JAPAN LOVES YOUR PRIESTS!
A Japanese girl of model appearance from the TV screen asks: - When you get your hands dirty, what do you do? Wash them. And what would your priest want? This commercial shocked the whole of Japan and introduced the concept of washlet into the life of the Japanese, replacing the common word toilet. As you know, the Japanese are famous for their technical innovations and here it is necessary. The Japanese borrowed the idea of a washlet from the Americans, who used such devices in hospitals for the seriously ill. The Japanese were Japanese if they did not perfect this idea. They created a firm that employed 300 employees, half men and half women. They conducted research throughout the year. The result was a determination of the "comfortable" temperature of the toilet lid, the angle of inclination and the pressure of the water supplied for washing. Thus was born the washlet.
Now this concept is firmly entrenched in the life of every inhabitant of the country and for a foreigner who came for the first time, is a pleasant and at the same time unexpected surprise.
In modern washlet toilets, in addition to the usual functions of washing and heating the seat, you can adjust the temperature and pressure of water, built-in drying and automatic deodorization, most often remote control. By the way, its presence distinguishes more expensive and functional models from simple ones. As the star rating of local hotels may not always correspond to the European star system, when booking a tour to Japan, you can inquire about the availability of a remote control in the washlet located in the room being booked. If it is - then the quality is guaranteed.
Technological progress is not standing still and one well-known Japanese company plans to release a "smart toilet" in a few years, which will not only take good care of the buttocks, but also transmit weekly test results to your doctor wirelessly. Summarizing all the above, we can say with confidence: if you have never used a washlet, then you just have not been to Japan. Such an unforgettable experience of a trip to Japan leaves only the high-speed train Shinkansen and Japanese baths - Onsen.
The Shinkansen high-speed train is a real pride of the Japanese. You can compare the clock on it, and in children's toy stores all trains will be syncans. Once we settled on the platform waiting for the arrival of our train. Suddenly the silence was broken by a loud noise. Shinkansen ran at high speed along one of the additional lines.
Opening our mouths, we followed him with admiring glances.
It was the biggest and most natural surprise during the trip to Japan. What can I say here, because the Shinkansen E5 and E6 high-speed trains are capable of speeds up to 320 km / h. They can be compared to an airplane in terms of ease of movement through Japan. They cover the distance between Tokyo and Kyoto in 2.5 hours. In general, depending on the number of stops between the start and end points of the route, syncans are divided into three categories. The inner entourage of a typical syncansen resembles the interior of the aircraft. Seats for two or three people are separated by a aisle. Although, unlike the celestial chariot, here the chairs can be rotated 180 degrees. If you are traveling with a company - it's very convenient - unfolded chairs and here's a small compartment just for you.
The plan of the warehouse is easy to find in the seats in front, which is definitely a nice convenience - you know which side is a cafe or smoking area.
The peculiarity of travel in such a train, as in airplanes, is the limited space for luggage. Usually everyone travels on a shinkansen with a minimum amount of luggage. This is due to the fact that Japan has a very well-developed delivery service. When you move from one city to another, luggage can go completely on your own. The delivery service will pick it up directly from one hotel and deliver it to another hotel of the same day. However, if you take a small bag with things on the road, you can place it in the luggage compartment above the seats or in a small niche near the door. Do not forget that Shinkansen runs regularly from morning to evening, but at night you can not use them.
The unconditional convenience is that using this high-speed train, you arrive from the center of one city to the center of another. This saves time traveling to and from airports.
Along the way, your companions will be a good book and a rapidly changing landscape outside the window. Everyone who has come to Japan must take this train at least once.
Japanese bath. It is built on the basis of onsen. This is a hot spring in Japanese. Onsens are open when bathing in a natural body of water filled with hot mineral water, and closed when it is filled with special baths ofuro. Invite us to a girl in the bath, although now more often say in the sauna, you may be completely misunderstood. But the Japanese bath is a place where the whole family comes. Here you can taste delicious local food, drink green tea.
There is usually a garden in the national style with waterfalls and mineral rivers, where you can sit in silence. At the entrance to the bath, be sure to take off your shoes and move inside only barefoot.
By the way, such rules are strictly followed by both temples and traditional Japanese restaurants. In addition, at the entrance to the bath there is a so-called "face control", however, here do not look at your face, and the presence of tattoos. With a small tattoo, you can use part of the bath, that is, the areas where you are in a robe, and then you just will not let. In some hygiene and recreation facilities, a robe (yukat) and a belt to it (both) can be rented for free, choosing the right size and color. Of course, in the remote part of the bath is the place where a man or a woman, each enters his part of the bath only with a key bracelet from the cell and a small towel.
A small towel should cover obscene places. Because it is really a bath where people not only relax, but also wash.
There is a hall with pools filled with hot and cold water, a sauna and access to the pools with mineral water. Before you go there, you need to wash well. The most interesting feature of the Japanese bath is that it is washed sitting in open showers with bath accessories in front of the dressing table and all sorts of shampoos, creams, foams and various types of liquid soap. If you have already got to the Japanese bath, then for the fullness of the feeling you need to visit a procedure called akasuri.
