ASAKUSA Underground > Take a bath in a Sento
A lot of tourists want to enjoy the famous experience of an "onsen"
(a hot spring resort) in Japan, but you might not have time and money to
do so. In that case, you can go to a "sento" ([sen-toe]) instead.
A sento is public baths and anyone can take a bath there without paying a lot. Its current charge in Tokyo is 430 yen for one person. The charge varies in 47 prefectures and it is the cheapest in Saga ken (Saga prefecture), where they pay 280 yen.
<Good manners in a sento>
- How to enter a sento
1, Take off your shoes at the entrance and put them in a shoe locker. At an old sento a piece of wood functions as a key.
2, Step into the two separate gates. Each gate has a noren (a Japanese cotton curtain) covering the view inside. It has a large Kanji symbol printed on it. If you are a woman, follow 女. If you are a man, follow 男. (In general, the ladies' section is on the left and the men's section on the right.)
3, Although a man and a woman go in separately, they meet each other in the other side of the gates. Here sits a sento keeper, mostly a family member of its owner, who asks you to pay.
4, Once again separately a man and a woman enter his Datsuijo and hers.
- At its Datsuijo ([da-tsu-ee-joe] a locker room / an "undressing room", literally)
5, All you have to do is take off your clothes and put them in a locker. You may not find one. You might simply see shelves divided by some planks set vertically to make individual spaces to put the belongings. Japanese bathers do not seem to be bothered. No one steal your clothes or small changes, they seem to think. If you have your passport or valuable things on you, ask the sento keeper to keep them while you are taking a bath.
6, After bathing, you can relax in this Datsuijo section, You can even ask the sento keeper to sell you some drinks.
- How to use Japanese public baths
7, Before you enter the pool section, make sure you are completely naked. You are not allowed to bring in anything except your favourite shampoo and rinse (though they are provided free inside), razors, and a tenugui. A tenugui ([te-noo-goo-ee]) is a piece of cotton cloth which looks like an excessively oblong handkerchief.
(It makes quite good a gift from Japan for your friends at home. Haven't you seen one with the rising sun symbol and the word "ichi-ban (number 1)" printed on it? It is not a hair band. It is a Japanese towel.)
These days we see fewer and fewer Japanese with a tenugui in sentos. A thin hand towel is a modern-day substitute commonly used by the locals. You can buy one from the sento keeper.
8, Open the sliding door to the pool section and go in. On the other end of the room, you will see small swimming pools. They are bath tubs. The room may have a huge picture of Mt Fuji or something alike painted on the wall facing you. It looks inviting, but wait. Don't jump into the pool right away.
You must wash yourself before you get in the pool. Everyone has to do it thoroughly. Otherwise the water in the pool would get dirty because they use the same water, like at public swimming pools. Do not wash yourself in the pool, either.
Between you and the pools, there are lines of showers and small stools. Each shower has a mirror and a tap for hot and cold water. The shower and the tap are integrated. They call them Karan, which is a Japanese word with a Dutch origin: Kraan / it means 'tap'. Ladies' and Men's section have 10 to 20 karans respectively.
When you take a shower, don't do it standing as you usually do. Wash yourself sitting on the small stool. If you want to, you can wash your hair, too. But it is not necessary if you feel cold, especially on a winter evening. You can wash your hair after taking a nice warm bath.
Rinse yourself well till you are perfectly clean. No soap foam must get in the pool.
Having purified yourself to show some respect to other fellow bathers, now you are ready to walk in.
9, Go inside the pool. Be careful. You must not put your towel in the water. Traditionally you are supposed to give your wet towel a wring, fold it, and put it on your crown. You keep it there while you are in the water. These days you don't have to do it unless you want to. Just look around and do as others do.
10, Enjoy it. Don't swim though you might see some naughty kids doing it.
At some sentos you may have a choice between a warm pool and a less warm one.
---Consideration---
You must not put cold water in the pool even if you find it too hot. Many people there like it "hot." When you are in a sento in the downtown are of Tokyo, it is not unusual that some frank folks shout at you, "Stop it, idiot!."
If you cannot stand the water being too hot, you should come to bathe in off-peak hours, when you can put as much cold water as you like.
