My first trip to Japan was as a Japan/Fulbright scholar. I think it was one of my former students, Matthew Mori, who first alerted me to a common blunder made by fist time travelers in Japan.
He said: "Don't get in the tub to soap down or wash your hair." The bath is not for washing, but for soaking in fresh clean hot water. Washing and scrubbing belong outside the tub. Traditional Japanese bathing is a ritual handed down over many centuries; the perfect moment of tranquility.
WHAT I LEARNED: 1. When staying in a traditional Japanese home, in the bathroom, you will find an stool, hand shower wand on a flex hose and an extra drain outside the tub. See photo left. Japanese people, sit on the stool, scrub down, wash their hair and rinse down outside the tub. Hence the extra drain outside the tub. Any splashed water in the bathroom drains away. Once clean, then it is appropriate to soak in the tub. Photo credit: https://resources.realestate.co.jp/living/japanese-apartment-bathrooms-explained/
2. I've come to admire the Japanese in many ways, but at the top of the list is just how good they are as a nation in reducing carbon emissions.
Source credit: https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/japan
Take
a look at this graph comparing the United States with Japan. In
country two of the many ways this is visible: 1. when you're in a traditional Japanese home, you'll notice that the whole house is not heated. Instead of wasting heat, it is common to find the family enjoying meals under a heated Kotatsu table (see below). I found it so charming to see families eating together in such a cozy manner, I was inspired to do the same when I came home. 2. the frequency air drying
laundry is seen on the balconies of apartment buildings and in the
drying racks inside Japanese homes. They consume less energy by air
drying their laundry. There are many other examples, but perhaps for
another time.
Photo credit: https://japanobjects.com/features/kotatsu
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