lifestyle Vocabularies

お風呂に入る！ Japanese bath system and the words related to taking a bath.

As you may know, Japanese people take a bath. Although it seems that people who are living by themselves nowadays just take a shower, traditionally, they take a bath every night. For me, taking a bath was a part of my everyday life. At the end of the day, it was where I could relax myself and reset my mind, and prepare for a good sleep to start an another good day next day.  Sometimes, I took a long bath by reading books or magazines in the bathtub with my favorite bath salt.


What you'll find in this post are the brief introduction about Japanese bath with my comments, and Japanese vocabularies and expressions related to bath.

Japanese bath

Bathtub and washing area

Typically, when you say Ohuro, which means "bath" in Japanese, it means a room including a bathtub and a washing area. You wash your body in the washing area first and you go into the tub. I was surprised when I saw the western style shower room (or a unit bath) for the first time in my life. I was like, "Why do people shower in the bathtub?" For me, a bathtub was where you put the water in. So I had to think like this. "Okay, so if I want to take a bath, I need to wash my body first, then wash the tub, put hot water in and finally I can take a bath? or go in with dirty body and wash everything after?"

This washing area is actually one of the things what I miss about Japan. I think it's because I was always excited to be ready to go into the hot bath while washing my body. haha. I set the shower head at the lower hook and sat on a bath stool and washed my body. There was a mirror in front of me, and sometimes I was afraid to look at the mirror because I didn't want to see someone else in there..... Anyways.

Toilet room and sink

Also, though you can also find apartment rooms with unit bath in Japan(especially apartment rooms for people who live by themselves), typical Japanese houses have rooms for the toilets. People tend to make it a cozy room. I believe this idea makes the public washrooms in Japan clean, relaxing and sophisticated.


I found a youtube video that explains well about a Japanese bathroom. Seeing is easier than reading to understand. If you haven't watched this video yet, please check it now.

*Not all the houses have a big sink and the heat functions.

How do people manage the bath water?

I guess you think the water in the bathtub is changed every day, however, many families actually keep the water for 2 - 4 days depending on the season and the number of the family members. Now, you would think, then the water gets cold next day. Some bath system has a function to heat the water, or they simply add the hot water before getting into the tub, so they can enjoy the hot bath every night. You might also think the water must be dirty as all the family members share the same water. That's why it's important for them to clean themselves well before getting into the tub.

However, in fact, my family does change the water every day, and so I was very shocked when I knew there were families who didn't.

In the video, she said that we could reuse the water to wash our clothes. It's very true. It was my father's job to replace the water into the washing machine when I was a kid. I didn't think like this back then, but now I realized that this kind of little things taught me "Not to waste what I have".

As this blog talks about Japanese language, I want to mention one more thing about the video. Did you notice the Hiragana chart in her bathroom? I talked about it in How to practice Hiragana and Katakana? Get some hints from Japanese kids They really do practice Hiragana in the bath.

Alright, let's start to learn the vocabularies related to bath.

Vocabularies related to bath

What you need to take a bath

メイク落とし (Meiku otoshi) (Makeup remover)
洗顔フォーム (Sengan foomu) (Face wash)
ボディソープ (Bodii soopu) (Body soap)
シャンプー (Shampuu) (Shampoo)
コンディショナー (Kondishonaa) (Hair conditioner)
トリートメント (Toriitomento) (Hair treatment)
ボディタオル (Bodii taoru) (Body wash towel)

The actions you do while taking a bath

お風呂を入れる (Prepare the bath)

お風呂を入れる (Ohuro o ireru) means preparing the bath by putting hot water in the bathtub. Some people say お風呂を沸かす(Ohuro o wakasu). literally means boil the bath. This is because in the old days, people made fire to boil water in the big tub.


お風呂入れといたよ。
(Ohuro iretoita yo.)
I prepared the bath.

お風呂のお湯をためる (Draw a bath)

お風呂のお湯をためる(ohuro no oyu o tameru) means putting hot water in the bathtub, so this is the same meaning of お風呂を入れる above.

お風呂のお湯、ためといたよ。
(Ohuro no oyu, tametoita yo.)
I drew a bath for you.

お風呂に入る (Take a bath)

お風呂に入る(ohuro ni hairu.) is an action to take a bath. 

お風呂入ってくる。

(ohuro haittekuru.) 

I'm gonna go take a bath.

先にお風呂入っていいよ。

(Sakini ohuro haitte iiyo.)
You can take a bath first (before me).

シャワーを浴びる (Taking a shower)

シャワーを浴びる (shawaa o abiru) is an action to take a shower.


今日はお風呂は入らないでシャワー（を浴びる）だけにしよう。
(kyo wa ohuro wa hairanai de shawaa (o abiru) dake ni shiyoo.)
I'm gonna skip taking a bath but just take a shower today.

