We had a rose bath this month following a jasmine bath last month. We tried two kinds of rose herbs,petals and berz from the herb factory. Wrapping them in filter paper and cloth,we made three bags of petals and two bags of barz using five hundred grams from each herb.We then placed them into the bathtub. We expected the berz to have a stronger aroma,but actually the petals did when placed in the bath water.The herb bags themselves did not smell so much,but the bathrooms were filled with a subtle,rose scent. Some costomers said it had a strong scent,but approximately one-third of our customers said they didn't smell it at all.We might have to improve it by adding some rose extraction for example. The petals turned yellow in hot water and nearly brown when our sento was closed. That was more than we expected.The bags of cloth were dyed dark yellow. It is said that this produces a melancholy effect and it seemed to be true. Even though it might sound a bit exaggerated,the rose bath gave me the feeling I was listening to "Always With Dreams" by Yuko Hara. In summary,fragrance is the most important factor in an herb bath. Our responsibility is to think of good ideas that will appeal to our customer's sense of sight,hearing and smell.
Around March of every year,teenagers claiming to be elementary pupils try to enter our sento for130yen( This is the fee for elementary school children). Junior-high students should pay the adult fee of 360yen. "I remember you came here around this time last year..." "I saw all of you in junior-high uniforms riding bicycles..." This is a little problem we have during this season.
The legionella germ,which in the past has caused serious problems for sentos and hot springs,can be easily eliminated by normal chlorine disinfections(more than 0.2ppm residualchlorine).Recent reports of legionella in some places seems to have been caused by the fact that sento owners didn't use enough chlorine to sterilize the water. The reasons for such mistakes include ignorance of the problem or fear that adding chlorine might kill the medicinal effects or color of the bath water. How then should one sterilize the sento water everyday? Before opening the sento,we filter the water and add chlorine,settinb the concentration from 0.2ppm to 0.4ppm.Sometimes we add more chlorine to keep the same concentration because residual chlorine runs out in about five hours( affected by various conditions such as the number of customers, jet bath or bubble bath,etc). After closing the sento,we add chlorine again to set the concentration of residual chlorine to 0.4ppm.This completely sterilizes the filtration system. The procedure takes thirty minutes nomally. Most sentos follow the same practice. Experimenting with a germ culture,we found the bath water to be germ free as long as the concentration was kept over 0.2ppm.Care must be taken to keep the concentration levels over 0.2ppm mark because lower levels are not identifiable to the human eye. The above procedures describe sterilization for the normal water.Sterilization of medicinal seasonal baths is under survey now.The results will be released by September 2002.
Recently someone place soa in the bath water.We found it on at least four occasions. There is reason to believe this was done deliberately.Other sento owners in the neighborhood said they had the same problem.It may be the same culprit.Now we have a notice informing customers to use care and avoid placing soaps in the water. When this happens,the water turns muddy instead of bubbling.At first,when the filter absorbed the soap we didn't understand why the water was muddy.This is a very malicious action. Please refrain from such acts.