Chapter 1710 Steam First Then Freeze

In Russia, a sauna is called a 'banya'.

Sauna is definitely the favorite form of entertainment for people here. After all, Russian bath, Finnish bath, Turkish bath and Japanese bath are the four famous baths in the world. Although they are all bathhouses, there are still differences between them.

The Turkish bath originated from ancient Rome.

The ancient Romans were particularly fond of bathhouses, where they socialized and engaged in various activities. After the Turks seized Constantinople from the Eastern Roman Empire, they combined the Eastern Roman bathhouses with Islamic ablutions to create a new bathing method, the Hammam. A hallmark of these bathhouses is the various essential oil massages they offer.

The Finnish sauna is basically the ancestor of the modern sauna.

Their specialty is a dry sauna, where stone slabs are heated by a fire and then placed in a room to induce sweating, rather than the steam-heated sauna we're used to. While this type of bathing feels refreshing due to the high temperature, the dry air can be uncomfortable for those who aren't used to it, so it's not for everyone.

As for the Japanese bath, it is a bit special:

The formal Japanese word is "medicated bath", which means throwing dozens of different herbs into the bathing pool. If you have watched the cartoon "Spirited Away", you should know about Japanese baths. There are people who are responsible for burning the boiler, delivering herbs, scrubbing the body, and so on.

But now many baths similar to 'Turkish baths' are also called 'Japanese baths' there, which are actually very different from real 'medicinal baths'.

There are historical reasons for this situation.

In the 1960s and 1970s, "Turkish baths" were ubiquitous on the streets of Japan. Despite the name, these establishments had little to do with Turkish baths. They were essentially bathhouses offering erotic services disguised as "Turkish baths," with countless prostitutes soliciting customers. This was a "secret that wasn't a secret" in Japan at the time.

This situation did not change until 1981 when a young Turkish man named Sanno Curry went to study in Japan.

Sonno Curry went to Japan to study and found that there were Turkish baths everywhere. He was so excited and thought he had found the feeling of his hometown. But when he went in, he found that it was a brothel under the guise of sheep. Sonno Curry was furious at the time and spent three years collecting evidence.

During these three years, he desperately frequented various Japanese saunas and sacrificed his health to collect evidence. Finally one day - perhaps he had collected enough evidence or perhaps his body could not bear it anymore, he protested to the Japanese government: How can you use the name of our country as the name of J Hospital?

Japan probably felt that it was a bit embarrassing to spread this matter, so it ordered those "Turkish baths" to change their names to "Japanese baths", which led to the various types of so-called "Japanese baths" today.

However, this incident probably made the Japanese feel embarrassed, so they were also looking for opportunities to make others change their names - and they actually found one a few years ago.

At that time, socialite Kardashian founded an underwear brand called "Kimono Friend". When the Japanese found out, they were very emotional and started to protest, insisting that the brand be changed. Their reason was that "Kimono has great symbolic significance to Japan, and using it as an underwear brand is an insult to Japan", etc.

Tsk tsk, most tourists who have traveled to Hokkaido have eaten a famous dish there called "Genghis Khan BBQ". Can you please consider changing the name first?

They are all shameless people!

Among the four famous baths, the Russian bath is also a "wet sauna", but it is completely different from the Turkish bath which is also a "wet sauna".

When Xiao Peng first came to this bathing center, he was a little confused. A large group of people, both men and women, came in together. When he heard them talking, Xiao Peng was a little confused: it turned out that all of them were from the same family: three children, their grandparents, parents, seven people came to take a bath together.

Xiao Peng had never seen this kind of group bathing before! You know... this is also a mixed bath for men and women!

Well, in fact, Xiao Peng was overthinking it. Many of the men and women bathing here were wearing swimsuits - of course there were also some who liked to be naked, but they also wrapped their bodies with bath towels.

For Russians, taking a bath in the bathhouse is not just for the sake of taking a bath, it is more like a tradition. They believe that taking a bath can cure all diseases. When they feel uncomfortable after sleeping, the first thing they think of is to take a bath in the bathhouse.

A line from the 1975 Soviet classic "A Irony of Fate" (which could be interpreted as an inspiration for the Hollywood comedy "The Hangover") perfectly captures this problem: "Having a bathroom at home is nice, convenient, and civilized, but in the bathroom you just wash off the dirt. The good old sacred Russian tradition of bathing is lost in the family bathroom."

This bathhouse is quite interesting. The first thing you see upon entering is the lounge, where men and women in yukatas chat. Through the lounge is the changing room. After changing here, you first take a shower, then soak in the pool—note, it's a cold pool! After all this, you go to the sauna room for a steaming session, then soak in the cold pool again, and then steam again, and soak again.

This is the hallmark of a Russian bath—a world of ice and fire! It's hot, then cold, and there's a certain masochistic streak: Here, birch branches, steamed to soften, are used to pump the body, supposedly to loosen up the muscles and stimulate blood circulation. Anyway, the result is a terrifying red streak.

Originally, Xiao Peng thought that soaking in the cold water pool after steaming was exciting enough, but Kaxin took him out through a door - that was the backyard of the sauna. There was a pool here, and the ice on it had been knocked off. Kaxin dragged Xiao Peng and jumped directly into the icy water.

The moment Xiao Peng entered the icy water, he truly thought he had seen God! In his eyes, this was definitely not a stimulus that a human could accept! It stimulated him to the point of shouting and screaming.

When he called out like that, the people around him laughed happily. Someone even kindly handed Xiao Peng a glass of vodka and asked him to take a sip to warm himself up.

Xiao Peng was just about to thank him for his thoughtfulness when the man pointed to a room next door. Xiao Peng tilted his head and took a look, and his nose almost got crooked with anger: a little Russian boy, who was no more than four or five years old, was rolling around naked in the snow!

Are you guys making fun of me because I'm not even as good as a naked kid?

He was about to retort when he saw an old lady who was at least seventy or eighty years old and wearing a one-piece swimsuit walk out of the bathroom. She grabbed a few handfuls of snow from the ground, rubbed them on her body, and then dived directly into the ice water pool with a standard diving action.

Now Xiao Peng was completely convinced.

You win! You are invincible!