We stayed at Nagiyama Guesthouse, a small family owned guesthouse in Kawaguchi. Settled in, Kate gathered the group together and explained the intricacies of Japanese etiquette. Very important to know before you go and make a total ass of yourself (Ah, yes…been there, done it…)

Japanese Bath Ritual:

- The Nagiyama Guesthouse in Kawaguchi did not have its own ofuro, Japanese bath. We would dress in our yukatas (cotton robes) and traipse down the street to the public bath. Men on one side, women on the other. Once there, you leave all your clothes in the dressing room outside the actual room to wash in, enter the communal washing room naked – oh, let me take that back. You actually have a little washrag to cover your genitals – is that considered naked?

- Sit on a small seat (low to the ground and not easy to get off and up), lather up, scrub and rinse off well. Big no-no to carry suds into the ofuro. No soaps allowed. From there, you finally head to the ofuro (hot tub) room. This tub was more the size of a small pool able to hold 4-10 women and hot didn’t describe it. Japanese hot tubs are usually kept around 40 degrees centigrade/104 degrees fahrenheit.

wearing yakatas at dinner in Kawaguchi, Japan

Kawakuchi child outside the Guesthouse
- Don’t just jump into the tub. Immerse yourself slowly in little bits and pieces, steep and watch your skin turn a redder and redder. I never could stay in that tub more than 5 minutes without becoming nauseous from the heat. Out of the tub, clothes on and clop back to the Ryokan.

We were at this guesthouse for two nights and ex-Marine said the “mama-san” who ran the bathhouse was extremely excited to “see” American men and would come sit in the ofuro to check them out, genitally that is;

Mary Lee at Nagiyama Guesthouse in Kawaguchi, Japan
Japanese Bathroom etiquette:

- Ryokans usually don’t have private toilets. Everyone shares the communal, immaculately clean squat toilets.

- Enter the toilet room, take off your “inside Ryokan sandals” and switch to the pair of “toilet sandals” at the doorway. Use the facilities, and change back into your “inside sandals” when leaving. I created major loss of face for the group by always forgetting about the damn sandals and would then appear at dinner wearing the “toilet sandals.” Bad Sheila

Other Ryokan etiquette:

- Yukata/kimonos. Staying in a Ryokan solves any clothing problems you may encounter. You can survive on minimal clothes since all dinners are eaten in your kimono supplied by the Ryokan

- Don’t wear shoes inside. Shoes and boots are always removed when entering and left on racks. Put on the soft slippers/sandals supplied by the lodging.

shoe rack at a mountain hut in Japan
- Your ryokan room is usually a sparsely furnished, small tatami-matted double room. Tatami mats are woven from soft rush straw and traditionally packed with rice straw. Bedding was either piled up in a corner or stored in a small closet area. At night, we’d haul the mattress (futon) out, lay it directly on the tatami floors, along with traditional Japanese pillows filled with red beans or buckwheat chaff, and heavy quilted covers. It was very comfortable but took a while to get used to the hard pillows. In the morning, the bedding is folded and stored back in the closet.

ex-Marine making the beds in a ryokan, Japan
The Grand Sumo Tournaments were taking place during the trip and each guesthouse/ryokan owner would plant themselves in the front of the television nightly, completely absorbed in the outcome. Japan is the only country that Sumo wrestling is practiced professionally. It wasn’t long before we joined them and became equally rapt watching these giants once we learned the intricacies of Sumo wrestling from Kate.

A few of the rituals are throwing salt around the ring, leg stomping to drive out evil spirits before the two massive opponents stare each other down and charge trying to throw the opponent out of the ring. Matches only last seconds so it was never boring. Years later, ex-Marine and I were sitting in a Mongolian airport when Asashoryu, the great Mongolian sumo champion, lumbered through after his recent marriage. Impossible to mistake a 139 kg/308 lb person (and he’s considered a lightweight) wearing the typical Samurai topknot, wooden sandals and a thin cotton yukata for an ordinary person no matter what country you’re in! Not an everyday sight…