Written on May 24, 2011 by Mischa It’s been quite a while since I posted something here, but in the mean time I went to lots of onsen. I’d like to introduce you to some of my favorites: Hana no Yu— This place is special because it is housed in a green house. There are different baths, each named after a flower. Tonbo no Yu— This onsen is very quiet and it is not expensive. I like the design of the building and the baths. Lamune Onsen— Also has a very nice design, but this one is special because of the water. When bathing thousands of tiny bubbles stick to…

Written on October 30, 2010 by Wouter Listing page for this sento. The public bath at Dogo Onsen in Matsuyama City (Ehime Prefecture)  is said to be the oldest, as well as the most famous public bath in Japan still in operation, with a history going back as far as 3,000 years. That is not to say that the bath house is that old, but the hot spring that feeds Dogo Onsen was first mentioned as a place for bathing all those years ago. As you can imagine, quite a few legends are told about a place with so much history. One says that the springs of Dogo were discovered…

Written on February 18, 2010 by Wouter Listing page for this sento. My experience: I was in Nagoya for a business trip and with a few hours to kill I decided to look for a place to take a soak. I found this place, not near to any form of public transport, but not far from where I was working, so I decided to check it out. This public bath is an onsen built in super sento style. It’s very spacious in setup and has everything you’d expect from a super sento, including a place to get your hair cut, a restaurant, and of course a large variety of baths.…

Written on February 9, 2010 by Wouter In an earlier post I asked your help to update a list with unique sento written in 2005. Some of the sento on the list have closed since the original list was written. I received some helpful comments to that post, and after some research and compiling, here it is: the new list. First, let me say that since there are estimated to be over 6,000 sento in Japan, any list of most unique sento is bound to be inaccurate and incomplete, so I’ve dropped that idea and would just like to present you with a list of some unique sento. There are…

Written on February 3, 2010 by Wouter When trying new things for the first time, many things can go wrong. We’ve all had that experience. Generally we would just muddle our way through and learn from the experience. Experience is usually the best teacher, so by all means, muddle. Just a few things to keep in mind when you start muddling in a sento near you: DON’T take any of those handy little baskets with various types of soaps and shampoos you will often find on or under the locker bank at your small neighborhood sento. They all belong to regular bathers. My first sento experience was with a friend…