What could be more quintessentially Japanese than a book teaching children how to have a bath? もりのおふろ (Mori no Ofuro) is a fun book that does just that, again with fun rhythm and onomatopoeia in the language used.
At a bathtub set in the woods, animals come along one-by-one, and get to scrubbing and soaping up – of course outside the tub. As each animal comes along, it scrubs the back of the animal before it, until there is a circle of creatures around the tub all getting clean. As an adult, you will notice that in the real world, some of the animals might naturally eat the animal in front, but in this book everyone is friends. (I’d still feel a bit uneasy if I was the rabbit having my back scrubbed by a crocodile…) Once clean, they all splosh into the tub for a soak.
My kids once found this book at the reception area of a hot spring hotel in Japan, which entertained them while we checked in. And then they knew what to do once we got to the rotemburo (open-air bath tub)!
Enjoyment rating (max = 5 koi-nobori): (Explanation)
My kids: 🎏🎏🎏🎏
Me: 🎏🎏🎏🎏
Author: 西村 敏雄
Publisher: 福音館書店
🎏