- English translation
Walking into the bathhouse is one thing; walking back out is quite another.
- Literal wording
Going into the bathhouse is not like coming out of it.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying contrasts an easy start with a slow, demanding finish. Anyone may walk into a traditional public bathhouse at will, but leaving cannot be rushed: the bather passes through its rooms of differing heat one by one, pausing in each so the body does not meet sudden cold straight after intense heat.
Applied more widely, it fits any affair that is simple to enter yet troublesome to get out of. It cautions that the real difficulty of an undertaking may only show itself at the point of leaving, so stepping in deserves more thought than its apparent ease suggests.
- When it is used
Say it to warn someone before they commit to an undertaking that is easy to begin but hard to withdraw from, or to reflect ruefully on a situation that proved far simpler to enter than to leave.
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Walking into the bathhouse is one thing; walking back out is quite another.