365 Inspirations—338: Heat

"Oh, the weather outside is frightful,
but the fire is so delightful...."—Jules Styne and Sammy Cahn

I'm grateful and inspired by heat today. I was in a warm classroom all evening helping students register for next quarter. It was my last day of class. While we were inside eating snacks, drinking and chatting, it was in the mid-20s outside.

It's been clear, so no snow, but everything is frozen solid.

My inner thermometer is sometimes off. When it's cold, I crave heat and warmth. I usually turn the heat up in my car to high and aim the blower directly at my face. Heat in the car is such an amazing invention. I was grateful for it today.

Sometimes, if my hands are cold, I cup them around the heat vents while driving to work.

I wore my big down jacket all day today. It's almost like a sleeping bag. I love it.

Now I'm at home, after a very long day of grading tests and helping students for next quarter. I want nothing more than to sink into a hot bath. I so need it.

I still have more paperwork to do, but my classes are officially done.

Time to sit in a tub of bubbles and then slip into warm flannel pajamas with a hot cup of tea and a good book and drift off into dream world.

To be warm and to have heat is such a blessing. I feel so lucky to have it, especially when it's one BIG popsicle outside.

I'd rather be hot than cold, how about you?

365 Inspirations—30: Hot Baths

Natural Japanese Hot Spring

"There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them."—Sylvia Plath

Yesterday I taught 6 hours at the college and had a split shift, so all I could think about when I came home was sinking into a hot, steamy bubble bath—Calgon take me away!

And that's exactly what I did! I prep my blog posts the night before, so it was a late night for me last night. 

I take baths almost every night in the winter. It's my way of unwinding and relaxing. There's something about the warm water in winter that soothes my soul. I picked up the habit of taking baths when I lived in Japan. 

Most of the Japanese people I knew when I lived there couldn't dream of going to bed without a bath. It's a big part of the Japanese culture. Whenever I'd visit a Japanese friend's house to stay the night, they'd always prepare a bath for me. It was a real ritual. They'd give me a robe and some fruit and tea and then they'd disappear while they prepared my bath. They'd often add bubbles or powder or natural minerals.

Japan is full of onsens (hot springs) and I visited over a dozen of them. At the hot springs, you are given a bathing robe (yukata) and people actually walk around the onsen grounds in a yukata and slippers. When you get to the hot springs area, most people bathe nude and the men's and women's sections are separated. It's quite the experience to go to a hot spring in Japan. 

In Korea, people in the old days used to not have bathing facilities, so many would bathe in a public bath house or "mogyogtang". The Korean style bath house is different from the Japanese experience. The Koreans have what is called a Jimjilbang (sauna). Each sauna room has different healing properties. There's usually a salt room, clay room, charcoal room, jade room, medicinal herb room and even an ice room for cooling off afterwards! There are a couple of Korean Jimjilbangs near Seattle and they are very popular. After going in several sauna rooms, you can also relax in the hot and cold pools which are segregated. My husband and I go a couple times a year and it's FREE on your birthday!

 After living in Asia for so long, baths have become a big part of my life. They go well with all the rain we have this time of year. I like to open my bathroom window a crack and listen to the rain drops while I sit in my steamy bath and drink a nice cup of herbal tea and read a book! It's heaven.

Do you like to take baths? Have you ever been to a natural hot spring or Korean spa?