My Shower on Fire?

Yesterday my shower....started on fire...I think ( I have a picture on my Sep 2, 2008 blog). I say I think because smoke was everywhere and I could hear the fizzle of burning. I opened the window and got out of there. I have always been afraid of my Japanese shower; which is understandable considering my naked body is in a watery enclosed room containing gas and fire, and a strange unintelligible machine that I can't see under. That's no secret. The shower is a dinosaur (monstrous, big, scary) contraption that goes a little something like this:

1. Turn the gas knob at the base
2. Hold a dial down and wind a separate handle three times
3. Hold the dial for 15 seconds
4. Turn the knob to 2 (out of 3)
5. Then turn another lever THEN hot water will come for a shower.

Somehow this finicky machine the size of a labrador dog, standing in water, lights itself on fire with gas and heats my water. I don't get it ... nor do I want to because it's obsolete; I just don't want to die. So, when someone came from my town office today to investigate my smoke claim, OF COURSE it started up like it always does without the smoke. This led to the conclusion that maybe something was in the fire ... like a bug or worse. SICK! I will leave the details to your imagination. It makes me shudder. That's why I shower fast and just can't take a bath in there. I keep imagining a big hairy [insert scary image here] crawling out from under the contraption, or the machine electrocuting me or the gas exploding or a pigeon coming in the window or .....