Bathing and Cooking Eggs in Japan: not as unrelated as you might think
I’m not sure we should have visited Japan. Now we’re home, life seems awfully laborious. It started with the taxi from the airport – we had to open and shut our doors, instead of waiting for them to operate under the button-pressing control of our driver.
Then there was the MRT. I’d previously considered Singaporeans to be polite users of public transport, but now it irritates me to have to make my way to the exit of the carriage, when in Tokyo I’d merely had to stiffen slightly as we approached our station for the crowds to part magically to facilitate our leaving. Although maybe that says more about us than Tokyo.
There’s the going back to work, of course (where by “work” I mean “it was a blessedly slow day and I spent a certain amount of time encouraging Sue to go on a bearded lady freak show world tour of picturesque beehives and totem poles) although I believe work normally happens even in The Land Of The Rising Sun; at least that’s what A told us he was doing between the hours of about 9 and 7 in Tokyo when he disappeared off by himself whistling a jaunty tune. He might have just holed up in one of the completely silent basement cafes in Ginza with some tea and a wifi connection and a blissful, glassy-eyed stare.
But the thing I mourn most is my bath. I can’t believe I’ve come back to a place where no robot resides in the tub to fill it with hot, clean water at just the right temperature. Imagine having to actually run a bath. The very idea.
In Japan, the bath actually runs itself, once you touch the green button at the top right up there and/or pre-set the timer. Although I never did figure out which button adjusted the temperature below 43 degrees Celsius, so I ended up having to run cold water in using the shower anyway, which kind of missed the point of having an in-tub bath-running robot do the work, but still.
I’ve decided I want a Japanese-style bathroom in my next house. Check out this arrangement:
We undressed in the laundry and put the clothes straight into the washing machine. The wet area was well drained, waterproofed, and non-slip, vastly reducing the potential for arguments over shower-related tomfoolery. The shower took the dirt and soap off before the bath, leaving clean water for long play sessions complete with the inevitable consumption of bathwater. And there was even a cover to keep the whole thing toasty warm during that mucking around phase where everyone runs around the house either giggling, cajoling, threatening or cursing, depending on their role and the amount of patience they’ve lost over the course of the day. Plus, deep tubs. Awesome. And you can sit wine on the top of the bath cover. Double awesome.
In Traditional Japan The Bath Just Always Runs, and Also Cooks Eggs
Once you’ve had a chance to visit an onsen, it’s clear how the Japanese bathroom evolved. Several of the places we stayed provided communal bathing areas complete with change room, shower area with stools, buckets, and soaps, plus hot springs of varying temperatures to soak in. I don’t have photos of these, because few people on the internet want to see me naked and almost none are invited to, but I can show you this recipe for onsen tamago. As if not having to run your own bath wasn’t efficient enough without adding the ability to cook eggs at the same time!
It’s a simple recipe, as was tactfully pointed out to us by a local street food vendor in Nozawa Onsen when we asked his advice. After a polite period of musing, he said, “You want to try the local dish, onsen eggs? Well, um, there’s a convenience store across the road. They sell eggs. Do you know where to find an onsen?”
You’re supposed to use rope bags, but we didn’t have any to hand, so we went with plastic. The cooking time is twenty to forty minutes and they say the water should be seventy degrees celcuis, but we just used the hottest we could find (I think around fifty). Twenty minutes was as long as was comfortable between the incredibly hot spring water and the chilly air temperature:
– which was enough time to achieve this:
I’ve got a lot more to tell you about Japan, including our wild mountain goose chase through snow so deep it was higher than our mini van on both sides and still falling, and that time we put on a group performance of Dumb Ways To Die at the train station in Nagano, but first I need to catch up with what everyone else has been doing for the past couple of weeks and maybe, you know, run my own bath. Forgive me if my comments are filled with the deep regret of luxuries recently remembered and now lost. That bath was self-filling, you know, and it had a cover which could hold wine.
Related:
- Read up on your Japanese public bath etiquette.
- Specific information on the public baths at Nozawa Onsen, including local customs.
- Japan-guide.com tells you more about modern Japanese bathrooms.
- Elle of Life In Japan With Toddlers shows us through her house, including her bathroom, toilet and laundry.
