Question
I’ve been living with a Japanese host family in Tokyo for a few months, and one of my small jobs in the evening is to start the bath for everyone. Once the water is hot, I want to call out to the family in the next room so they know they can hop in. How do I say “the bath is ready” in Japanese?
Answer by Professional Japanese Teacher
お風呂沸いたよ。
Ofuro waita yo.
The bath is ready.
This is the casual, everyday phrase you’d call out to family or housemates from the next room. Ofuro means “the bath,” and waita comes from waku, a word usually reserved for water coming to a boil in a kettle. At home, Japanese families use the same word for bathwater — once it has heated up, it’s “waita.” The yo on the end is the friendly nudge that means “just letting you know.”
If your host household is more formal, you can use the polite version:
お風呂が沸きました。
Ofuro ga wakimashita.
The bath is ready.
You’ll hear this exact phrase from the bath unit itself, too — most modern Japanese bathrooms announce it electronically, so it’ll start to sound familiar pretty quickly.