Jan 13 (rocketnews24.com) - In the modern era, almost all Japanese homes have private bath/shower facilities. However, in some neighborhoods you can still find public baths.
Not to be confused with natural hot springs (around which resort towns are often built), public baths are a dying industry, but remaining examples stay in business thanks to customers who like the retro atmosphere of a trip to a bathhouse, or who simply want more spacious or luxurious tubs than they have at home, as fancier bathhouses have various types of baths, some with massaging air jets or pleasing aromas. A lot of their clientele consists of older local residents, and so there was nothing out of the ordinary when an unnamed 50-year-old customer, described as heavyset, paid the admission fee and entered a public bath in Sapporo's Chuo Ward at about 9 o'clock on the night of January 10.
The customer, who was wearing a black bob-cut wig and feminine cosmetics, went into the women's bathing area. At some point, another customer entered the women's bath, but noticed the 50-year-old was conspicuously hiding the lower half of the body. Finding this behavior unusual, the second customer informed the staff, and the investigating employee discovered that the 50-year-old customer was physically male.
The police were summoned, and placed the 50-year-old under arrest for trespassing. When confronted, the 50-year-old said, in a falsetto voice, "I am a woman."
