Summer has now come to Yokohama, Japan with temperatures around 35 degrees C. It’s hot and humid. And after living in LA your humble narrator developed the habit of taking a daily swim in The Pool. Now, the good news is that Japan has public pools in most wards of the cities. The bad news is that there are too few of them. Going to the pool here is a truly Japanese experience. Crowded and a bit bureaucratic.

After buying the 100 yen ticket in a machine and had it manually checked I climbed over a mountain of shoes to find myself in the changing room. There were no showers, to my surprise, but I would soon find out how the cleaning of bathers was done. Paying ten yen for a locker and I was set to go outside. The only way to pool area goes through a narrow passage with showerheads, all triggered as I passed my. In an industrial way I was now cleaned for the pool, and if I had been attacked with mustard gas or anthrax I am sure that had been taken care of too.

I got to the pool around noon and it was a bit crowded. That means not so crowded for being Japan. There were no lanes set aside for actual swimming so the whole pool was scattered with kids playing. This made actual swimming a bit difficult. Still it was of course nice to go in the water, but as I sat on the ledge, feet in the water, I was thinking about coming back another day at nine sharp to see if I could do a few laps before all the kids in the neighbourhood arrive.

The deck was so hot the lifeguards splashed it at times with water, one of their many tasks. There was almost at least two of them on duty and it seemed to me that their major job was to keep up the general order and dignity in the pool. There was a long list of rules and when they were broken a lifeguard would blow his whistle or shout in the bullhorn. This happened when a kid would jump into the pool for example, which was not allowed.

I had only paid for an hour, this being my first time, I only really came to check it out. Still there was something I had to see before I left. As had I read in this account there was supposed to be a resting period once every hour. Felt I’d just have to wait to see it for myself. Sure enough, at exactly five minutes to the hour all hell broke lose. First came an announcement over the speaker system, a crispy sound definitely speaking of something important. Right after that all three lifeguards starting shouting their bullhorns and blowing their whistles. If I hadn’t been somewhat prepared for this I would have thought there was a shark in the pool.

Quickly the pool was emptied of people. All the kids sat at the ledge for the five minute brake. This is done once every hour. Apparently to make sure nobody gets exhausted. It was really nice to have five minutes of quiet watching the water. Soon enough whistles blew and the pool was crowded again. After this I had had pretty much enough and got out of there. The remaining end of my ticket was dutifully inspected to see that I hadn’t stayed over my prepaid hour. I am sure they have the same system by the pool as in the subway where you get to pay what you owe as one exits.