It was a hot summer evening and the building’s air conditioning system automatically shuts off at 7:00 PM. There was still a lot of work to do and the draft for the ad had to be submitted to the agency by morning. We were stuck on the copy. The words just didn’t seem to fit the illustration we had to use and so after an hour or so of wrestling with nonsensical random adjectives, we decided to take a break.

“Senmu (Manager), let’s go to a sauna and relax.  We can stretch out the wrinkles in our brains and maybe we will come up with fresh ideas before the last train.”

“OK, let’s to do that”. We looked up and started out the door. “By the way, where is the nearest sauna?”

“This is an old town so they have a sauna that was converted from a sento dating back to the Edo period!”

“Really, that’s interesting. Does it have anything left to show it’s history?”

“Unfortunately, no. It has been completely rebuilt. It was burnt down during the war.”

“Zannen (too bad). I don’t have any change of clothes, do you think they sell any underwear?”

“Usually, all saunas and sentos, do. It shouldn’t be a problem.”

 As we entered the sauna and passed through the automatic doors, the clerk greeted us.

“Irasshiamasse! (Welcome!)”

“Nimei (2 persons) and oh, yes. Do you have any change of clothing here? Maybe some underwear?”

“We do. We only have what is shown in this counter.”

“Red briefs… Don’t you have any other color?”

“They are not red.”

“OK, they look red but they’re not red.”

“No, they are maroon color.”

“Maroon color.”

“Yes, it a nice color. That’s all we have now.”

“Alright. I’ll take your MAROON color briefs.”

We undressed, put our belongings into the clothing locker. There was a rubber bracelet on the key that allowed us to wear it on our wrist while we took a bath, shower, or relaxed in the steambath.

We went to the washing area to wash up before jumping into the large pool like tub of hot water. It was built to resemble a hot spring and a picture of Mount Fuji was painted on the background of the tub.

As I washed my face I felt someone approach and scrub my back. I have heard of “sansuske” but I didn’t know places still employed them. It was a unique experience. I manage to take a peek in the mirror and I saw a muscular man with a completely shaved head in perhaps about his late 50’s. His eyes were fixed on my back and he slowly scrubbed my back, not uttering a word. He appeared rather pale, perhaps this was the only job he had and was indoors most of the time?

When I finished washing my face and hair, the sansuke was gone. However, he had washed my back but had not washed off the soap. Maybe that’s they way they did it? Maybe I didn’t offer to pay so he left his work unfinished?

We hopped into the steam bath and after sweating out about a pound or so, stepped out to have something to drink. Now in Japanese saunas, having a small bottle of milk after a steam bath was almost tradition! Between gulps, I asked my companion,

“Hey, they have sansukes here!”

“What? What do you mean?”

“You know, sansuke. The guy who washes your back.”

“Really? He didn’t come around to me.”

“He didn’t do a good job anyway. He left without rinsing my back off.”

“Oh…”

We paid the services and the MAROON brief and I asked.

“This is a nice place, you even have sansuke”

“No, of course not. We don’t have sansuke here.”

“Really? But someone came and washed my back!”

“No, I think you are mistaken. There is no one here to do that.”

As we left, I felt somewhat confused but I heard the clerk say,