Or, why don't you look at it from another point of view? A hot bath or too hot a bath can be considered a part of Japan's culture.
They think bearing unbearably hot water is cool, they want to say, "C'mon. It is not that hot, old chap." Though it is out of silly pride, it is the Japanese way.
When you are a kid, you cannot stay in the hot water for any more than 10 seconds. After you pass a certain age, you can't stand a lukewarm bath.
A kid looks up with admiration at his grandpa taking such a hot bath calmly. Such a scene is getting rarer and rarer, but still exists. You might witnessing some final moments of disappearing Old Japan.
When you travel in Japan and have a chance to go to a sento, try taking a "unbearably hot" bath.
---Further consideration---
In principle you take a bath totally undressed.
Recently you see some people, even Japanese, wearing swim suits when they take a bath in an onsen. We don't find it cool, so the authorship advises that you should do it stark naked if you want an authentic experience of taking a bath in a sento.
Attention! Though we ask you to be totally naked, it doesn't mean you have to be like a new-born baby.
Whether you expose yourself completely or you cover your genital area is a question of "elegance," because there is no fixed rules about this issue.
The author finds it cool that it should be slightly covered with your towel.
It is not elegant at all to wrap the towel around your hips in order to absolutely
avoid the genital area to be seen.
<Seen, but not completely seen>
This is the idea.
To have good sento manners, it is useful to understand that Japanese people prefer greyish ambiguity to black-and-white clarity.
---Connoisseurs' attitude in a sento---
Drink something in the Datsuijo section after a bath. After taking a nice bath, they often drink something, like:
-Gyunyu [gyoo-nyoo]: Milk.
-Saidaa [like 'cider' in English]: It has nothing to do with cider. The Japanese cider is just a type of soda pops without alcohol.
-Jusu [like 'juice' in English]: Again, it has nothing to do with fresh fruit juice. It means a soda pop.
-Kan-biru [can-bee-loo/roo]: Canned beer.
It seems that many locals like gyunyu and kohi-gyunyu (cold coffee with milk, which tastes more like cold milk with coffee).
The latter is particularly recommended.
If you want to be a real sento connoisseur, you should drink it stylishly.
Put your hand on the hip and drink it up. Don't sip it because you don't look cool.
---Useful items in a sento---
1, Washbasin/washbowl
It can be either wooden or plastic. Take your own washbasin and towel to go to the sento. Many Japanese do so.
2, Geta, yukata
-Geta [get-ta]: Japanese wooden sandals.
-Yukata: A cotton kimono for summer.
If you have both, people can tell that you know what Japanese elegance is.
Imagine, in the summer, about the sunset time, you are dressed in a yukata and walk to the sento with your wooden getas making funny noises against the pavement. You can surely relate yourself to the old days in Japan.
[Related articles]
Check <kimono> and <geta> at 10 most popular Asakusa gifts.
---Bathing hours---
Sentos open early or late in the afternoon and close about midnight.
When you go there about 2, 3PM, you will rarely see any others. You could have the big bathing room all to yourself.
On the other hand, if you go late in the evening, you will see much more people in a sento, especially at certain areas in Tokyo.
Though we have far more apartments with a bathroom than before, still there are plenty of flats without it. In an area where many flats without a bathroom are, sentos are very crowded about 10, 11PM and you can hardly enjoy yourself.If you are a sento beginner, you should go there in off-peak, early afternoon hours, and get used to the way they take a bath.
[Recommended sites]
・SentoGuide - A Guide to public baths in Japan
The most comprehensive guide on sentos in Japan. If you really need a sento, the guide is quite handy.
<Sentos in Asakusa>
-Akebono-yu 曙湯
4-17-1 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo.
Tel. 03-3873-6750
-Dakotsu-yu 蛇笏湯
1-11-11 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo
Tel. 03-3841-8645
-Hoshi-no-yu 星の湯
2-9-9 Higashi-Komagata, Sumida-ku, Tokyo
Tel. 03-3622-0904
To find out the exact location, use diddlefinger.
The site is your best guide when you work in Tokyo or travel in Japan.
