Spirited away Lorebook

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1. #1selective

   Keys: Bathhouse, The Bathhouse

   The Bathhouse is owned by the witch Yubaba, who made a promise to hire anyone asking for a position as a worker there.

   Exterior: The Bathhouse, which stands on a half-dried swamp is a very grandiose and opulent structure on the island Yūya in the Spirit Realm. Built in a traditional Japanese bathhouse style, its color scheme encompasses shades of red, green and semi-dark tones of brown. A waterfall is also present at its bridge crossing. Early in the series, it is established that the bathhouse has a set of old, unstable side stairs that lead directly into Kamajī's Boiler Room, bypassing the usual method of arriving by the internal elevators.Aside from the bridge, waterfall, entrance and side stairs, the Bathhouse has multiple side entrances and back doors that can be used to dump water outside without being seen by the customers. Haku took Chihiro through one of these backyard routes and instructs her to enter through the Boiler Room via the side stairs to meet Kamaji.

   Interior: The Bathhouse is a structure with multiple floors. The floors above ground level are numbered in a special manner that incorporates use of the words "天", literally meaning "heaven" and "地", literally meaning "ground". The floors below ground are not given names. It is shown that the Bathhouse does have working, one-way elevators that travel to some of the floors if not all the floors by the pull of a lever. The workers are also assigned to quarters in the bathhouse (most likely separated by male and female divisions). It is accentuated that their living space is extremely cramped and limited compared to Yubaba's office and Boh's room. Workers higher on the job ladder have private quarters.

   Rooms: The Boiler Room: Located below ground and can be accessed by side stairs jutting outside the exterior of The Bathhouse, the Boiler Room is home to Kamajī and countless Susuwatari (soot sprites).. Most of the room is taken up by an imposing furnace. Its walls are lined with drawers containing herbs that Kamajī memorizes in order to send herbal water up to the baths. The rest of the space is largely empty, save for a large wooden structure that acts as Kamajī's bed and workplace as well as the multiple holes in the wall that act as living space for the Susuwatari.

   Ground Floor: The ground floor is seemingly dedicated to kitchens and customer-use baths. Due to their popular and constant use, some of the baths are notorious for being extremely dirty. During Chihiro's stay as a worker, she is assigned (with Lin) to clean the biggest and dirtiest tub on the ground floor, which, according to Lin, was one that hadn't been cleaned in months.

   Second Floor: The second floor is dedicated to traditional Japanese tatami-matted dining rooms for customers. A long hallway with rooms separated by rice paper wooden doors line the second floor. They also seem quite popular with customers.

   Top Floor: The halls and doors leading to Yubaba's office. The top floor has two doors, with the right one having a talking door knocker. The left door is never opened, but the right door is home to Yubaba's office and Boh's room. It is an opulently-built, largely unoccupied space lined with expensive vases accentuated by intricate architecture. Yubaba's office lies on this floor, conjoined with Boh's bedroom. Multiple large wooden doors, which close off at least four other rooms, block the path to Yubaba's office, followed by many, twisting hallways. As shown by Haku, the top floor can also be accessed by a long, spiraling set of stone stairs.

2. #2selective

   Keys: Yubaba

   Yubaba is the proprietor of the Bathhouse and the main antagonist. She is the identical younger twin sister of Zeniba and the mother of Boh. She has a harpy servant called Yu-Bird and back than had her apprentice by the name of Haku(not anymore), and is the employer of maybe hundreds of other bathhouse workers. She has an inhumanly large figure and a large mound of gray hair combed into a bun-like style. Her age is never stated, but Yubaba is very wrinkly, most likely ancient. She has dark brown eyes accentuated with lavender eye shadow as well as a prominent crooked nose drawing attention to a bindi-like mole between her eyebrows. She also wears golden earrings identical to those of her twin sister's. Yubaba has an extremely overbearing and intimidating personality. Like many other workers of her infamous bathhouse, Yubaba obsesses greedily over gold and is shown to be willing to view gold as a priority over her own family (especially Zeniba, whom she expresses hatred for). However, she has, in some instances, shown a great amount of motherly care for her son, Boh. She is quite selfish and frugal (when it comes to her workers), having given herself an opulent office with immeasurable amounts of unoccupied space and her many workers a single, cramped room as living space. From the other side, however, she also readily takes both disgusting and dangerous tasks herself. Her magical capabilities have allowed her to "steal" the names of her workers, binding them in a contract to her bathhouse forever unless they manage to miraculously recall their full names. When she goes out to fly, she wraps herself in a cloak and makes herself look like a large bird.

   Abilities: Yubaba is an extremely powerful witch whose magic could only be matched by that of her older twin sister, Zeniba. Yubaba is formidably skilled in manipulating supernatural energy that enabled her to alter the fabric of reality and defy the laws of nature. In fact, it would seem that she was notorious in the spirit world for her magical aptitude, for Haku (a powerful spirit in his own right) willingly entered her service to learn magic, but luckily he eventually got freed and could leave the spirit realm.

3. #3selective

   Keys: cottage, bathhouse, technology, Spirit Realm, Reikai Gold, Zeniba's Cottage, gold pieces, Law, Currency

   The Spirit Realm is home to the Bathhouse owned by Yubaba and the cottage owned by Zeniba. Unlike the Human World, most of the Spirit Realm's occupants usually go about their activities at night rather than during the day.

   Geography: The Spirit Realm is largely similar and directly linked to the Human World (though individuals from the Human World are rarely seen and scorned upon in the Spirit Realm). It has a substantially less-polluted environment and less-advanced technology. In exchange for their lack of technology, some inhabitants of the Spirit Realm are known to be capable of practicing magic, as well as exhibit various other, inhuman powers. Like the Human World, the Spirit Realm is quite large in size, with most of its revealed locations covered in a vast amount of water. Spirits who wish to travel from one place to another take the one-way Sea Train or a luxurious boat to cross the water. Haku, when he first meets Chihiro Ogino in the Spirit Realm, tells her to get across the river, in order to get back to the clock tower's tunnel to be in the Human World, but the water shows vast size as it appears to be much larger than a simple river, shown when the boat floats all the way from water at the clock tower to the unnamed land close to the restaurants and bathhouse (probably a town or city). The one-way train introduced in the film stops by a total of six known stations before resting.

   Currency: Reikai Gold! The currency of the realm (as shown in various scenes from the film) are small, solid gold pieces. They are considered rare and extremely valuable by Yubaba and most of the Bathhouse Workers. The exact exchange rate between a gold piece and the Japanese Yen is not shown known.

   Zeniba's Cottage (The Sixth Station): It is located in the sixth and last station of the one-way train's route and is surrounded by uncluttered space, several other cottages and undisturbed nature. Whether this location in the realm is more active during the day or night is not mentioned or elaborated on in the film. The location is called Swamp Bottom.

   Law: In the Spirit Realm, rules are hard and fast. They are even more powerful than Spirit Realm Magic. If someone breaks one of the rules, punishment is applied almost instantly. When someone doesn't work, that person either disappears or becomes an animal that is eaten later in the Bathhouse. Another rule is that Yubaba has to employ everyone who asks for a job.

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