12 AM