This post appeared first on Journeys of the Fabulist, and didn’t contain any naked communal bathing photos at any point.
they love to cook eggs in spring water. Such as Hakone the spring water there is full of sulphur and it makes the eggs go black on the outside (although they taste exactly the same). They believe that this makes them better for you though I’m not really sure how. Lived two years in Japan and now back in Australia. The baths are really good but overall I found the bathrooms just too small! But then in Singapore you might have smaller bathrooms there…. great post!
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One day I’m going to get time to sit down and see if anything’s behind that sulphur thing.
Probably not fair to compare the bathrooms to Australian bathrooms. 🙂 I actually think ours are too big and Japan’s are the right size, but then I really, really hate housework.
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All i know is that I really missed having a bathroom sink for shaving and brushing teeth!
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Yes! Gosh, yours sounds smaller than the ones we saw. A sink is definitely a useful thing! I would probably want to go a bit bigger than that, it’s true.
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Oh this makes me miss Japan! I spent four and a half years there, and it is such a fabulous, enchanting country! I wish I could have brought the bathroom back and have an onsen somewhere in the US. The line about Singaporean style eggs is awesome too – did you ever go to Toastbox and have coffee, eggs and Kaya toast? So good!
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I have toast box vouchers in my purse at all times 🙂 .
Although truthfully, I’m more of a Ya Kun girl – or the coffee shop around the corner! The thicker toast box bread slices aren’t my favourite.
Tea and kaya toast is so good…
Four and a half years in Japan sounds wonderful. Definitely the type of place where you could spend a lifetime peeling back the layers.
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So, that’s what Onsen Eggs are! A restaurant near me tops their plate of Japanese Pasta with an onsen egg (out of the shell) but I couldn’t figure out why it was named after a bath. I thought maybe they just ate them there.
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Yes, that’s what they are! They had them on pizza in Nozawa Onsen.
I presume if you don’t have a natural onsen you just use water at the appropriate temperature?
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We struggled with bath tubs in several places as well. But I chickened out of the Onsen experience.
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On our first night it was a choice between an ice cold bath and a hot onsen, so that got us started in a hurry! But most of the time we found ourselves alone anyway.
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Loved this post 🙂 Great to learn new things about other cultures. The bath looks great. I don’t thing I have had many baths since the kids were born 😦 I am happy if I get in a quick shower once a day 😦 Cannot wait to read more about Japan.
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Well, this would be a real luxury for you! I’m quite stunned that the whole technique hasn’t spread more globally. Clearly, we are all mad, except the Japanese.
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I love that bath!! I really want to go to Japan now…just to stick my eggs in the water and get perfect googy eggs and eat them with toast soldiers! So practical, glad you had a fab trip and I’m looking forward to reading more
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Your eggs are pretty good already, judging by your blog! The toast soldiers could be trickier to come by…
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Really no toast?
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Bread, yes. And you can buy toasted sandwiches at cafes so I’m sure someone has a toaster, but there wasn’t one in the onsen 😉 .
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Oh, I know when I needed a good laugh, I just click to your site! I love that tamago! It’s perfectly done! 50degC? Ok, I am not sure how to try that though. I stayed in a home stay experience in my Uni days. The bath was set at 40degC for sure. It was really hot to the touch but was comfortable to the extent of why people fall asleep in baths. I love how the Japanese cleverly utilizes space. Their bathroom is really cleverly packed here and there. I should have taken a photo of that too, now your photo reminded me. I remember their sauces, oil, cooking essentials are beneath the floor boards. Their home organization must be the best in the world. Just look at what Daiso sells. I am looking forward to more of your Japan posts! 🙂
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The floorboards! We didn’t even think to check there 🙂 . (I don’t think it was the case in this house, but I love the idea.)
A home stay would have been an excellent experience – having your own guide on hand to take you through everything.
I’ve been trying to see how they do the coffee shop eggs since we got back, but always too busy settling kids in to peek. They do them in water, right? Or is that just keeping them hot??
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Boil the water then off fire. Put the eggs in. Cover the lid. Wait for 5-10 min depending on the size of your eggs. If eggs are small, and if you love soft boiled ones, 5 min should do it. If eggs are big, you may have to wait 10 min. This is provided eggs were in room temp and not from the fridge. You probably have to trial and error. I know of one 1.99 gadget sold in Giant that require you to cracked the egg in and microwave for 1 min. Heard that it produce nice soft boiled eggs. Haven’t tried that though. Sounds easy.
