Japanese Culture

Ofuro is a Japanese house bath. Most houses have it and it's included in daily Japanese family life. Usually family enjoys the bath every night and it's been prepared so that family members can enjoy it one after another. Ofuro is not a regular bathtub and should not even compare to one. The bath itself looks something like of a regular bathtub but it is usually built solid and it can not be moved. It's also often almost twice as larger than a normal bathtub. In the Japanese "bathroom," is a separate room from the toilet, the tub is sunk halfway into the floor. Because the bath water is only used for soaking (not for washing), all members of the family take turns using it. You wash in the area outside of the tub; you can not enter the bath without washing yourself first. Towels in the bath are also a no-no. There is a cover for the bath so that the water does not get cold for the next person. The water temperature should be between 100.4Ð'oF and 107.6Ð'oF, and the water should be deep enough that an adult can sit submerged up to the neck.

Hot Springs (Onsen )

Onsen is naturally hot water directly extracted from a natural volcanic spring, onsen which are found on mountain areas throughout the Japan. onsen, are 77Ð'oF or hotter or have a certain amount of calcium, sodium, and other mineral content. The water is efficacious against high blood pressure, diabetes, and other illnesses. The medical powers of hot springs are recorded as far back as the eighth-century.

Public Bath (Sento )

Japanese people enjoyed the daily ritual with their friends and neighbors in a public bath, which is the sento. Men and women used the same bath.

Japan is one of the few places in the world where groups of people bath together. Many people with baths in their own homes still visit the sento in search of a place to socialize with their neighbors.