Wednesday, June 29, 2005

Sento - Japanese communal bath house:

"A Sento is a Japanese communal bath house. Typically these bath houses are quite utilitarian, with one large room separating the sexes by a tall barrier, a line of showers along one wall and a single large bath for the already washed bathers to sit in along the other. Since the 1980s these communal bath houses have been decreasing in numbers as more and more Japanese bathe at home, and some Japanese are concerned that without the skinship of mutual nakedness, children will not be properly socialized. A special form of the sento is an Onsen, which is a sento using water from a natural hot spring."

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