Sento moments

Neck deep in the hot tub I contemplate people. A man washing himself slowly puts on soap with a sound like his skin is on fire, a light hiss for every movement. An old man shaves with great care and then puts his stool back against the wall with equal reverence. A father teaches his son how to scrub, demonstrating each action with gestures larger than usual. Another father and son enter quietly, ten and forty, perhaps, and bathe next to each other barely speaking at all. A well-tattooed man in his thirties winces at the medium tub, tips into it gingerly. Later he is in the cool tub calmly relaxing. For each of us, I think, some things are difficult. In the opposite corner of the bath house an older man sits neck deep in the tea tub, 42 degrees C, letting the scented water pull sweat out of his brow. He too winces, but does not move. In the last year the sento has become a place of peace, an odd space for thinking time for this boy from upstate New York. On off nights, when 5’s is in…