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Oh wow – a whole recipe! So a bit different from the onsen ones in that the water starts hotter (and the cooking takes less time). I hear if you do the onsen ones at the correct temperature/time the yolk ends up a lot firmer than the Singapore coffee shop ones, too.
Now I’m wondering how I can simulate 70 degree bath for forty minutes to do it properly. Or would I be out of luck without the spring water minerals? Just have to go back to Japan I suppose, maybe in the summer this time :P. Meanwhile, some practice at home on the local style!
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So the only thing that bathroom was lacking was a wine cooler? Sad european invention…and soon remedied!! Yay! the PERFECT bath? On which note..how many times do you actually have a bath versus a shower now that you have children?? Just saying…sad eh.. xxxxx
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My head just imploded slightly when you said wine cooler just then. So obvious. So brilliant.
As for the other question, I’ve never been that big on baths. I’ve probably had more since the kids but only because I was in with them getting them bathed so I’m pretty sure that doesn’t count. Of the *real bath* type, no. Not so many. Eh.
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Well, that’s something I never thought I’d learn – how to cook eggs and bathe at the same time. The bathroom reminds me of those I saw in South Korea, though they only had showers.. no techno tubs. Reason #927 to visit Japan noted!
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You can run me through the other 926 at some point and we’ll compare lists 🙂 .
Not surprised there’s some cultural overlap between South Korea and Japan. It’s funny what gets transferred where sometimes, though.
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I feel like there’d be so many ways for me to mess up in Japan. Things that seem like they’d be intuitive often aren’t to me. I’d still be figuring out the bathtub.
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I’m pretty sure we messed up in at least several of those ways. Happily people are pretty understanding. I had a cheat sheet for the bathtub provided by our hosts, so, goes to show 🙂 . (And I still couldn’t work out how to adjust the temperature so, also goes to show…)
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I never realized how badly I could suffer from bath envy. Convenience as an art form.
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An art form. Exactly.
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Onsen eggs! How convenient and ingenious! I miss the automated and heated toilet seats in Japan. I always thought it was a joke until I actually sat on one of the heated toilets which would magically lift the cover when I enter the cubicle… ah.
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Heated toilet seats are pretty special in the winter. There was a sign at one roadside convenience apologising that in their energy-saving drive they’d reduced the heat to comfortable, rather than toasty. It was still so much better than freezing.
And magically-lifting seats are, well, magic 🙂 .
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Aww, trust the Japanese to be so polite 🙂
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A bath that runs itself and a place for your wine…. what more could you ask for. I want one!
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Well, according to mumsumsum they are internationally available! Complete with Japanese accent for the little announcements!
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Don’t hate me, but we have one of those bath running devices in our home in Aus. It was declared essential after we overfilled the bath several times over in our previous home and caused some damage. So a lady with a Japanese accent announces from the wall ‘the hot water system is ready, please open the hot water tap.’ We do and she fills it to just the right point at just the right temperature then the wall beeps loudly. Bath time! It’s awesome.
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Ooh, I’m a little jealous. But I don’t hate you 🙂 . Especially considering the backstory! I didn’t even know you could get them in Australia.
Can you also get ultra-deep baths? We looked when we renovated a few years ago but the deepest we could find didn’t really compare to what we saw in Japan. The thing is they’re *short* and deep – deep was always combined with long where we looked and we didn’t have room for that (also, why do you need deep when you already have long?)
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All I can add is that our trip to Japan was eggs-actly what I hoped for. Even eggs-celent!
However, I’m amazed at all this ‘bath talk’. Personally I found the toilets so much more interesting. Why don’t you tell everyone Bronwyn about all those options!
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I think I was craving a relaxing bath more than a jet of water to the backside when I wrote this. Actually, that’s still true. Also wine. (I’m ignoring the terrible puns.)
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Marvellous! You stiffen and people part to allow you to leave the train?! Great egg and bath concept too. (And glad to note that my daughter isn’t the only child hooked on Dumb Ways to Die)
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P spread the word on Dumb Ways To Die to several people just this afternoon. Fifteen minutes ago he literally walked up to a stranger on the street and asked if they knew the song. They didn’t! So he brought them fully up to date. *Fully* up to date.
The stiffening thing is totally real, and very very awesome.
