Japanese Bathrooms
A Japanese bathroom typically consists of two rooms. The first room is an entrance room where a person will undress and contains a sink. The second room is the actual bathroom, which has a Japanese bath shower and a deep bath tub. The toilet is almost always located in an entirely separate room called a water closet. Japanese bathrooms are often the largest rooms in a house.
The Japanese bathroom has a deep bath tub. Bathers are supposed to rinse their bodies off from a washbowl outside the bath tub. There is a stool and washbowl placed beside the tub to help you clean your body before getting into the bath tub. The Japanese soak bath tub itself is used only for soaking. Never allow soap to get inside the bathtub in a Japanese bathroom. Additionally, you are usually not supposed to empty the water from the bathtub in a Japanese bathroom until all members of the household have completed their bathing. A shower head on a hose is beside the bath tub in a Japanese bathroom. You can shower with the shower head on the wall mount, or you can take it off the wall to shower your body by hand.
Many Japanese bathrooms use on demand hot water systems that heat the water only when it is needed. The Japanese like their water very hot, so this system works well in a Japanese bathroom. The Japanese believe that the hotter the water, the more relaxed you will feel after a bath. According to the Japanese, relaxing is the main reason, other than cleaning your body, for taking a bath.
The Japanese style bath tub and shower usually take up most of the room in the Japanese bathroom, but there is still a lot of space in which to move around. You can sit on a stool in the Japanese bathroom and enjoy the steam. The Japanese bathroom is equivalent to a small American spa.
Some Japanese bathrooms include a single washer and dryer machine, allowing the room to double as a laundry room. The washing machine cleans the clothes, stops for a short time to transform to a dryer, and then dries the clothes. When you are finished bathing, you can put on your warm pajamas or nightgown right out of the dryer!
Japanese bathrooms do not usually include a toilet. The toilet is located in an entirely separate room and is one of the few rooms in a house that allows for privacy. The separation of the toilet from the actual bathroom is to keep the clean separate from the unclean. The Japanese are now using very high tech toilets that can include a heated seat and a bidet, as well as electrical outlets next to the toilet to allow a person to enjoy their electronic gadgets.
The Japanese bathroom certainly does sound like heaven! The large amount of space, the separate toilet area, the washer dryer combination, and the large, deep tub all make for a very relaxing experience.
