Taking a bath in Japan

This is something I should have written about a long time ago, but because there were only showers at the residence, I forgot to write about it.

Japanese baths... are a bit different from Western baths.

As you can see from the picture, there are two components: a bath and a washing place.

In Canada, showers are probably more common than baths, but when people take baths, they'll wash themselves in the bath while relaxing in the hot water.

However, in Japan, you wash yourself before entering the bath (in the washing place). And only after can you enter the bath, which by the way is extremely hot! There have been times where I couldn't even enter the bath because it was too hot. But once you're in, (the tub is a lot deeper than Western baths, so you can usually sit and be submerged up to your neck) it's like you're enclosed in a bubble of heat. The cover you see on top of the bath is to help conserve the heat.