Most of this range comes down to one choice: gauze or pile. They are different structures and they behave differently. Neither is the better one.
Pile
Pile is the towel you already own. Loops of yarn stand up off a woven base, and those loops are what hold water — a pile fabric is defined by that raised loop surface. More loops, and longer ones, mean more water held — and more weight when the towel is wet.
It is what you want when there is a lot of water to get off at once.
Gauze
Gauze has no loops. It is a thin, open plain weave — the structure shared with muslin — so there is less cloth and more air. Less cloth holds less water, so it dries faster — on you and on the line — and folds down smaller.
That suits a humid summer, a bag, or a bathroom where a towel has to be dry again by the next morning.
Both at once
Several of our ranges weave gauze on one face and pile on the other. The pile side absorbs, the gauze side lets the cloth dry through. Our Marshmallow Gauze & Pile range is the reversible one.
Waffle
Waffle is a third structure — a grid of raised squares in the weave itself rather than loops on top of it. It sits between the two in thickness, which is why it turns up in robes.
Zero-twist
Yarn is normally twisted to make it strong. Zero-twist yarn is left untwisted, so the cotton stays lofted rather than closed up.
Our Super Marshmallow range is woven from it. UCHINO measures the result taking up water in about a second, against a standard cotton towel — that figure is UCHINO's own measurement, not an independent test.
Choosing
Pile if you want the familiar thick towel and have somewhere for it to dry. Gauze if the bathroom is small, the air is humid, or it is going in a bag. The gauze-and-pile reversible if you want one towel that does a bit of both.
Size matters as much as weave
Japanese towel sizes are not Australian ones — one of ours matches, two are close, two sit outside the Australian categories. We set the two side by side in a separate comparison.
Any of these can be embroidered with a name.
Questions
What is the difference between a gauze towel and a normal towel?
A normal towel is pile: loops of yarn standing off a woven base, which is where the water goes. Gauze has no loops — it is a light, open plain weave with less cloth in it.
Which dries faster, gauze or pile?
Gauze. It holds less water, which is the same reason it absorbs less.
What is a zero-twist towel?
One woven from yarn that has not been twisted, so the cotton stays lofted instead of closing up.
Which should I buy for a small bathroom?
Gauze, or a gauze-and-pile reversible — both dry between uses, which is the real constraint in a bathroom with no ventilation.
Sources. Weave structures are standard textile definitions. Range descriptions, yarn counts and the one-second absorbency figure are UCHINO's own specifications and measurements, as published on the product pages; the absorbency figure has not been independently tested.