Taking a bath in Japan is a not a strictly private affair. Nevertheless, the rituals of undressing, cleaning, and relaxing are carefully orchestrated and clearly separated from other extraneous activities. The conventions of who can enter the room are as similarly well-regulated as the behavior of the user. This makes any disturbance, departure from, or violation of these well-settled rituals all the more dramatic, be it the private noise of the neighbors in multifamily housing or, in the most extreme case, the sudden intrusion of a murderer into the bathroom—transgressions that throw the vulnerability of the bather and the violence of the intruder into all the sharper relief.