Editors' Selection — Kanagawa
Photo: Skyspa YOKOHAMA
You want to experience a truly great sauna in Kanagawa. This page is our answer to that wish. Our editorial team, who researches onsen and saunas across Japan and personally visits facilities nationwide, has narrowed down the many options spread across Yokohama and Kawasaki to just 5 facilities. Whichever one you choose, it will become a memorable part of your stay in Japan. All that's left for you to decide is where to go.
Kanagawa Kawasaki City
A serious Kawasaki sauna room powered by regular automatic löyly
A full-fledged sauna where auto-löyly is performed at regular intervals, filling the room with a pleasant wave of heat. It thoroughly warms the entire body and encourages a deep sweat, helping to expel waste products and bringing a profound sense of relaxation. In the quiet space, you can face the heat at your own pace and enjoy a blissful moment of release from everyday fatigue.
A women-only steam salt sauna with a low temperature that is gentle on the body and softly stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. Applying salt to the body enhances the warming effect and encourages a slow, steady sweat. Moist steam envelops the skin, washing away dirt from the pores and waste products. In this mild, comfortable space with no stifling heat, both body and mind are led into a deeply relaxed state.
Editors' comment
A day-use facility in Kawasaki where the sauna room features regular automatic löyly. There's no need to wait for someone to pour water, as waves of heat spread through the room on their own. In the quiet space, you can focus deeply on the heat, work up a good sweat, and then move to the cold plunge bath. The contrast leaves your warmed body feeling firm and refreshed. On the women's side, there's also a low-temperature steam salt sauna, where you can apply salt to your skin and sweat slowly in the steam. Having both intense heat and gentle heat under one roof is what defines this facility. The dark brown natural onsen water flows directly from the source and can be used before or after the sauna.
Kanagawa Yokohama City
A waterwheel-shaped stove turns, sending steam in three surging waves
An industrial space featuring a waterwheel-style sauna stove inspired by steam engines, symbolizing Yokohama, the birthplace of Japan's modern industry. Powerful heat fills the room and thoroughly warms the entire body. In this unique atmosphere that evokes the history of the port city, you can forget your daily routine, reconnect deeply with yourself, and fully enjoy a satisfying sweating experience.
An elegant space highlighted by a stylish sauna stove modeled after a ship smokestack. Self-löyly is available using oolong tea and jasmine tea carefully selected by a specialty Chinese tea shop, and the gorgeous aroma and soft steam gently envelop the whole body. Soothing humidity and fragrance help you relax deeply, both mentally and physically, for a blissful and restorative experience.
Editors' comment
At the center of the sauna room sits a waterwheel-shaped stove modeled after a steam engine. The combination of heavy gears and sauna stones creates a design you can watch even while enduring the heat. Humidity stays high, and sweat comes quickly. Every 30 minutes, the automatic löyly kicks in as the waterwheel clanks and turns, releasing water onto the stones in three stages. Steam surges forward in waves with each interval, raising the perceived temperature. There is only this one sauna room. The flow repeats through a Chinese herbal cold plunge bath and rest periods with air circulation. The location is in the heart of Yokohama Chinatown.
Availability and rates are shown on each booking site.
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Kanagawa Kawasaki City
A cold plunge bath deep enough to submerge your head, and explosive automatic löyly
The defining feature is the overwhelming volume of steam produced by a sauna stove manufactured for löyly by Teknoraizukomu combined with lava stones from Mount Fuji that are rich in iron and minerals. The auto löyly at :15 and :45 each hour injects a large amount of water, about 500 ml, all at once, causing high-temperature steam to explode throughout the sauna room. The top bench becomes instantly blistering hot. A three-tier bench layout and a silence-focused design with a no-talking bathing policy create a striking contrast with the roar of steam. The high heat efficiency from stacking a large mass of sauna stones generates far more steam than typical saunas.
A sauna room specifically designed for the aufguss experience. With a high ceiling and three-tier benches that fit 5–6 people per row, it secures a spacious atmosphere that balances openness and unity. Two HARVIA tower stoves perform automatic löyly every 20 minutes, and aufguss masters lead aufguss sessions every hour. The performances combine programming, music, and aromatics into highly entertaining presentations that change each time, so every visit brings a new experience.
Its greatest characteristic is the ability to fully submerge, using amber-colored well water pumped from beneath Kawasaki Ward and flowed continuously. The tub has a two-step structure separated by a handrail, with 120 cm and 150 cm depths, so users can acclimate in the shallower side before moving to the deepest section (150 cm) for full submersion. The water temperature is low, and a strong current constantly cools the skin, making the perceived temperature feel even sharper. True to its name as a submersion cold plunge bath, head submersion is officially permitted, making it a rare example in Japan. The sense of release when fully immersing the whole body after a good sweat is unparalleled. The well water also contains trace hot spring minerals, giving it a slightly viscous, soft texture on the skin.
