Naturalism in Shikoku

The shocking breakdown of gender segregation.

As I've said before, things are a little more relaxed, a little more laid back in Shikoku. People just leave their doors unlocked out here! I was looking for a barbershop, and saw a sign in front of a building. Alright, I`ll just open the door and walk in. But it was just some random house!!! I quickly exited and saw that the barbershop was at the back of a dirt parking lot, next to the house with the sign next to it! How often does that happen in hermetically sealed Tokyo? But the relaxed attitudes don't end at the door. They extend all the way. . .To The Bathhouse.

Which isn't nearly as sexy as you might be thinking. First, let me tell you about some of the bathrooms out in the countryside. Especially out in the boonies, at a lot of places they didn't have the money for a separate men's and women's restrooms, so there's just one bathroom, with the urinals lined up on one side of the wall, and the sit-down/squat down toilets in booths on the other wall. Obviously it can get a little awkward when you're doing your business and some random old lady walks out of the stall behind you, but I can deal with that. So San Francisco, if you thought you were at the vanguard of progressiveness with your gender neutral restrooms, I've got bad news: Shikoku beat you to the punch. But this was just the beginning.

Not just in the countryside, but all over Shikoku, THE CLEANING LADIES JUST WALK AROUND THE PUBLIC BATHS DOING RANDOM CHORES AROUND A BUNCH OF BUCK NAKED DUDES. Yep, there they are. Replacing towels, making sure the water cooler is filled up, whatever, all in the presence of a bunch of bathing dudes with Everything on Display. Mind you, the cleaning staff are clothed in like a janitorial uniform, and most of them are on the older side, so the thought of some wild bathhouse hijinx never crosses your mind. At first I was shocked, but you see it everywhere, so you get used to it. And I thought I understood the rules of which women were allowed to perform this duty. By and large, the bathhouse cleaning ladies are in the grandma age range, so there isn't much chance of flirtation in this institution of public nudity. But then I even began to see exceptions to that supposed rule.

The first time was in Kochi. There was some kind of an emergency, and the reception desk clerk rushed into the men's bath to check on a customer for some reason. She was in her 40s, definitely within the age range of conventional attractiveness, and her urgency seemed to suggest both the gravity of the situation, and her knowledge that she was breaking the unspoken rule that only older women should be allowed in the male bathing area.

But then in Matsuyama, another reception desk girl, this one in her 20s or 30s, was walking around the men`s bath area like it was nothing, and informing customers that their dinner reservations were ready or something! She wasn't a cover model or anything, but she was by all accounts a healthy, normal young woman, clothed mind you, in a room full of buck naked dudes!!! What the hell? So there are no frickin rules for which women can walk into the men's bath!!! As long as they wear clothes, I assume. Can clothed cleaning dudes just walk into the women's bath with impunity? Can I apply for that job? Is there a waiting list, and how many decades long is it?

On second thought, just get me back to fricking Tokyo where things make sense.

PS- In Shikoku, and in all of Japan, it is normal for very young children, like from toddler to kindergarden age, to accompany their parents into the public baths no matter their gender, much as it is ok for youngsters to be with their parents in public restrooms in America. Obviously, once certain physical changes start occuring at a certain age, it is then time for the youngsters in question to go to their respective gender`s section of the public bath. Except in the bizarre cases outlined above. Confusion. . .