You guys should keep doing this Baka Gaijin satire posts! This is very interesting! Keep ‘em up, John!

I seriously hope nobody asks me to share the bath with them. I have dignity to keep.

Although, I doubt any Nihonjin would really want to see a naked Gaijin. I hope.

Lol…cracked up on the face in the last photo…XD

But this makes me nervous.  I didn’t know Japan households have slippers exclusively for the bathroom…

When I do end up visiting Japan, I’ll do my best, but I’m sure I’ll mess up somewhere >.<

Re: the baths, I have always wondered – how long does each person soak?  I mean that water is gonna get cold eventually, so I’m wondering how it works out so that the last person doesn’t get unsatisfying, barely warm bath.  Granted, I haven’t taken a bath in forever, so I forget how long a bath can actually stay comfortably warm.

 Bathing is more of a relaxing thing. Sometimes (maybe usually? Not sure) they use special herbal water. It’s really good for your skin and health! It’s for the experience rather than actually getting clean, I believe.

If it gets cold, they just hit the reheat button.

Thank you so so so so much, I’m doing a homestay in Japan this summer and these baka gaijin posts have helped me SOO much you have no idea, arigatou ne!

Also, if you stay in the bath long enough to get pruney… is that considered baka gaijin-ness? (Unrelated: Is there even a Japanese equivalent of “becoming pruney”?)

 Think onsen ^.^

 I sometimes wear the slippers out of the toilet until I see mine outside, then quickly change before anyone see ^.^
One thing I worry about a lot is recycling in Japan. So many bags for different materials… I always had to ask which item to put in which bag >.< Embarassing to ask.

Hehe yeah, pretty much all Japanese bath tubs have features like reheating, beeping when the tub is full and other cool stuff^^

 i think its worth to mention, that there are bathtubs without such nice features.(there are normal toilets as well in japan… omg i was so shocked…..). at my homestay, they had no hightech gadgets in the bathroom.  so in this case, you propably should not stay in the bath for too long. simply shower, go in, enjoy the heat(not too long), go out, rins yourself with cold water(great feeling) an go out…  i really miss those japanese bathrooms… like one big shower with a bathtub inside.

Oh my gosh.  I didn’t live with a family but I did live in a dorm.  I used to always accidentally forget about the bathroom slippers, wear my own slippers in (or – worse, wear the bathroom slippers back to my room).  Usually there weren’t many students around, so this didn’t really matter as no one saw me. 

One day though, I had the misfortune of being seen in my error, and the look of horror on a girl’s face as I wore my normal slippers into the bathroom is forever etched in my memory.

This is something I would totally mess up on….I don’t think I’d ever be able to remember to swich my slippers just to go into the bathroom

The most baka thing I can think of with the gifts I imagine is kind of obvious. That is, to give something that comes in a set of four. I don’t want to find out what’ll happen if I do that.

Funny, it was reading one of those texts that I learned that there are places in the world where people DO wear shoes in their houses. Unless the house was being renovated, I didn’t even know there were people doing that.

Speaking of slippers, what’s Japan society’s stance on walking around the house on barefoot? I grew up with Filipino customs and though we take off our shoes outside and occasionally wear house slippers, usually we just walk barefoot. Is it still frowned upon in Japan?
Or is just unlikely because it’s humid there and just by stepping on the floor barefoot will leave water footmarks?

Never done any of these, but I don’t think number one is that true. It would start things off on a positive note if you brought a gift, I would highly recommend it, but especially if this is your first time in Japan anyone that’s open-minded enough to take you into their home wouldn’t take offense.

EVERYtime I visit my old host parents I bring a gift for them and my brothers and they kind of think I’m weird for it. They know why I do it (not just because I’m in Japan, but because I really like to show them I appreciate them. And get bonus points with the little bros. lol) but they always tell me, “Seriously, you know you don’t HAVE to keep buying us stuff….” Then again, my host family is a pretty modern and awesome group of people. :)

To add to what Ai said, since you’re sharing the bath water with everyone in the household [yikes for large families!!] you may want to be as clean as possible before bathing so the next person will also have clean water to bathe in. :]
No one likes sloppy seconds.

You already taught us to be a baka gaijin on a train,
But what about a baka gaijin on a plane?
Can you teach us to be a baka gaijin in a box?
Can you teach us to be a baka gaijin with a fox?

Some families and formal hotels will have the whole bathroom / house slipper ritual thing, but in my experience, most “normal” people just walk around the house in socks.

> Funny, it was reading one of those texts that I learned that there
> are places in the world where people DO wear shoes in their houses. 

In the West (pretty much everywhere west of Istanbul), feet are yucky.  There’s some variation from country to country, but in general unless there’s a really inescapable reason (like, you’re going swimming; you HAVE to take off your shoes if you’re swimming), you generally don’t take off your shoes around other people (except immediate family and very close friends).  Consequently, even people who normally go barefoot around the house all the time (which becomes more prevalent the closer to the equator you get) will keep their shoes on if they have guests, or if they staying as are guests in someone else’s house.

This has begun to relax somewhat in the last couple of decades, as young people begin to grow up whose parents did not insist that they always wear shoes when playing with friends as children.  It’s more and more common for people who have only been friends for a relatively short while and are not really that close to start taking off their shoes in one another’s presence, e.g., when visiting in one another’s homes.  Coinciding with this, it has become increasingly common too for younger people (up into even their mid twenties and perhaps even into their lower thirties now) to wear flip-flops in public without being in the immediate vicinity of a swimming pool or beach.  A couple of years ago I saw a college-aged individual (in central Ohio) show up to work wearing flip-flops — to a white-collar job no less.   Her superior had a little private chat with her about what is and is not appropriate professional attire, and she hasn’t done it again, but the mere fact that they needed to HAVE such a chat with her is a strong indication that our culture is definitely beginning to change on this issue.

But we haven’t adopted the Asian custom of removing all shoes at the door just yet.

Note too that in the winter (in those parts of the world where we actually have winter), people often keep their shoes on in the house for comfort, especially on the main floor where the doors to outside are, because even with the heat cranked up to 70 or more, you still get a bit of chill draft every time somebody opens the door, not to mention and stepping in melting snow every time you walk where somebody has previously stepped on the way in.  Plus, some people like to economize on the natural gas bill by setting the heat to 62 and wearing shoes and a sweater.

None of them is a problem because we, Turkish, live like this in house :)

I still find it really weird how people on the internet (usually because it’s Americans, I suppose) find it odd that Japanese people take off their shoes in the house. Being from England, it’s normal to take your shoes off.
You’re in the house, take off your damn shoes! (at least, that’s how I feel.)

wait, for real?  That’s amazing!  I wish American bathtubs had that.