Gaia Series 15 : Heat Up In The Sauna

Chinatown is a popular spot in the port city of Yokohama, attracting about 20 million visitors per year. It was created when the port opened in the Edo period. One of the oldest Chinese restaurants was Heichinrou. However in May 2022, it closed down, adding to the 60 stores in Chinatown which had to close within the past two years due to COVID-19.

The Yokohama Chinatown Development Association wanted to do something about the situation. It made the bold decision to create the very first sauna in Chinatown as a new symbol of the area. The facility will be located on the third floor of a multi-tenant building near the centre of Chinatown. Its construction began in November 2022. 

Mr Sawato Shindo is a member of the local co-op which pitched the sauna project. He engaged Mr Hiroshi Ota to make the sauna. The latter is a “turnaround manager” specialising in spa facilities and saunas. He is known as the Sauna King among sauna lovers. He founded Rakuraku Holdings in 2006 and has worked on more than 400 facilities, using saunas to revive towns. 

Mr Ota visited a famous restaurant in Yokohama Chinatown, Jukei Hanten, which serves authentic Sichuan food. He asked the restaurant to create an original sauna course meal. The dishes include steamed chicken seasoned with Japanese pepper, mala-flavoured pork tenderloin seasoned with special miso and chilli peppers, and white fish stewed with homemade fermented chilli peppers.

In February this year, a large circular machine was brought into the sauna in Chinatown. The watermill sauna stove imported from Germany is the first one to be used in Japan. It automatically releases water once every 30 minutes and creates an immense amount of steam. On Apr 8, the sauna facility, called Hare-Tabi Sauna & Inn finally opened. It attracted more than 3,000 guests who later dropped by Jukei Hanten to try its newly created special course meal. 

The sauna craze has slowly developed into sauna tourism. For example, there is Sauna Shikiji, known as the “holy land of saunas”. It is based in Shizuoka Station. Toyohashi Station has a Showa-style sauna called Sauna Pia. Beyond that, there is a wonderful sauna in Nagoya called Wellbe Sakae. In Kyoto, there is Rumor Plaza. Osaka, meanwhile, has New Japan and Daitoyo. Sauna tourism is especially popular among youths in their 20s and 30s.

We move on to Nagato Yumoto Onsen, located in northern Yamaguchi Prefecture. It is a hot spring town dating back to the Muromachi period. Mr Takayuki Okamoto, from Japan Airlines’ (JAL) project development department, has been put in charge of using a sauna to bring life back to Nagato Yumoto. Some studies show that there are more than eight million people who visit a sauna more than once a month. To attract people with sauna tourism, Mr Okamoto started looking for something that only this town can offer. He came across the Otozure River, which runs down the middle of the town. It is one of the tourism resources of Nagato Yumoto. He then had the idea of making sauna tents along the river and using it as a cold bath.

Meanwhile, JAL also started planning sauna trips. In February this year, a travel event was held at Tokyo Big Sight, where sauna trips were advertised at the JAL booth. There are many great saunas in various regions, so passengers can get on a plane and take a tour under a sauna tour package. It also boosts domestic flights. This initiative is called the "Sauna Journey" and one of its highlights is outdoor saunas that utilise local nature. 

During his trip to Nagato Yumoto to revitalise the town and attract more visitors, Mr Okamoto visited a ryokan called Gyoku-Sen-Kaku. He discussed plans for the Sauna Journey with Mr Shuichi Ito, the inn’s heir. The aim is to have guests visiting the sauna, followed by them staying at Mr Ito's inn. Mr Okamoto and Mr Ito decided to start by testing out a sauna tent. The inn’s head chef, Toshimitsu Furusawa, was in charge of creating sauna meals that promote Nagato. 

The sauna tent was finally put to the test on Apr 10. Those present included people from Nagato city hall and JAL. A city hall worker tested the sauna tent and then went to the river for the “cold plunge”, taking full advantage of Nagato Yumoto's nature to cool down his body. Mr Ito and the head chef also created a special kamameshi as part of the sauna meal. They cooked the rice with local specialities like chicken and seafood. 

Mr Okamoto then visited a sauna in Shinjuku Natural Hot Spring, Therma-yu. A general meeting of the JAL Sauna Club is usually held here. There are about 36,000 employees within JAL Group and among them, about 500 sauna-loving employees of JAL Group are registered in this club, which was founded in 2018. 

Mr Okamoto also went to Kagurazaka, Tokyo. Members of the sauna clubs of different companies - such as Finnair, Finntour, JAL and Kokuyo - meet here. In 2019, Mr Okamoto created the Japan Sauna Club Alliance, an association of companies united by saunas. Around 157 companies are registered with the group, including IBM Japan, Morinaga and Company, and Lawson.

In Ginza, Tokyo, there is a showroom which has saunas for the home. The most popular one is called the Loyly Hinoki. Another item has a one-year waitlist. It is a full-blown sauna for the home that can go up to 120 degrees. The one for beginners is a far infrared sauna with a maximum temperature of 65 degrees. Others being sold include a “colour therapy” one that is popular among women and a collapsible sauna which customers can build this themselves. 

Tips:

1)    JAL offers the “Sauna Journey”, which allows passengers to visit saunas within a region
2)    Check out the various saunas at a showroom in Ginza, featuring saunas for the home