European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 24, 1978, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Mountain did not prevent its huge forests from being Cut Down by promoters of one sort or another. The Golf ranges Are thriving enterprises making enough Money for one club manager to have been charged with embezzling the equivalent of $5.5 million. Conservationists believe the expansive greens have upset drainage patterns causing Cave ins and landslides in the area. Shizuoka prefecture late in exploiting the tourist attraction of mount Fuji has Given the go ahead for a private company to develop a year round safari Park to be inhabited by herds of Jungle animals including Lions tigers and other wild game. About the Only aspect of Fuji that is being left virtually untouched is the garbage left by climbers. Yamanashi prefecture has contributed $1,600 a year to a group of volunteers who periodically help clean up. Over a year they bring Down about 165 tons of soft drink cans Sake bottles and other trash a tiny portion of the mostly non biodegradable junk abandoned on the slopes. The Money spent for cleaning up is minor considering that merchants on Fuji s Yamanashi Side alone take in $175 million in Revenue just in july and August at the height of the climbing season. On the Shizuoka Side there is no organized attempt to collect garbage at All. The Central and local governments have withdrawn All assistance because local vendors were unwilling to put up their share. For the first time this year the Central government is spending about $11,000 on a Campaign to urge climbers to take their garbage Home. Thousands of climbers near the Summit of mount Fuji on a sunday morning at Sunrise. Japan s bathing is going Home a by Chikako Yatabe associated press affluence and changing life styles Are l pressing in on another japanese tradition the Public Bath. Many lament the passing of what for generations has been a Centrepiece of social activity and a Symbol of togetherness in the islands. But latest statistics show that in Tokyo alone 248 Public Bath houses have closed since 1968. Although 2,400 remain in the City a number Are hang ing on Only through Side activities such As Coin laundries or just the loyalty of Long time customers. A Root cause has been the rapid growth of modern apartment blocks fitted with private Baths. Reinforced Concrete has put the stamp of anonymity on Many Urban communities and individualism increasingly is taking Over from the old ways of doing things in the group. The Public Bath called Sento or Money Bath in Japa Nese dates Back More than six centuries. In earlier Days men and women used the same facility without the Barrier of modesty false or otherwise. Outside influences and changing times brought an end to that and today mixed bathing is found Only in a few Remote hot Springs resort areas. Now the separate sections for the sexes each provide two huge tubs one containing hot water and the other hotter near scalding. There is space outside the tubs where taps provide water for actual soaping and washing and rinsing off. This is never done in the tub itself. It is Only for soaking and relaxing. Like everything else the Cost of the Public Bath has gone up. Today it costs the equivalent of about 80 cents. Ten years ago it Cost about 8 cents. At one time there also was an extra charge for women for hair washing. That was dropped after men started let Ting their hair grow longer and the women cried discrimination. But there is More to the Public Bath tradition than just a place to become clean. It has been a place where people meet to discuss the happenings of the Day gossip about neighbors while scrubbing one an other s Back and share the feeling of being together that has been important to the japanese. The density of population in Japan s major Urban sunday september 24, 1978 areas 47 million people or almost 42 percent of the total in the country live within a 30-mile radius of Tokyo Osaka arid Nagoya has helped keep the Public Bath in  Japan s Economy has boomed housing has lagged. Millions still live in tiny houses or apartments without individual Baths or sewer connections. In most new housing developments a private Bath is taken for granted and Many japanese aspire to such living As soon As they have the Means. An ambitious five year plan Calls for 8.6 million new housing units by 1980, miniature in size astronomical in Cost but modern. Things have changed completely said one Public Bath House owner who recently was forced to close his business. But those who still use the Public Bath because they have no Choice Are legion and they can be seen regularly on the streets carrying their pans and towels for the Day s  also Are those who do not look lightly on the passing of such institutions. Some have formed Bath clubs to encourage the continuation of what they feel is one of the delights of japanese life. The stars and stripes Page 11