TIL -- This Is Japan
Explore everyday life in Japan
Today I learned that bathtubs in Japanese bathhouses, which are known as sentou in Japanese and are different from onsens in that they do not use water from hot springs and are used for regular bathing, have different locations within the bathing room depending on whether they are in the Tokyo area or the Osaka area.
There are many proposed explanations for this, but the one that is believed to have the most truth says that the people of the Tokyo region, where hard labor jobs were apparently predominant, preferred to wash the sweat and dirt from their bodies before entering the communal bathtub located in the bathing room of the sentou. As a result, the bathtub was placed against a wall at one side of the bathing room.
Contrary to this, in the Osaka area, where the majority of people were shopkeepers and business owners, the bathtubs were placed in the center of the bathing room in the sentou so that people could enter the bath first and warm their bodies before showering.
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 regular 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.
looks like a cool experience
These baths are great! Larger bathhouses and onsens often have outdoor baths as well. They're great to soak in this time of year, when it cold and sometimes snowing.