And I don't necessarily mean the gay crusing kind...

I know that in some cultures and countries that saunas and public baths are normal. I had many roomates at BYU who would relay their stores of baths in Japan or Finland. Especially in Japan the Americans always tended to be a curiosity and according to my roomates were "checked out" though no sexual advances were ever made.

Curious if anyone else has any stores like this?

Ah bathhouses... I served in Korea, where if our hot water went out and if the Mission office was in a giving mood, we would get an allowance for the local bath house.

Usually we would go during a "quiet" time, but if there were people, there might be a bit of "look! a white circumcised guy". Never any sexual advances, and most Korean's were polite enough to ignore us and leave us alone, as we did with them.

The thing that was disconcerting for some newer missionaries, what that sometimes, especially the older men, a few men would offer to help wash your back. It was just a polite cultural thing to help each other out, nothing sexual involved. Most missionaries would just politely decline, some would accept, and of course there were a few that would get upset, no matter how much to tried to prep them, they just couldn't understand that it was cultural and they just wanted to help.

As strange as it sounds, I never awkward or embarrassed when we got to go, and I got the impression that most other missionaries (including the sisters, who would have a separate bath house, they were always separate by gender) enjoyed it quite a bit, to the point that often when we'd do splits with the AP's they would have an extra allowance to take everyone to the local bath house.

It's funny to me now thinking about it, that I never felt awkward there, but I always felt awkward and "weird" in the temple...

I had a Japanese friend who worked on an American air base ask very sincerely, "Why whit guys made differently?" In Japan there would be absolutely no reason to cut of the skin of a guy's penis, so some apparently think that Caucasian men are just built differently. No doubt, too, that they think it's a flaw.

Speaking of circumcision, Korea was kind of funny about that. They had required military service for all male citizens. While circumcision wasn't required or even normally done at birth, it WAS required before military service.

So, there were several cases where you would see or hear of a young man at church who had to undergo this procedure as a teenager. They would either disappear for a week or two to heal, or they would show up looking decidedly "happy" because they would be wearing, essentially, the equivalent of a disposable coffee cup to let things heal up.

You'd think that someone would either remove the requirement for the military or decide it was better to do at birth, but they haven't seemed to have caught on to doing either yet.

Interesting stories.

Japan, 89-91.

There were mishies that would do "bath-house proselytizing". It made more sense in Japanese as "Sento Dendo". Anywhooo...

They would go to a bathouse just to take a VERY long bath and very much intending to introduce the "gospel" to the poor hapless sacks who couldn't just walk away.

They would log their time and put it in their weekly reports.

Fun huh?

There were a number of co-ed onsens and we were strictly forbidden to go. Ever.

**edit** - I should point out that I meant where the men and the women bathed in the same tubs.

Of course, we did, don't be naive. If there was a rule, I broke it deliberately.

We went to an outdoors, natural hot springs. In or near Kuraiyoshi. I was worried that I would pop wood, but as luck would have it, I was treated to some VERY long boobs.

We were also forbidden to karaoke. As a matter of fact, the night we went to the onsen, we also went to karaoke. I had the foresight to photograph!

Sigh......

Oh, and when the mish prez changed, the new guy had us do 2 day zone conferences. The night of the first day would always end with the entire ZONE, the ZL's, the AP's and the friggen mission prez all at a co-ed (sisters came too) (the women had their own side with separate entrances) sento. Of course anybody who has ever been knows that you cannot see from either side, so it is ok per mormon standards.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2011 04:38AM by Levi.

Guatemala in the early 80s. Our only source of water was a spigot outside the door of our room of the mini-chapel. No electricity so we used a Coleman lantern for light. Every couple of weeks when we felt the need to bathe we'd hike a few miles over to a small village that had a large scummy outdoor pool of warm water, as well as smaller bathing pools under shelters. If we felt the need for some real privacy, there were private bathing rooms with concrete bathtubs for a few cents more. The water was piped in hot from a natural hot spring on the property. When bathing in public we were a spectacle amongst the local populace, given that several of the mishies had nice hairy chests....

Somehow, when I saw this topic, I envisioned mishies bathing in their garmies....

I also served in Japan, and while I never went myself, several missionaries I knew had either deliberately broken the "no-bathhouse" rule, or made up some excuse about having a "sore back" to go. When in small cities in Japan, the geijin are always stared at by the locals, so you can imagine that they are REALLY stared at while in the bath house. Sometimes, older women are present in the male section as attendants. At the time I was in Japan, I would have never gone to a bath house since I was so shy. The thought of getting naked with a bunch of guys was more than I could handle and I would have been to scared to break any rules. Today, I would do it for sure for the cultural experience, but I was too naive back then to see it that way.

On an off topic note, one of my companions was actually "checked out" in another way while we were on the street one night. It was my first area, and he was my senior. He approached an older guy (about 70 years old) and began to chat with him. The mischievous old bugger, simply walked right up to him, grabbed his crotch, and laughed uproariously. My comp backed off in shock, shook the man's hand (which I thought was a hysterically funny response), and we went on our way. We laughed all the way back to the apartment.

But we did have very tiny hot water tanks that were often coin-op and cast iron tubs, which made for a cold bathing experience in the winter time. We used to talk about American hot showers and what an indulgence that was. In my first area, there was one missionary flat that had a large hot water tank, and we would all go over there to bathe sometimes. When it was cold, the steam would get so thick in the air that you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

One night, three of us were in the bedroom talking in the dark waiting for the other elder to come out of the bathroom. Eventually, the door opened and he stood there silhouetted in the doorway with his bathrobe on, the steam pouring around him and the light shining eerily. We turned and looked at him, and he said "Let my people go."

I had a claw-foot, cast iron tub that I loved to take baths in. Of course, I used to take my biggest pots, fill them with water and get it to boiling before I took my bath (I put them in with the rest of the hot water from my much cooler water tank) -- then the cast iron would warm up and it was simply lovely.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/26/2011 11:36AM by Rebeckah.