Bath time with KG

Here's a little fun to start your weekend... a blog about bathtubs in Japan!

I've been here over 3 months, and I haven't taken a bath yet! Mostly because my tub just looks weird. It's square and small and deep and doesn't look appealing to me. But I figured I better try it at least once before I judge!

First, I need to get some hot water. To get any time of hot water in my apartment it's certainly a process. I have to hold down the gas, crank the knob, count to 6, light the flame, make sure I can see the flame through this tiny window in my heater, and then finally turn on the hot water tap.

I always knew the shower head was low flow, but I never realized how long it would take to fill up a tub full of water--over 30 minutes!! My sister can vouch for that because we were on the phone together for the entire time I was preparing. I even had to bust out my "English" instruction manual from my apartment to ensure I knew what the heck I was doing. Once the water level was over the 2 "heaters" in the tub, I could switch the gas contraption to "bath mode". The heaters are basically half-dollar sized holes that I now know just crank out gas heat. The disturbing part was that I could really smell gas when "bath mode" was on. Not cool!

Next, the water is getting increasingly hotter, but I have no idea how high to fill it because I'm not an expert on the water displacement ratio for square tubs. But I know this for sure: Once I'm in that tub, I'm not getting out to hold down the gas, crank the knob, count to 6, and light the flame just to get more water.

As it turns out, I guessed pretty closely. I had about an inch and a half to spare at the top of the tub, and I don't mind slopping water everywhere since outside is technically the shower and the drain.

By this time, the water is HOT, and putting any body part in front of those "heaters" is a bad idea. I have no idea how you would give a small child a bath in here because seriously, who has 30 minutes to draw a bath for their kids?! And "Kids, don't go on this side of the tub, or you may burn your hand off!"

Soon enough, I turned off "bath mode", and just let the water cool down. In Japan the tradition is to wash yourself and then you get in the tub to soak and relax. I must say I wasn't feeling very relaxed though. I was folded into a little ball!

Here's a picture of Kerri folded in the tub! You can see it's getting pretty steamy in there from the hot water! Also, being so close to the window is kinda creepy. People can walk by right outside. Sure, it's "frosted" glass, but still creepy!

If there was a sport for "Bathtub Pretzel Olympics", I would surely be a gold medalist!!

At the bottom left of this picture, you can see the knob I have to crank, and the tiny window I look through to see if the flame is lit.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot... as the water was draining, guess what also came out from under the bathtub?! A child's yellow and blue bath toy!! No joke... Apparently small children do take baths in these things! I also learned that my bathroom drain works just fine for low flow showers, but doesn't really like that sudden rush of bath water!! As fun as this blog post was, I still think it might be my last bath for awhile!!