Take a bath in a Sento
A lot of tourists want to enjoy the famous experience of an "onsen"
(a hot spring resort) in Japan, but you might not have time and money to
do so. In that case, you can go to a "sento" ([sen-toe]) instead.A sento is public baths and anyone can take a bath there without paying a lot. Its current charge in Tokyo is 430 yen for one person. The charge varies in 47 prefectures and it is the cheapest in Saga ken (Saga prefecture), where they pay 280 yen.
<Good manners in a sento>
- How to enter a sento
1, Take off your shoes at the entrance and put them in a shoe locker. At an old sento a piece of wood functions as a key.
2, Step into the two separate gates. Each gate has a noren (a Japanese cotton curtain) covering the view inside. It has a large Kanji symbol printed on it. If you are a woman, follow 女. If you are a man, follow 男. (In general, the ladies' section is on the left and the men's section on the right.)
3, Although a man and a woman go in separately, they meet each other in the other side of the gates. Here sits a sento keeper, mostly a family member of its owner, who asks you to pay.
4, Once again separately a man and a woman enter his Datsuijo and hers.
- At its Datsuijo ([da-tsu-ee-joe] a locker room / an "undressing room", literally)
5, All you have to do is take off your clothes and put them in a locker. You may not find one. You might simply see shelves divided by some planks set vertically to make individual spaces to put the belongings. Japanese bathers do not seem to be bothered. No one steal your clothes or small changes, they seem to think. If you have your passport or valuable things on you, ask the sento keeper to keep them while you are taking a bath.
6, After bathing, you can relax in this Datsuijo section, You can even ask the sento keeper to sell you some drinks.
- How to use Japanese public baths
7, Before you enter the pool section, make sure you are completely naked. You are not allowed to bring in anything except your favourite shampoo and rinse (though they are provided free inside), razors, and a tenugui. A tenugui ([te-noo-goo-ee]) is a piece of cotton cloth which looks like an excessively oblong handkerchief.
(It makes quite good a gift from Japan for your friends at home. Haven't you seen one with the rising sun symbol and the word "ichi-ban (number 1)" printed on it? It is not a hair band. It is a Japanese towel.)
These days we see fewer and fewer Japanese with a tenugui in sentos. A thin hand towel is a modern-day substitute commonly used by the locals. You can buy one from the sento keeper.
8, Open the sliding door to the pool section and go in. On the other end of the room, you will see small swimming pools. They are bath tubs. The room may have a huge picture of Mt Fuji or something alike painted on the wall facing you. It looks inviting, but wait. Don't jump into the pool right away.
You must wash yourself before you get in the pool. Everyone has to do it thoroughly. Otherwise the water in the pool would get dirty because they use the same water, like at public swimming pools. Do not wash yourself in the pool, either.
Between you and the pools, there are lines of showers and small stools. Each shower has a mirror and a tap for hot and cold water. The shower and the tap are integrated. They call them Karan, which is a Japanese word with a Dutch origin: Kraan / it means 'tap'. Ladies' and Men's section have 10 to 20 karans respectively.
When you take a shower, don't do it standing as you usually do. Wash yourself sitting on the small stool. If you want to, you can wash your hair, too. But it is not necessary if you feel cold, especially on a winter evening. You can wash your hair after taking a nice warm bath.
Rinse yourself well till you are perfectly clean. No soap foam must get in the pool.
Having purified yourself to show some respect to other fellow bathers, now you are ready to walk in.
9, Go inside the pool. Be careful. You must not put your towel in the water. Traditionally you are supposed to give your wet towel a wring, fold it, and put it on your crown. You keep it there while you are in the water. These days you don't have to do it unless you want to. Just look around and do as others do.
10, Enjoy it. Don't swim though you might see some naughty kids doing it.
At some sentos you may have a choice between a warm pool and a less warm one.
---Consideration---
You must not put cold water in the pool even if you find it too hot. Many people there like it "hot." When you are in a sento in the downtown are of Tokyo, it is not unusual that some frank folks shout at you, "Stop it, idiot!."
If you cannot stand the water being too hot, you should come to bathe in off-peak hours, when you can put as much cold water as you like.