体を洗う (Wash one's body)

体を洗う(karada o arau) is an action to wash one's body.


ボディタオルで体を洗いなさい。
(Bodii taoru de karada o arainasai.)
Wash your body with your body wash towel.

ちゃんと体洗った？
(Chanto karada aratta?)
Did you wash your body well?

髪を洗う　（頭を洗う） (Wash one's hair)

髪を洗う (kami o arau) is an action to wash one's hair. Some people say 頭を洗う (atama o arau) literally means wash one's head to express wash one's hair.


今日は髪を洗わないでおこう。
(Kyo wa kami o arawanai de okou.)
(I'm not gonna wash my hair today.)

顔を洗う (Wash one's face)

顔を洗う (kao o arau) is an action to wash one's face.


今日はもう遅いから顔だけ洗って寝よう。
(Kyo wa mou osoi kara kao dake aratte neyoo.)
I'm just gonna wash my face and go to bed tonight as it's too late.

入浴剤を入れる (Put bathsalt in)

入浴剤を入れる(nyuuyokuzai o ireru) is an action to put bathsalt in. There are many kind of 入浴剤  in Japan and you can find them in drugstores.


入浴剤入れてもいい？
(Nyuyokuzai iretemo ii?)
(May I put bathsalt in?)

お湯を足す (Add the hot water)

お湯を足す (Oyu o tasu) is an action to add hot water into the bathtub.


お湯が冷たくなってきたから、少しお湯を足そう。
(Oyu ga tsumetaku nattekita kara, sukosi oyu o tasou)
(The water is getting cold, let's add some hot water.)

お湯が溢れる (The water runs over)

お湯が溢れる (oyu ga ahureru) is an expression when the water runs over from the tub.


私が入ったらお湯が溢れそう！
(Watashiga haittara oyu ga ahuresou!)
(It lookis like the water will run over if I get into the tub!)

体が温まる (One's body gets warm)

体が温まる (karada ga atatamaru) is an expression when one's body gets warm. We also use an onomatopoeia word ぽかぽか (pokapoka) to express the warmness.

体が温まってきた。
(Karada ga atatamatte kita.)
My body is getting warm.

体がぽかぽかしてきた。

(Karada ga pokapoka shitekita.)

My body is getting warm.

お風呂に浸かる (soak oneself into hot water)

お風呂に浸かる (Ohuro ni tsukaru) is an action to soak oneself into hot water in the bathtub.


肩まで浸かって100数えたら上がっていいよ。
(Kata made tsukatte hyaku kazoetara agatte iiyo.)
Soak up to your shoulder and count up to 100, then you can come out.

お風呂から上がる (Get out of the bath)

お風呂から上がる (Ohuro kara agaru) is an action to get out from the bathtub, or to finish taking a bath.


お風呂上がったから入っていいよ。
(Ohuro agatta kara haitte iiyo.)
I finished taking a bath so you can go take now.

のぼせる  (Feel dizzy)

のぼせる (noboseru) is a verb to express "feeling dizzy in the bath".


お風呂でのぼせてしまった。
(Ohuro de nobosete shimatta.)
(I felt a bit dizzy in the bath.)

体を拭く (dry one's body)

体を拭く (Karada o huku) is an action to dry/wipe one's body with a towel.

体をきちんと拭かないと風邪ひくよ。
(Karada o kichinto hukanaito kaze hikuyo.)
You will get a cold if you don't dry your body well.

湯冷めする （Feel cold after a bath)

湯冷めする (yuzame suru) is an expression to feel cold after a bath. To feel cold after a bath, you might not wear your clothes, leave your hair wet, or you go outside where it's cold after taking a bath. Japanese people do care about it and try not to 湯冷めする after the bath, because they believe if you make your body cold after the bath, you will easily catch a cold.


早く何か着ないと、湯冷めするよ。
(Hayaku nanika kinaito, yuzame suruyo.)
Wear something now or you will feel cold (and get sick).

After bath…

髪を乾かす (Dry one's hair)

髪を乾かす (kami o kawakasu) is an action to dry your hair.

髪、乾かした？
(Kami, kawakashita?)
Have you dried your hair?

Conclusion

How was it? I hope you have learned something new through this post. If you are in Japan living in a house with a Japanese style bathroom, please try to take it and experience how Japanese people feel in the bath. Even if you are not in Japan, if you have a bathtub in your house, you can pretend to be in Japan taking a bath. You can say the Japanese words and expressions loud as you do it.

When I was living in a share house with some foreigners in Japan, a French guy found out that he loved the bath and he sometimes took an hour to take. Good that Japanese toilet rooms were separated from the bathroom.

If there are words or expressions you want to know related to taking a bath in Japanese, please leave a comment and I will add them in this post.

Picture from いらすとや