I’m used to American style washing. If it’s only me I just take a shower, same as my wife. We have two 2 yr olds now. I was usually the one to bathe them in America. I came up with a Japanese/American hybrid method where I rinse them off first, then I jump in the tub with them in soapy water, we play and stuff, I scrub us down, then wash off the soapy water, then we go. 99.9% clean.
Since moving to Japan we switched to the Japanese style of bathing. My wife’s family comes over a lot to help with the kids and loves to play with them, they will bathe them and with them also. I used to be the one to do it because it’s good bonding time and gives my wife a break. Now having her family help it’s usually her and/or her family washing them.
The problem I have is this. I don’t see the Japanese method as completely sanitary. Because if you think about it, if you do just a quick rinse before getting into the tub that means you’re not totally clean when getting into the tub which means you’re bringing stuff that should be washed off into it so you’ve now made the water semi-dirty. No big deal. You wash with soap after, rinse it off, now you’re completely clean. My issue is the final soaking tradition of going back into the semi-dirty water. I see this at onsens too. You’re just getting back in the water that now has bacteria and other stuff in it that a simple rinse doesn’t get off so now it’s all back on you again which sorta renders the whole thing of washing with soap in between relatively pointless. And this gets compounded the more people who use the communal tub.
I don’t have a problem with it for myself, I just shower twice. I soap and rinse first, then soak in the tub, then soap and rinse again. That way I’ve left the water in the tub as sanitary as possible for the next person, and I myself am leaving the room completely washed since I didn’t undo the work of soap. That’s how I bathe the kids now as well.
I’m not a clean freak or overprotective or anything, I let them eat stuff that just fell on the floor sometimes, I let them play in dirt, and I don’t mind this washing style if occasionally done. I think receiving decent levels of bacteria and stuff help build the immune system. But I think it’s not healthy for kids to bathe like this everyday. I work in labs so for me it’s like if I put sanitized tools on an unsanitized station, then pick up those tools while sanitizing the station, then put the tools back on the sanitized station. That would make no sense because my tools were just touching it before it was sanitized. I’m just thinking logically. I have similar hang ups with how it seems everyone in Japan thinks using oshibori is the same as washing your hands.
What do you all think about the Japanese bathing method? Can someone explain to me how the final soak doesn’t ruin it? Or, any advice on how to approach my wife and her family regarding how I want my kids bathed that won’t offend Japanese culture? I tried talking to my wife but she started getting offended before I barely even began.
TL;DR why do people think the final soak doesn’t undo the washing?
It’s longer than I expected because I wanted to explain why it’s import rn, and broke it down a little much because it’s my view vs 130 million.
Update/edit: I’m glad to hear that most of this group is very clean and does a similar thing to what I do and what I expect of others. My family is very clean and I think Japanese people are very clean.
To everyone saying I’m being told wrong, just do a quick Google or look at some links I posted in the comments and you’ll see that even online, everywhere says that exactly how I described it is the classic Japanese style.
by phatmatt593