Clean

Several years ago I spent a month in Brisbane during the height of the water restrictions.

This was, of course, long before the weather that lead to the floods, and the dams which eventually (and disastrously) overflowed were dangerously low at the time.

Since the water supplies were so precarious, everyone in the Brisbane area was encouraged - nay, commanded - to save water by using less of it.

Probably a good thing, in the grand scheme of things. We use too much water in our modern, on-tap lives. I've long maintained that our water usage would be much improved if we all had one tap in our back yards and had to carry all of our household water into our homes ourselves. We would very shortly find out exactly how much water we need for any given task and be reluctant to use more than necessary. If it came down to a smack-down fight between our wastefulness and our laziness, I'm reasonably sure the laziness would win.

Anyway, one of the edicts of the Brisbane council during this time was the limit of four minute showers. Everyone was encourage to shower, rather than run baths, and to complete the showering process in under four minutes.

Now, I can understand why they did that. We waste so many litres of water by letting the water just pour over us (and down the drain) while we stand around enjoying the feel of it on our skin. It's not necessary, but it's also a really hard habit to break unless suitably motivated.

However - four minutes? Really?

Okay, the theory behind it is reasonably sound: get in, get wet, soap up, sluice down, get out. Simple and effective - and something conceivably achieved in under four minutes.

I'm sure this is exactly how twelve year old boys normally approach the bathing process. I'm sure it's exactly how men in a house full of women honestly believe their daughters could approach the bathing process if they just tried for once...

However, real people don't wash like that. It's unpleasant and not as effective as you might think. Sure, it's enough to get the top layer of dirt of your skin - but it can't really clean out your pores, help remove the dead skin cells or tackle 'serious' dirt like grease and grime. And heaven help you if you wanted to wash and condition your hair as well!

I must admit I usually failed in the "under four minutes" edict. Under ten minutes? Not a problem. I can probably be out in eight and feel like I've had a real wash. But under four? That's hard.

I wasn't the only person who thought it was daft. An article I read at the time told of a woman who thought she'd beat the system by taking a shower at a fitness club - only to find out the club limited it's showers to three minutes.

A few years ago I had watched Spirited Away (fantastic film), and this article prompted me to wonder if a Japanese bath-type establishment might work in Brisbane. So I did a bit of research (not because I was actually going to open my own baths, but just because I research things I find vaguely interesting - that's why I'm a librarian) and I was surprised to discover that you are expected to be completely clean before getting into the baths.

This makes perfect sense, when you think about it. Who wants to soak in the filth that has come off someone else in the bathwater? It would be nice if we all had a bit of a shower before getting the public pools, as I have seen foreign tourists do, but Australians just don't do that. We all jump in with whatever grime we happen to be carrying around with us at the time, and then shower after our swim to get rid of the high levels of chlorine we use to kill the germs we shouldn't be carrying in with us anyway...

So, back to Japanese bathing. There's a room that is used to clean off the dirt before you go into the baths themselves for a good mineral soak. The more modern joints have showers in these rooms, but traditionally one would take a basin of water and wash from that.

Now, having come from a family where one either takes a full bath or a shower, I found the concept of this basin thing new and surprising - but absolutely obvious in hindsight. You can take as much time as you like, using a cup and cloth to run the water over your skin, and never use more water than a couple of buckets worth at the most.

You can give yourself a much better wash using a basin than you can in a four minute shower. I'm actually at the stage where I'll occasionally have a basin bath instead of a shower just because I feel like it - even though I don't currently live in a town with ultra-strict water restrictions. I feel just as clean, but I also feel strangely empowered.

It's hard to explain, but I like knowing that I'm not a slave to my plumbing. If I did ever move to a remote cabin without running water or electricity, I'd still be able to wash myself quite happily in the amount of water I could carry into the house all by myself.

I'm sure my ancestors must have washed like this, but I'm a little unclear about it all, to be honest. I know more about Japanese bathing than European, it must be said. And I have a strange feeling the British side of my ancestry probably approached it differently to the Eastern/Northern European side.

One of the things I do know about it - there was less of it. Bathing, I mean. Here in Australia we have at least one wash a day; two is not ridiculously unheard of. And yet, I know that even with running water on tap, people from Europe and the UK are more likely to wash a few times a week, rather than daily. I can't see that they would have bathed more often back when it was more inconvenient.

The things we do as part of our normal lives are fascinating, aren't they?