Reading manga can teach you a lot, be the subject wine ("Kami no Shizuku [Drops of God]"), gourmet food ("Oishinbo") or the arcane world of feudal-era concubines ("Sakuran"). But the Japanese bath? Isn't that a subject Japanese are immersed in almost from Day One? Why would they need to read about it in a manga?
But to Lucius, a fictional bathhouse architect from Rome at its ancient height, Japanese baths are an endless font of wonder, inspiration — and frustration. He is the hero of Mari Yamazaki's hit comic "Thermae Romae" (literal translation: "Roman Baths"), which has sold more than 5 million copies in four paperback editions, as well as spawning a new film directed by Hideki Takeuchi.
The foreigner who is stupendously impressed by things Japanese is a staple figure here in everything from films to tourist videos, one I usually find tiresome. The real learning about Japan, I've found, starts only after the fairy dust falls off. Also, those who natter on dubiously about Japanese "uniqueness" ("Only Japan has four seasons!" "Japanese have longer intestines!") find this figure convenient to their misbegotten arguments.