"Ohayo," her equivalent for "Good morning." Then she steps into the hot water, sinks down until it reaches her throat, and goes through the bath with the utmost unconcern. This bath is apt to be a protracted one, but if the visiting foreigner cares to linger he is privileged to see the same smiling, demure maiden trip back into the house.
While it might appear, from the foregoing, that the hot bath is the favourite in Japan, this is not by any means the case. The people of that country appreciate to an extreme the value of cool water. The hot bath is used for opening and cleansing of the pores. The cold bath is used for benefiting the pores to a lesser degree, and for general vitalising effect. In winter a Japanese who has taken a bath in nearly boiling water in doors springs out of the cask, runs out of doors, and rolls over and over in the snow. Then he returns to the house, dries himself, rubs down vigorously, and dresses himself. The olden-time samurai were wont to break the ice over streams in order to obtain the cold bath. Their descendants use creeks and rivers for the purpose of obtaining cold baths.
