When Roman architect Lucius is criticized for his "outdated" thermae designs, he retreats to the local bath to collect his thoughts. All Lucius wants is to recapture the Rome of earlier days, when one could enjoy a relaxing bath without the pressure of merchants and roughhousing patrons. Slipping deeper into the warm water, Lucius is suddenly caught in the suction and dragged through the drainage at the bottom of the bath! He emerges coughing and sputtering amid a group of strange-looking foreig...
Amazing
This book is hilarious. The premise of an ancient Roman bathhouse builder coming to modern Japan is brilliant, and the author uses it to its full potential. At the time of writing, this book is rated as Level 35 (the same as Nausicaa) and I believe that's quite a bit too high. There are long Katakana Roman names and various Japanese accents in the modern onsen segments, but overwise it's not too complicated, imo.
As a sidenote, the recent Netflix show is a good adaptation (except episode 1,