McGyver would be proud.

Our head writer Go Hatori was hard at work in our ultra-fixer-upper SoraHouse when he heard an excited voice from outside shout: “Mr. Hatori, come here! I want to see you!”

It was our founder Yoshio, who’s so well-versed in hare-brained schemes he could teach a university course on the subject. When Go found him, he was sitting with his feet in a storage container that was somehow connected to a campfire by hoses.

▼ Yoshio: “I did it! I invented the footbath!”

Go took a closer look and saw Yoshio’s feet soaking in some water that was pouring out of a hose. When stuck his hand into the water, it felt comfortably warm.

When Go asked Yoshio about it, he said, “Okay, actually I didn’t invent the footbath. Someone else already did that, but I did come up with this neat DIY version. Let me show you how it works!”

▼ Yoshio: “First, I got a plastic container and some flexible steel pipes from a home center.”

▼ Yoshio: “Next, I got a bathtub pump and plugged it into a portable battery.” [These pumps are common in Japanese homes to reuse bath water in washing machines.]

▼ Yoshio: “Then, it’s just a matter of connecting the pump hoses and steel pipes, curling up the pipes, and placing them in a campfire.”

▼ Yoshio: “The water travels around in circles through the fire and heats up before returning to the container.”

Go had to admit. It was a pretty clever setup… far more clever than he’s used to seeing from Yoshio who once bought one million yen worth of scratch-and-win lottery tickets.

It looked so good that Go wasted no time whipping off his protective gear to try it out himself.

It felt even better than he expected! The water was hot but not too hot, and the circulation system kept it feeling fresh. Go asked Yoshio how he came up with this idea.

▼ Yoshio: “Okay, it actually wasn’t my idea. I came across it online. If you google it there are a whole bunch of instructional videos and even Muji has a lot of information about it.”

The execution was done so well, Go wasn’t about to hold Yoshio’s lack of originality against him.

It felt so good, Go couldn’t resist splashing some of the water onto his face.

In hindsight, that was a terrible idea since this was just recycled water and essentially a broth of Yoshio and Go’s essential foot oils. But even despite that, it was still really nice.

▼ Yoshio: “Okay, actually, my original plan was to make a whole open-air bath this way, but water keeps leaking out from the connections causing the water level in the container to go down quickly. Since the water level in the container couldn’t be maintained without having to dump more in every few minutes, it wasn’t feasible as a relaxing bath. But as a foot bath, it works just fine.”

And with the lessons learned from this experiment, Yoshio is confident he can make his open-air bath in the future. He’s already ordered a longer steel pipe online to avoid leakage, so stay tuned for future SoraHouse updates to see how it goes.

Photos © SoraNews24
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[ Read in Japanese ]