[CactusOnFire]

This article seems to exist in a weird middle ground of both going too far, and not going far enough.

Private bathing is a modern luxury few people would be willing to give up, but at the same time, should they realistically advocate for it, they need to go beyond just considering communal bathing as a single concept. They need to instead consider the cultural environment which surrounds it, and consider communal living as a practice.

While there are many arguments to be made against this (some by me, even), it's a lot easier to conceptualize people bathing together when they actually know each-other on a more intimate level, instead of just strangers getting naked and pouring water on one another.

[DiscourseFan]

Nah, its still relatively common in Japan for strangers to get naked and bathe together, rarely even in mixed gender baths. Strange idea for some, sure, but its a part of regular life there.

[emchammer]

Japanese people have a reputation for being reserved. Do they go to the bath to meet, talk with and hook up with strangers like in Icelandic baths?

[DiscourseFan]

If by hook up you mean sex then no, but if you just mean to meet new people then maybe, but people still mostly keep to themselves. Its not a super social setting.

[apelapan]

If there was a nice "bathing house" per 1000 people, as suggested in the article, that would make it at most ten minutes walking distance for me. I could absolutely see myself shifting some of the weekly showers in that direction for social reasons.

But completely giving up on the option to comfortably and conveniently wash myself without leaving the house? No way!

[lowtechmagazine]

Author here. Good point, and I wanted to add that this is the first article in a series about communal living.