Editors' comment
The löyly sauna room reaches over 100°C. At 15 and 45 minutes past each hour, about 500ml of water is poured onto the sauna stones all at once, instantly turning the top bench scorching hot. When our editorial team sat on the top bench, breathing became difficult, forcing a retreat to the lower bench. In this quiet room with no television and minimal conversation, the contrast between the silence and the sound of steam stands out. The other room is a spacious space dedicated to aufguss, where a heat master waves towels to music every hour. The cold plunge bath uses flowing amber-colored well water drawn from underground in Kawasaki. At its deepest point of 150cm, full submersion of the head is permitted.
If you found yourself wanting to go
JAPAN'S FINEST ONSEN & SAUNA
The Finest Onsen & Sauna in Japan
57 SELECTIONS
No more sifting through endless search results for the real thing. Inside are only the finest places, each confirmed in person by our editor. Not chosen by star ratings, but by whether they would go back.
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Kanagawa Yokohama City
After silence above 100°C, sink into 9°C black mineral water
Experience the steam bathing tradition of Finland, the home of sauna culture. When aroma water is poured onto the sauna stones heated by the stove, a soothing wave of heat and fragrance spreads through the room. During certain periods, self-löyly is available, allowing you to adjust the humidity and temperature at your own pace and warm up gradually all the way to your core. In this refined, quiet space, you can enjoy deep relaxation and an exceptional totonou experience.
A low-temperature steam sauna that is gentle on the body. When you place the salt provided in the room onto your skin, it slowly melts in with the abundant steam and helps draw out perspiration. The gentle warmth envelops your whole body and promotes deep relaxation by soothing the parasympathetic nervous system. Thanks to the combined effects of salt and steam, you can enjoy smooth, silky skin after bathing.
To cool down after the sauna, enjoy a cold bath made generously with the source water from the black hot spring, a mineral spring at the heart of the facility. Its smooth water, rich in hot spring minerals, is gentle on the skin while still tightening it beautifully, without the piercing chill of an ordinary cold bath. The flow from sauna to cold bath is also smooth, so you can enjoy blissful cooling in the soft, soothing cold unique to a hot spring facility.
Editors' comment
The bathing area is unified in black stone, with a bonsai tree placed at the center. Just past the entrance, the Finnish sauna exceeds 100°C, with the stove piled high with sauna stones for self-service löyly. The television inside has its volume completely muted, leaving only the sound of stones crackling and your own breathing audible. Right outside is a cold plunge bath using black mineral spring water cooled to 9°C. The slightly viscous quality of the water softens the piercing cold. The open-air bath also offers a flowing cold spring at around 23°C, letting you choose your preferred cooling method.
If you found yourself wanting to go
JAPAN'S FINEST ONSEN & SAUNA
The Finest Onsen & Sauna in Japan
57 SELECTIONS
No more sifting through endless search results for the real thing. Inside are only the finest places, each confirmed in person by our editor. Not chosen by star ratings, but by whether they would go back.
Open the magazine, freeThis place's pages are free to read
Kanagawa Yokohama City
A kelo wood room revealing the city, and a dark löyly room erasing it
An authentic Finnish-style sauna using kelo, the standing-dead wood from Finland, on the walls and low-thermal-conductivity abachi wood for bench backs. The room temperature is kept uniformly around 90°C, and the mellow heat characteristic of kelo spreads gently so the sensation is enveloping rather than sharply stimulating. Automatic löyly is applied every 20 minutes to maintain moderate humidity, and authentic aufguss led by staff is held daily. Minerals and negative ions released from rock salt deepen relaxation, allowing long, unhurried sessions of sweating while enjoying views of Yokohama.
A uniquely designed sauna combining two stoves (Twin tower) with a BonaSerm-style sauna module and Thermale hot-water pipes to deliver heat evenly from four directions. Set at a mid-temperature with about 25% humidity, it provides a gentle warmth that envelopes the body without causing breathlessness.
Editors' comment
Directly connected to Yokohama Station, on the 14th floor of the Sky Building. The main sauna uses kelo wood on its walls and has no television. From the room kept at around 90°C, you can take in a full view of Yokohama's skyline and harbor, with humidity maintained by automatic löyly every 20 minutes. The scent of wood and the aroma of the löyly intersect. The other sauna room, dedicated to löyly, is dark with no view. You pour water onto the IKI stove at your own pace, closing your eyes to focus purely on the heat. The cold plunge bath is wide and deep, at around 15°C. Sit down on a chair to rest, and the cityscape returns to view.
Availability and rates are shown on each booking site.
This page contains affiliate links. Booking through them costs you nothing extra.
If you found yourself wanting to go
JAPAN'S FINEST ONSEN & SAUNA
The Finest Onsen & Sauna in Japan
57 SELECTIONS
No more sifting through endless search results for the real thing. Inside are only the finest places, each confirmed in person by our editor. Not chosen by star ratings, but by whether they would go back.
Open the magazine, freeThis place's pages are free to read
Chosen by our editors from facilities that have granted us publication permission. We do not rank them.
JAPAN'S FINEST ONSEN & SAUNA
The Finest Onsen & Sauna in Japan
57 SELECTIONS
Most of what we surveyed never even made it onto this site. This book is a further cut from what did. Our editor bathed in every onsen and sauna in it, and wrote only what they confirmed on the ground.
