Traditional Bath House, Japan

Nervously, we approached the red-curtained door of the traditional bath house or sento. Would we cause an international incident by breaching etiquette? Immediately we recognized our first mistake. All the slippers in the entry way were blue and those on our feet were white. We raced back, undetected, to our room for the appropriate footwear and returned more confident, ready for our first public bath (that wasn't in our bathing suits at the YMCA).

To enhance your Japanese bathing experience and to avoid any future embarrassment, Skylar has written this step by step guide for first time bathers. As far as we know it may only apply to the women's bath house on the eighth floor of the Dormy Inn, Hiroshima, but we will keep you posted on that point because we definitely want to go again and again.

Click here to read Skylar's Guide to the Traditional Bath House.