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It’s like a whole country of people who respond to social cues like I do. Amazing! If only it were on the short list of where we might move…
As for Dumb Ways To Die, it has created many “teachable moments,” for example, we discussed stranger danger, electricity, hunting season, and dangerous South American river fish.
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The dangerous South American River Fish is particularly pertinent for us. Although unfortunately Octonauts has spread rumours that they’re wrongly maligned, so that’s a conflict. Everyone is in agreement on the subject of electrocution, thank goodness.
Still narrowing that shortlist, I guess? Pity here’s not one of the options. That would be a laugh.
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I can’t believe that you were able to find a place with a bath! I am slightly worried that I will be in a constant state of claustrophobia while staying in Tokyo. I love the multitasking aspect of bathing there, drinking wine while boiling eggs while washing… Such efficiency!
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It really didn’t feel claustrophobic. All that courtesy, efficiency and good design. Although I’ll admit the apartment was a bit more than what we’re used to – the advantages of travelling in a group of seven!
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Oh, I just love this post! Self-running baths, wine – what’s not to like?!
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Apart from the recent absence of either? Nothing. Ok, I did have a wine last night. But not in the bath.
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I had far too much wine last night. Oh well 😉
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In the bath? Because if not you should absolutely have a do-over of the event.
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There are so many amazing new things to absorb in this post but the one I’ll be thinking about for days has got to be bathing and cooking at the same time, in the same place. Why has this never occurred to me before? The Japanese are genius.
In France, it’s common-ish to have the washing machine in the bathroom (it’s more sanitary than in the kitchen at least) but my new idea is to have it in the closet so that you can wash, dry and put away your clothes in the same space. On this line of thinking, perhaps a chicken coop next to the tub would be a good idea…
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Not bad, a chicken coop next to the tub! It works in terms of sanitation, too, if you have a fully-hoseable bathroom. Also, probably less chance of them getting eaten by wild dogs, unless your bathroom is very different from mine.
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Oh my, how very productive, life over there is. I would like that bath now. Where is my robot? Who must I summon? Thanks but I will pour my own wine…never can be sure…
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Probably good thinking on the wine. A few more robots for other purposes wouldn’t go astray though 🙂 .
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You had me at wine and bath…egg and wine combo am not so sure about though…they need to come up with a system of cheese and then we are talking.. Welcome back – a colleague is going to Japan next month with her daughter – have referred her to your blog 🙂
Look forward to the next chapter..
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There should be a way to make cheese. I say this though I know nothing about cheese-making, but yoghurt requires a bit of heat to get things fermenting, so extrapolating… Hang on a minute:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Cheese-at-Home
That’s a pretty hot bath – you have to get the milk actually boiling. I wonder if you can do a similar thing as with the eggs, using a slow and gentle cooking method as an alternative? I assume we’re having steamed buns instead of bread and crackers with this, too.
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Steam buns it is… better than egg me thinks…:)
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Japan is definitely a strange and wonderful place! Unfortunately, I did not come across any of those baths, but all the buttons on the toilets never failed to freak me out. It still makes me chuckle to think about actually. I don’t really get why it’s so horrible to hear someone peeing lol
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Oh yes, the toilet buttons! And one of the first things P complained about when we got home was the lack of a warmed toilet seat. (Hey! This toilet seat isn’t warmed!)
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There is nothing more to add. Purely Brilliant.
Hope you had a good trip and everything went well (and that you did manage to get a bit outside too, didn’t just enjoy the bath, wine and the egg cooking the whole time, no matter how brilliant the combination of those were).
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Yes, we managed to get outside, although it was tempting to lie around soaking in the water at times! We had some pretty good weather, if cold, so that made it easy.
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Bronwyn this is fantastic multi tasking. Drinking wine, bathing and cooking eggs all in one go. Can you throw the clothese in the washer from the bathtub or did you have to actually get out? Such hardship.
Glad to know our business planning strategy for the bearded woman tour helped ease you back to reality!
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I was able to throw them in as part of the undressing procedure before entering the bathroom. Brilliant stuff. Seriously. And that’s before you get to the wine.
I’m still thinking about how to improve your beard-growing abilities.
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You crack me up Bronwyn …get the pun? Eggs…cracking 🙂 Haha at least we think we are funny.
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We *are* funny. Hilarious. We will keep telling each other that against all available outside evidence.
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Excellent! Our own little support group 🙂
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Support group. Echo chamber. I see no distinction 🙂 .
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🙂
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