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The separating wall between the men and the women side is also about 1.5 m high. On rare occasions, the separating wall also has a small hole. At the wall on the far end of the room is usually a large ceramic tile mural or painting[4] for decoration.
Other Traditional Japanese Bath House Quirks
Inside, you will find a dressing room where you can leave your clothing and personal items. Some facilities will provide a space for you to put your things in, while others will have coin-operated lockers. To deal with this, Japanese homes have traditionally been built to allow for good ventilation. For this same reason, homes can get very cold in the winter, which is why people came to like warming up in the bath. Most onsen inns and hotels will have toiletries available, but you have to bring your own to a sento––especially if it is a small, local one.
Kyoto’s Best Sentos
I’ve been to over ten different onsens and sentos, and once you get over the fear of getting naked in front of strangers your first time, each one after that is a relaxing experience. In one Japanese bath I was in on the Kumano Kodo I couldn’t stand it for more than five minutes and had to exit. If you start to feel lightheaded, it’s vital to get out of the water and either go in the cooler water for a bit or call it a day. It’s perfectly acceptable to walk around the changing room with a towel; once you enter the bath, it’s pretty normal to be naked from here on out. Remember to place your towel somewhere dry and away from the bathwater when in the bath, so you have it when you get out.
What Sentos Should You Visit While in Tokyo?
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Since the bath now focused on hot water instead of steam, windows could be added, and the bathing area became much brighter. The only difference between these baths and the modern bath was the use of wood for the bathing area and the lack of faucets. Near the entrance area is a supply of small stools and buckets. There’s honestly not a huge difference between a sento and an onsen, but there is a difference. Sentos are public Japanese bath houses with artificially heated water.
Travel Gear
The typical admission fee starts around 200 yen for small facilities and can be 2000 yen or more for large complexes. After a long day of temple hopping, there is no better way to relax than soaking in a good sento (Japanese public bath). Here, we introduce the best sentos in Kyoto and give some tips on how to enjoy them. Once you've cleaned yourself entirely, ensuring that all the soap and shampoo have been rinsed away, it is safe to proceed to the range of baths for relaxation. What is particularly appealing about the sento is that each retains its own distinct character, which extends to the facilities on offer.
[Izu Shuzenji Onsen] A large moss-covered garden of about 50,000㎡ "SORA Togetsuso Kinryu"
It’s good manners to avoid using onsens during menstruation, particularly on heavy flow days, even when using a tampon. Onsens, like pools in Japan, do not use powerful disinfectants, so it’s not very sanitary for anyone involved. Once you’ve had your fill of the bathing facilities, give yourself a final rinse in the showers. For relaxation, refreshment, hilarity, the "kicking-it-with-the-locals" experience, or simply the bliss of total cleanliness, a visit to the sento should be penciled, if not inked, in during your stay. These towels are much smaller than what Westerners are used to bathing with.
Although my fellow female bathers were generally polite enough to not stare, my husband said the men tended to stare at him. You might be on vacation, but don't drink too many alcoholic drinks before visiting a bath. In some locations, the baths are in the same room as the showers. (This was the case at both hotel baths I visited.) At larger locations, the baths may be spread across multiple rooms, or some may be inside while others are outside. If you have a very small tattoo, you can try to cover it with a bandage, but even then I'd recommend visiting baths that explicitly allow tattoos to avoid discomfort and potential disappointment. Speaking of GALA, we easily reached the ski resort on a day trip from Tokyo using the JR Tokyo Wide train pass.
From cycling tours to sand bathing, Japan's reverence for nature and wellbeing lends itself to ... The bath area is the only part of the bath house that is not co-ed, so we grabbed lunch together before heading our separate ways. I got udon noodles, while Charles had sushi, and the food was really great. We went to the foot bath first, it was in an outdoor area with a shallow pool filled with reflexology rocks. One thing that surprised me was that there is so much do to there! In addition to the baths, there are foot baths, tv rooms, nap rooms, restaurants, games, an arcade, salt saunas, and more.
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After you’ve gotten in the bath, linger there as long as you’d like. When you begin to get hot, simply get out of the bath and fill your hinoki bucket with lukewarm water. Pour it over your shoulders and back (this feels amazing), and you’ll be ready to get back into the bath. Walk into any bathhouse in Japan, and you are sure to find the same basic things, whether you are bathing at a Tokyo sento or a remote rural onsen. Most onsen will also have baths on the opposite end of the temperature spectrum. You’ll often see people shuffling back and forth from the sauna to them for a cool-down between rounds of heat.
Washing oneself is highly important prior to entering the baths. Typically, these stations are stalls with buckets, faucets, shower heads, a short stool, a mirror, plus shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. Go to the counter, turn over your shoe locker key, and specify if you’re using just the baths or if you’d like a massage or any other service they provide.
This bathhouse is also pleasantly spacious, so you need not squeeze with fellow patrons. There are two open-air bathhouses – one in a Western-style and the other Japanese. Renovated in 2017 by Kentaro Imai and his team, this Shinjuku neighborhood sento is all about the lighting. These switch weekly between male and female bathing to allow visitors to enjoy both. There’s also a stylish semi-open-air bath and a sauna with a colourful Buddha mural, painted by graffiti artist Gravity Free, adorning the wooden ceiling.
Shimizu-yu is known for two of its baths – black spring water bath (kuroyu), and a golden hot spring (kogane-no-yu). The black water was pumped up from a spring 200 metres under and is used in the outdoor bath, while the golden hot spring comes from a depth of 1,500 metres. It’s recommended to alternate between the baths to fully enjoy their benefits.
Kawagoe was from near Mount Fuji in Shizuoka Prefecture, so he painted the famous peak. Fuji murals caught on quickly in Tokyo as bathers soaking under the paintings are made to feel like they are in the waters around the mountain, purifying their bodies as in some ancient ritual. This illusion is heightened by the placement of Tokyo bathtubs right against the wall. In other areas, many sentō do not have paintings, and tubs tend to be in the center of the room. Western criticisms led the Meiji government to ban mixed bathing (more successfully than the Edo shogunate) and to order that sentō should have a more open structure.
The basics — shampoo, soap and towels — are usually provided. At public baths, these basics may not be complimentary, but they'll almost certainly be available for rental or purchase. It’s in a random part of the city, but it’s walkable from the train. Even though our time in Tokyo was only a few days, I was happy that we spent the better part of one of our days at the bath house. This involves staying at a hotel with hot spring facilities, eating delicious food, and having fun in the surrounding sightseeing areas.
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