2025-8-30. 197. A huge bathhouse. > Bonds Gallery

- Since we've come this far, let's stop by there,
Mom says.
It seems she's determined to show us.

Outside is a field, but there's not much grass.
Here are some apartment-sized boulders.
The edges of the rocks have curved, perhaps due to the passage of time.
The ground is covered with pebbles, but the soil is firm.

Dad and I follow Mom.
Dad doesn't say much.

Mom heads to a place where there are giant square rocks attached to each other—or rather, larger rocks that were originally divided into squares.
That's a doorway to a place.

It looks like it's over 20 meters wide and long. Four rocks, each about 10 meters long, are stacked in a square shape.
It protrudes from the ground.

Opening it leads inside.
Mom slowly turns it and opens it. How do I open it?

It seems like there's some kind of mechanism inside.
The door opens slowly.
I watch in amazement as Mom effortlessly opens the large rock door. I wonder if there's some mechanism or structure behind it.

..

Wow... this is a huge space.
There's no roof. It's just open to the sky.

It's a huge space, sunken 50 meters below the ground,
with rocks the size of apartment buildings scattered throughout.
Water flows down below.

Over 100 people can bathe here.
In every single rocky spot.
I don't know how they calculated it,
but they've carefully designed the bathtub so that everyone can bathe naked without being seen.

Water flows slightly down the side of the rock.
It seems they turned off the water today instead of turning it on completely.

It's nature. Water flows between the large rocks created by nature. Perhaps a heavy flood or rain had occurred in the past, and this depression in the ground was turned into a bathhouse.

The width is too wide to be captured at a glance.
It looks like some kind of national park.
It's like a famous American national park.
It seems to be famous for the large rocks in the valley.

"Over there, that place needs to be cleaned at least once every three days." Mom says to Dad. "Why would I do that?" As I think about it,
"That's because the hair that falls out when people bathe gathers there." Mom quickly answers.

Ah, this is Mom's bathhouse.
It's Mom's asset. It's Mom's legacy. Mom owns it.

This is how you bathe inside.
Mom goes into the water and bathes.

She looks significantly taller than she usually does.
And a little thinner. But she looks even more beautiful naked.
Ah... This is Mom's bathhouse.

I feel a little elated for no reason.

..

It's a cave entrance in the rock.
It's a bend where people pass.
A pink object is moving back and forth.

-Is this a scam?
-Shouldn't we call the police?

A group of large men, who had been pacing back and forth in front of an orange emergency light, speaks.
They're on a mission to guard this place for two minutes.
Somehow, they've reached their two minutes.
But one of the people who came with them has already left.
I'm angry to hear they have to call the police.

I seem to be managing this large bathhouse here.
I seem to be temporarily guarding something that belongs to my mother.
This is my mother's.

I seem to be giving these outsiders a small mission and just watching over them.

The two large men head out, looking disappointed. I follow them.

They go out the door.
It's a rock door.

It's a door carved into a very thick, large rock. The door looks a little narrow, barely wide enough for one person to pass through.

Two large men leave.
I follow them.
"Take this," he says, and hands them a neatly folded set of clothes.
"Oh. And one more. It's from the man who came earlier."

Oh... They seemed to have a special item.
I unfold one of my folded clothes.
Then, even though this is high ground, I slowly walk down to a lower level.

The clothes are covered in flour.
They're new. They've been dusted with flour for maintenance.
It's a baseball T-shirt with a logo on a white background.

I touch and feel a little better about the better-quality baseball T-shirt than I expected. I'm walking down the hill.

"This... I dissolved some dye in it," a boy says.
"It's my daughter's top.
It was originally a white baseball shirt,
but I dyed it purple." I touch it with my hand.
It's as good as new, dyed perfectly.
I can see the vertical ironing pattern.

The finish is also well done.
For an elementary school student, this is surprisingly well done.

My daughter in front of me quickly runs away.
I chase after her.
She's playing a prank.

I chase after her with the boys in her class.