Japan is so clean, clean! 日本はとてもきれいです！

Luckily, my work schedule allows me to have Fridays off. I noticed the house was a bit messy, so I started cleaning dishes and organizing the living room while listening to Lady Gaga's Born This Way album (which I freaking love!). Shout out to Lady Gaga!

Every time I clean, I am reminded how obsessed Japanese are about hygiene and cleanliness. I lived in Japan for a month or two while my Mom prepared my grandparent's funeral arrangements. I was about 4 or 5 and public baths (ofuros) in Japan were still widely used. I recall going with my Mom since my Dad stayed behind in the States, and she would have to bring me to the womens' side of the bath. The baths were a straightforward setup. You would enter an entrance with lockers, pay, then walk to the right if you were male and left for females. So I remember pitter pattering into the woman's baths and initially having a nice experience. My mom gently instructed me to get a plastic seat to sit on, and how to adjust the faucet to get the right water temperature. After soaping and washing, my mom would take me by hand and lead me to the baths. At this view, I started to cry. In my 4 year old perspective, the baths looked like boiling cauldrons bubbling in Christmas red or green, depending on which bath you chose. Each could fit about 5-6 adults and besides burning to death, I thought I would drown. My Mom is not the type to give into a child's protests, so she shrugged her shoulders and dipped in while I stood behind crying. There were older ladies sitting in the bath and they giggled with my Mother as they spoke to each other. After giving up, I put my hand, then my foot, and finally waited for my body to adjust to the intense warmth of the bathwater, and I slide in. My body began to relax, and at the end of the night I walked hand in hand with Mom back to her childhood home with a skip in my step.

As an adult, I forget the therapeutic effects of having a nice bath. On my next trip to Japan, I would love to visit an onsen or Japanese hot spring, and relax with those cute snow monkeys!

(Courtesy of BBC)


(Courtesy of The Japanese Bath)

Thanks to the recent openings of Daiso and Ichiban Kan in San Francisco, I have never purchased so many Japanese bath and kitchen products! They have face and butt wipes, and even polyurethane disposable gloves to use while I dust or wipe down the coffee table. Each item was $1.50. Plus, Japanese products always have the best team of product designers for the most attractive/bizarre/cute packaging. Here is my favorite product..



Are there any Japanese bath products I have yet to use?