Almost all public schools in Japan have one thing in common – they look very similar. There is not much difference in the way how the building looks from outside, independently if it is an elementary school, a junior high school or a high school. It seems that decades ago some guys (likely not architects ) agreed on a certain “design” which has been realized across the country. Thereby the typical school building consists of a cubical center building which host all the class rooms. This main building is usually close to the sports field, around which other facilities (like pools, sport halls, etc.) are arranged. The interesting thing is that the cubical class room building is always built with concrete and has large glass sliding windows, independently if the school is located in a hot place like Okinawa or if the location is in Hokkaido with very cold and long winters. For someone living longer in Japan these school buildings belong to the landscape. I think these buildings are very functional and have served generations of pupils. Although those schools which were built 30+ years ago look really shabby from outside, they are still serving their purpose (maybe a better insulation would be good for saving energy!). However, it is nice to see that the government has started to rethink the way how public schools should look like. Newly built schools seem to be really designed individually giving the location a somewhat unique feature.

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Last weekend when I went to a nearby Onsen I had a look at the poster which explains all the things one should not do when visiting such a place. Since saunas have recently become popular, many of the typical onsen locations are now equipped with saunas as well so the poster also includes rules about how to behave there. In order to make sure that the few foreigner who visit such a place behave well the poster explains those rules also in other languages for those who are not able to read Japanese. So here is what the Japanese poster tells you (I hope that my own translation is correct )

1. Wash yourself before entering the onsen tub!
2. Make sure that your hair does not get into the water!
3. Make sure that your hair does not get into the water!
4. Wash before entering the sauna and rinse the sweat before entering the onsen tub!
5. Parents should watch their children and not let them play!
6. You should not bring your towel with you into the onsen tub!
7. Rest at locations where you don’t bother anyone!
8. Take care of other when being in the onsen tub!
9. Don’t wash yourself in the onsen tub!
10. After using any tools, put them back from you go took them!
11. Don’t spray the shower on somebody else when cleaning yourself!
12. Don’t leaf anything behind at the shower place or onsen tub!
13. Don’t spit and don’t let your kids pee!
14. Don’t leave the shower running after you are finished!
15. Wipe and dry your body when entering the changing room or sauna!
16. Don’t talk with loud voice!
17. Only bring towels and bath tools to the designated area! Don’t wash your clothes!
18. Enter the bathroom and onsen tubs naked (no swimsuits)!
19. Respect other people!
20. Don’t enter the tubs when you feel ill or are drunk!
21. Don’t bring cameras and hand phone and don’t take pictures!

Of course I obey these rules and I hardly see somebody who does anything strange in the onsen area (except a few tourists who go to such a place for the first time ). However, a few Japanese seem to ignore rule (7) and take a rest wherever they want. Even if the area is crowded those people lie on the edge of the onsen or on other unpleasant locations. But as other guest also feel bothered by them it usually does not take long until someone claims to such a guy. He then apologizes, takes his towel and moves to a less disturbing place. Rule (15) seems to be ignored by more than half of the Japanese people who enter the sauna. It says clearly that one should dry his body before entering the hot room. I think this rules has been set not only to make sure that someone does not bring too much water (which evaporates and increases the humidity) to the sauna but mainly to allow the human body to start sweating naturally. Last time I even saw a guy who spent 5 minutes in the sauna, then went to the pool with cold water for 3 minutes, came back to the sauna for 5 minutes, … and so on. He did this for almost 2 hours. I am not sure what the purpose of this “exercise” was, but his body might not have liked it much.

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