Bath VS ShoweR

There's an old stone tub -- really old, like, first white folk in the are probably built it -- near a particular trailhead in the central Sierra Nevadas that's fed by a small, inconspicuous, and remarkably un-stinky hot spring. But I'm not telling you where it is, partly because I wish it to remain a secret and partly because I'm not sure I remember correctly. Good stuff after a few days of trail dirt.

Otherwise, I like a good shower regularly and a scalding bath on occasion. (Just so you can barely stand it, so your skin tightens up and your hair stands on end as you lower yourself into it, and you're sweating right away, and every new part of you that goes in is almost unbearably hot for a second. Had to turn up the hot water heater in the current house to achieve this effect. Some weenie had turned it down to safety levels...)

You don't have to use good saki... it is perfectly okay to use a bottle of cheap saki or the remnants of an old bottle, since saki goes bad after a short amount of time.

In one of MFK Fisher's books, I forget which one, she writes about the villagers who massaged themselves with wine lees as a late summer constitutional. Massages & baths with wine are not that weird.

That sounds so icky to me, piffka. I'd be showering and showering, trying to get clean after something like that.

I like a good Finnish sauna, not one of those faux ones, with faux stones that you can't water to. Those are just blechhhh. A real birch sauna, with proper benches, real stones, water, and access to a good, clean cool lake. That's the only way. (and a long shower afterward)

And here I always though brewing and fermenting were the same thing.

Oh, yeah. Finnish saunas. They broil themselves as 170 degrees, then, whooping with delight, run outside and roll in the snow. Nekkid. I cannot imagine even the Russians wanting to start a war with people like that. You simply cannot intimidate a crazy man.

Okay, somebody can move it to politics, for all of me.

I always knew you were a true purist, eh-Beth. Stones to throw water on. Otherwise it ain't a real sauna, just the ghost of one. And anything under 170 F. is for wimps. You don't even work up a good sweat with less temp. than that.

Roger, ahhhh, you brought back some delicious memories. Jumping into a snow bank buck nekkid after a session on the wooden shelf in a true sauna in the woods. 'Twere Paradise enow.

One bathing custom from Japan that hasn't been adopted here is the father gets the hot water, then the kids get the lukewarm, and finally the wife gets the soiled cold water, and no sake, I presume. Hey, preserving water is a good thing, but holy mackeral!

Showering & showering? I remember the first time I visited the midwest and took a very long shower in softened water. I felt like I couldn't rinse off the soap.

I do think the massaging with wine lees would call for a good shower (or bath) afterwards, but taking a large bath with a relatively small amount of saki? Naaah. It wasn't sticky like an alcohol massage -- just a little more refreshing. It depends on if you like a bath or not, I think.

Around here we have a lot of Swedes & Norwegians so there are plenty of saunas. The only kind worth having are the ones where you can add water to the rocks. There's also a native American custom, the sweat lodge, which is a favorite cure for hangovers, here. Afterwards, you throw yourself into the chilly waters of Puget Sound. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

My grandparents must have misunderstood Japanese, since I got the cold, dirty water (and no sake as well).

I was lucky enough to live in Thunder Bay for a few years. I learned the truth about saunas there. The Kangas is very cool - great place to host a sauna party if you don't have your own - though most people from about Sudbury on, going north and west, have their own saunas - sometimes in the house, sometimes in a separate facility - always one at their camp. Real saunas.

http://www.superiorvisits.com/product.asp?ProductID=56

I think it's preferable to get really clean in a hot shower, then climb into a bubble bath with the one you love and give each other massages/kisses/and just see where that leads; or, maybe the old hot tub on the landing, just outside the bedroom, underneath the trees <yum>; but, after you've awakened from all that :wink: ; it's back to the shower for a good cleaning again.

Sadly, my dog hates bubble baths...just kidding. On our first date, I offered to draw a bath for my now wife. Maybe that is part of the reason she sticks around...

cavfancier: so, you're an artist? Did you draw the bath in color or black-and-white?

Full color, of course....I am autistic, very good at dwawing...

Shower after shower don't you tirer from streaming water?

Algis.Kemezys; presuming yours is a question for me: I went through this thread from the beginning and noted there was someone else who mentioned they don't like sitting in their own dirty water and I completely agree with that. Therefore, a bath or sauna or hot-tub is simply a romantic luxury for me. I don't want to get into or out of one without actually being clean. Perhaps that explains why I usually just stick to a shower; understand?

I miss baths. Before I moved out here in the boonies and built a new little house, I lived in an old house with normal-sized, deep,old fashioned bathtubs. Nothing like a good hot soak! In my new house, I have one of those shallow baths which they now sell in order to protect hypothetical nonagenarians and small children, none of which live with me. It's a pleasure-free bath, hell for the getting-older-have-arthritis types like me to get out of, so I've become a shower taker. I like showers. But I miss that great warm sweet old bath. (The guest shower is huge, elegant, has a place to sit down and a "telephone shower." Really nice.)

Algis, i can literally not get enough of a streaming shower. Sometimes when I go to the Y or community centre, I stay in the shower for longer than half an hour. I love that streaming water, getting me really really squeaky clean. The only thing that comes close is running outside in a true deluge of rain - I love that feeling as well. I love it when the hair is just pasted to my face in a rainstorm. It feels wonderful to me.

Showers are for getting clean. Baths are for pleasure (and for soaking tired joints & muscles, esp. in whirlpools.)

When I was in college, during a sudden, heavy spring downpour, some friends and I rushed out of the house with our bottles of shampoo and washed our hair in the middle of the street. Great feeling! Recommended!

Obviously, you are a serious thinker with astute observations; and, no, that does not have anything to do with your agreeing with my previous post ( :wink: ) but rather with your impartial post based simply on the facts ( ).