I didn't have the gumption to do that on my own during my first trip to Japan. When the owner of a small family inn I stayed at tapped on my door and asked me to follow her, I assumed that we were headed to the house bath. Instead, out the front door we went, with me in my Yukata robe and slipping on my shoes at the last second, down the street in this small town to the local bath house. She gave the person in front some Yen and in I went. The men were on one side and the women on the other side of a wall. Fortunately, like Nate, I new what to do custom wise (soap, scrub and rinse BEFORE getting in), and it ended up being one of many favorite memories. There was an old man soaking at one side of the bath, seemingly asleep, and there was a young father playing with his toddler son, while you could hear the women chatting on the other side...
Nathan's FB post:
"So I went to a public bath for the first time and it was very nice and relaxing, but I could VERY MUCH feel everyone thinking, "what the hell is this foreigner doing here?" It didn't help that I had no idea how anything there worked!
I don't feel upset about it at all though, I'm in a random Tokyo suburb after all. I doubt any of them expected a foreigner to come in! And everyone else I've met has been nothing but kind 😊
(I'll definitely be going back tomorrow though, I'll make them accept me)"
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