Business: Solid Gold Tub

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But there's a rub

Once upon a time, a savvy Japanese hotelman named Hideki Yokoi came up with the ultimate gimmick. He spent $300,000 for a phoenix-shaped, 22-karat, solid gold bathtub, and installed it 14 years ago in the basement of his Funabara resort hotel about 100 miles south of Tokyo. A bit larger than normal, the tub holds a cramped two, and Yokoi was able to charge honeymooners and Very Good Friends $2.80 apiece for a five-minute soak that he claimed would prolong their lives for at least one year. For $4, a photographer burnished the moments for posterity.

With gold selling these days at roughly $667 per oz., the tub has become a bonanza. It is now worth $2.5 million, and the number of customers has jumped 50% since gold prices surged in mid-1979. About half the 100,000 guests who go to the hotel every year take the plunge. Today they are each soaked for $20, and the photographs—in color—are $8 a shot.

Hideki Yokoi's good fortune is not unalloyed: he worries about protecting his treasure. Now he requires that his male receptionist inspect the bathers before they undress to see if they are carrying hammers, gimlets or any other sharp instruments. Scrapes and scratches have appeared mysteriously on the tub, and Yokoi fears that his guests might be trying to recoup their costs under their fingernails.