Monday, 19 May 2014

Bathing... Japan-style

Here is the control panel in my shower/tub room.
運転:Power
お湯はり保温: Fill with hot water
わかす保温: Fill with boiling water
呼出: Call button (HELP! MAYDAY! I forgot my rubber ducky~!)
浴室優先: Bathroom Priority (washing the dishes won't mess with your bath water)
あつめ: Hot
ぬるめ: Lukewarm
たっぷり: Fill
給湯:Water supply
ふろ:Bath
湯量: Amount of hot water

Use this panel to set the temperature of your hot water (open the side panel to see +/- to adjust). This sets it for the whole apartment.

When you want to take a bath, pop in the plug and press the お湯はり保温 (blue)
button (if you'd rather take a boiling hot one, then choose the yellow button). The tub will start filling through the mesh circle above the plug. When it's done filling, it will beep and let you know your bath is ready for you.

The system will periodically warm your bath up for you automatically while you, so if you want it to stop doing that, press the お湯はり保温 button again. If you just want a shot of hot water, press the あつめ button. If it's too hot, use the ぬるめ button.

Japanese custom dictates that you shower before you get in the tub, scrub all the daily grim off your bad self before hopping in the tub to relax. The tubs are so deep, that it would cost a fortune to refill it with every new bather, hence the re-head function. The only multi-person tubs I've seen have been at the public baths/onsens I've visited, so I'm not sure if such things exist in private home with multiple generations under one roof.

Perhaps you can understand why I am so pleased with myself when I figger out how to do simple things all by my onesies. I only needed help with *2* of the controls translations (both of them were due to me misreading them. :P) Yes, it's wonderful to figure things out on your own, but sometimes you just want to take a goddamn bath and not use your dictionary.

I hope this is helpful for other lost souls with sore muscles.

No comments:

Post a Comment