On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 5:59 PM, Bonobashi <[email protected]> wrote:
> The Japanese used baths, too, constructed in place of wood generally (this is > from memory of texts and books) heated by placing heated stones under the > bath. > They were indoors as well as outdoors. The heating technology varied, but they could be made quite hot. > A young man who was in Japan in the years before the First World War had > found lodgings with a Japanese family. Part of the facilities (sorry, Ram) was > the privilege of using the bath, which was located in the back garden. After a > few days of hesitation, due to unfamiliarity (the man had just reached the > country, > and his knowledge of Japanese was as deep as your knowledge of Tibetan), > he ventured out and persuaded someone to shove in some rocks under the filled > bath, and gingerly divested himself of clothing and slipped in. Oops. One is supposed to wash *before* entering the o-furo. You wet down using a scoop and a bucket, soap up, then rinse off using more scooped water from the bucket. Only after you are clean do you get into the o-furo for a blissful soak. Getting into the bath without washing is yucky. > To his horror, after some blissful moments which washed away memories of the > preceding sea journey from Rangoon and Calcutta, some young maids trooped > into the garden, took up their positions fairly close to the bath and > commenced a > noisy clothes-washing session; apparently the whole week's observations of > each > and all of them was under review. Meanwhile, the temperature in the bath rose, > and rose, and rose. Finally, it was unbearable, and my poor reporter was in > danger of being cooked alive like a lobster. In desperation, he leaped out > and, > er, streaked for the safety of the house, accompanied by shrieks of mirth from > the maidservants. I think if he had just calmly gotten up and gotten dressed, they would have just as carefully not have noticed him. > The bath, alas, was damaged as he kicked it over in his panic flight, This part I don't understand. Most o-furos are pretty big and sturdy,l they have to hold enough water for an adult to soak in up to their neck. But I could see it getting damaged by a panicky exit. -- Charles
