Yuzu Bath 2025

Aside from the solstice being cold and dark, particularly after an unseasonably muggy December 21st here in Kanto/Chiba, did anyone else mark the occasion with a yuzu bath? 

 I read a couple of good posts explaining the tradition (e.g. this one from BigFamJapan - https://www.city-cost.com/blogs/BigfamJapan/zaY6o-living_saitama) and I recommend checking those out if you’re interested in the ideas behind it.

Rather than attempt to explain again myself, this is how our personal experience of the event unfolded this year. It’s one of the few traditions my husband is actually into, at least enough to remember it’s a thing to do at the winter solstice, but this year it was my daughter who took the initiative to prepare for it. Well, sort of. While she was out frolicking with her friends a week or so ago, she came across an elderly lady selling bags of small yuzu fruits for 100 yen and took it upon herself to buy some. We have a very large “mikan” tree that grows plenty of very sour fruits that we don’t otherwise have much use for that normally suffice for the “yuzu” bath, but not this year. Last night, she very excitedly unleashed her bag of yuzu into the bath to mark the occasion.

The bath was pleasant enough, but not really all that different to any other hot bath in the winter months, if you leave the bobbing fruits aspect of it aside. However, I left the yuzu in the bathroom overnight, though, and it smelled very refreshing and citrusy when morning came round! I definitely recommend doing this (or simply… not doing anything) for the scent alone.

It’s been a busy autumn and I’ve definitely been feeling the reduced daylight hours, as much as I might (will) complain when it gets light overly early in just a couple of months. For now, though, fingers crossed for a healthy winter!