Or, why don't you look at it from another point of view? A hot bath or too hot a bath can be considered a part of Japan's culture.
They think bearing unbearably hot water is cool, they want to say, "C'mon. It is not that hot, old chap." Though it is out of silly pride, it is the Japanese way.
When you are a kid, you cannot stay in the hot water for any more than 10 seconds. After you pass a certain age, you can't stand a lukewarm bath.
A kid looks up with admiration at his grandpa taking such a hot bath calmly. Such a scene is getting rarer and rarer, but still exists. You might witnessing some final moments of disappearing Old Japan.
When you travel in Japan and have a chance to go to a sento, try taking a "unbearably hot" bath.
---Further consideration---
In principle you take a bath totally undressed.
Recently you see some people, even Japanese, wearing swim suits when they take a bath in an onsen. We don't find it cool, so the authorship advises that you should do it stark naked if you want an authentic experience of taking a bath in a sento.
Attention! Though we ask you to be totally naked, it doesn't mean you have to be like a new-born baby.
Whether you expose yourself completely or you cover your genital area is a question of "elegance," because there is no fixed rules about this issue.
The author finds it cool that it should be slightly covered with your towel.
It is not elegant at all to wrap the towel around your hips in order to absolutely
avoid the genital area to be seen.
<Seen, but not completely seen>
This is the idea.
To have good sento manners, it is useful to understand that Japanese people prefer greyish ambiguity to black-and-white clarity.
---Connoisseurs' attitude in a sento---
Drink something in the Datsuijo section after a bath. After taking a nice bath, they often drink something, like:
-Gyunyu [gyoo-nyoo]: Milk.
-Saidaa [like 'cider' in English]: It has nothing to do with cider. The Japanese cider is just a type of soda pops without alcohol.
-Jusu [like 'juice' in English]: Again, it has nothing to do with fresh fruit juice. It means a soda pop.
-Kan-biru [can-bee-loo/roo]: Canned beer.
It seems that many locals like gyunyu and kohi-gyunyu (cold coffee with milk, which tastes more like cold milk with coffee).
The latter is particularly recommended.
If you want to be a real sento connoisseur, you should drink it stylishly.
Put your hand on the hip and drink it up. Don't sip it because you don't look cool.
---Useful items in a sento---
1, Washbasin/washbowl
It can be either wooden or plastic. Take your own washbasin and towel to go to the sento. Many Japanese do so.
2, Geta, yukata
-Geta [get-ta]: Japanese wooden sandals.
-Yukata: A cotton kimono for summer.
If you have both, people can tell that you know what Japanese elegance is.
Imagine, in the summer, about the sunset time, you are dressed in a yukata and walk to the sento with your wooden getas making funny noises against the pavement. You can surely relate yourself to the old days in Japan.
[Related articles]
Check <kimono> and <geta> at 10 most popular Asakusa gifts.
---Bathing hours---
Sentos open early or late in the afternoon and close about midnight.When you go there about 2, 3PM, you will rarely see any others. You could have the big bathing room all to yourself.
On the other hand, if you go late in the evening, you will see much more people in a sento, especially at certain areas in Tokyo.
Though we have far more apartments with a bathroom than before, still there are plenty of flats without it. In an area where many flats without a bathroom are, sentos are very crowded about 10, 11PM and you can hardly enjoy yourself.If you are a sento beginner, you should go there in off-peak, early afternoon hours, and get used to the way they take a bath.
[Recommended sites]
・SentoGuide - A Guide to public baths in Japan
The most comprehensive guide on sentos in Japan. If you really need a sento, the guide is quite handy.
<Sentos in Asakusa>
-Akebono-yu 曙湯
4-17-1 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo.
Tel. 03-3873-6750
-Dakotsu-yu 蛇笏湯
1-11-11 Asakusa, Taito-ku, Tokyo
Tel. 03-3841-8645
-Hoshi-no-yu 星の湯
2-9-9 Higashi-Komagata, Sumida-ku, Tokyo
Tel. 03-3622-0904
To find out the exact location, use diddlefinger.
The site is your best guide when you work in Tokyo or travel in Japan.