
No, not the Hollywood movie, the Japanese manga. The curious premise of "Thermae Romae" by Mari Yamazaki is that a civil engineer called Lucius, living in the Rome of Emperor Hadrian around 130 A.D. is pondering the construction of a new bathhouse. While taking the waters himself, he spots a hole in the bath which turns out to be a portal to modern day Japan. specifically an onsen. Lucius looks at aspects of Japanese bathing culture and takes some aspects back to Rome. The manga was recently awarded a prize by bookstore owners and the stories have been collected in a separate volume.




