This is THE mistake that foreigners are expected to make at the public baths – not taking a wash before getting in the bath. Or jumping in the bath still covered in soap!

So whatever you do, don’t forget to head towards the showers as soon as you arrive in the bathing area. And make sure you wash all the soap suds off before you get in the bath!

There will probably be a few showers where you can stand up to wash but most of the showers will be low with plastic stools to sit on like this one from Muji.

Find a spare shower, a stool to sit on, and a bowl to fill with water, and take a wash. Some facilities will have soap and shampoo available. Others will have shops or vending machines selling small packets of everything you need. So many bathers bring their own stuff. Seasoned bathers will arrive with plastic baskets crammed with an array of goodies- shampoos, soaps, ointments and creams, ready for a luxurious bathing extravaganza. And this is similar in Korea and Japan.

But there is one big difference between bathing etiquette in Korea and Japan.

In Japan, it’s all about keeping the wa, harmony. So after taking a wash, bathers leave all personal items on designated shelves around the facility. So the shower area is a calming minimalistic clutter free zone offering a zen-like peaceful experience.

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In Korea, it can get territorial at the ladies’ shower stations. Body scrubbing is part of the bathing routine. So it seems bathers want to take a shower, then soak in the hot bath for a good while, and then come back to carry out their body scrub. This means some ladies leave their stuff by ‘their‘ shower to  BAGSY their place for later!

This is ok if the baths are quiet.

But if the baths are busy, there may not be any clutter free spaces at all, so be prepared to negotiate bowls brimming with scrubbing cloths, guarded by shampoo bottles and body wash. And you may have no option but to take over ‘someone else’s’ shower space while they are not there.

Apparently, it’s not like this in the men’s baths.

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Anyway, let’s say you’ve managed to find a shower and had a wash. You’ve been in several baths – some with different temperatures, some infused with herbs – and now you go in the sauna. Here’s where we come to faux pas number 4.

NUMBER 4

DON’T jump straight in the communal bath after the sauna

After going to the public baths a few times I started to get cocky. I knew everything about etiquette at the baths. And I congratulated myself on not making any of the classic foreigner mistakes. I didn’t walk into the men’s changing rooms by mistake, I didn’t stomp around in shoe-free zones in my clumpy Birkenstocks or toilet slippers, and I certainly didn’t put plastic knickers on my head.

But then I made this classic error.

I was in Japan and at the baths with my homestay mum and sister. I had gone from bath to bath without incident. And then I went into the dry sauna.

I got all nice and sweaty…

Then when I came out of the sauna, I JUMPED STRAIGHT INTO THE COLD BATH.

It felt so refreshing after the sweltering dry heat. Yes, straight into the cold bath. That’s something I would never have done before. I was proud.

But then my homestay sister came over and pointed out that I really should have taken A SHOWER AGAIN BEFORE I GOT BACK IN THE BATH. Everyone, it seemed, had noticed the very sweaty foreigner leaping with reckless abandon contaminating the previously immaculately clean pool.

And I realised that the surreptitious glances from fellow bathers were not glances of surprise and admiration at my enthusiastic embrace of local bath culture, but rather shock and dismay at my lack of hygiene and consideration for others…

NOOOOO! And I was doing so well. 

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So the lesson here is that showers are not just for when you first arrive at the baths. They are there to be used at other times too – like after taking a sweaty sauna! 

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Read about other faux pas at the public baths…

no. 1 entering the baths
no. 2 feet 
no. 3 knickers 
 no. 5 towels