「Gokouyu」 Experience Story

I woke up at 7 in the morning. I had gone to bed around 11 the night before, so I got a solid eight hours of sleep. When you're traveling from sauna to sauna, you find that some hotels let you sleep well and others don't. Hotel Kyoto Eminasu, where I was staying on this trip, has officially earned its place on my good-hotel list. I got ready, went for a morning walk, then enjoyed the breakfast buffet. After that, I stopped by Ogawa Coffee, right next to the hotel, for a cup of coffee, then headed back to the room to lounge around while deciding on my first destination of the day. Today's plan: a sento-hopping tour. Kyoto has a handful of bathhouses that draw sauna enthusiasts from all over the country, and they're clustered close enough together that you can walk between several of them. My first stop was Gokouyu, a famous sento that served as one of the filming locations for the drama Sado. The plan for the day was to do one or two sets at Gokouyu, then walk over to Hakusanyu Takatsujiten, known for its famous spring water, and do another round of sauna there. When bar-hoppers move from one place to the next, they call it hashigo — literally "ladder." I was doing the sauna version of that. I've done sauna hashigo before, so I knew the drill. Time to head out. I parked nearby and walked to Gokouyu. The exterior looked exactly like a neighborhood sento should. Unlike a super sento, this kind of place sits quietly tucked into a dense residential area — that's the essence of a sento. Japan's bathing culture was built on places like this. I bought a ticket at the machine near the entrance and handed it to the woman at the front desk, then moved to the changing room to get undressed. The lockers were wonderfully retro, and I felt like I'd time-traveled back to the Showa era. Before getting in the bath, I figured I'd use the restroom. The moment I opened the stall door, my blood ran cold. A man covered head to toe in tattoos was in there, doing his business without locking the door. "S-sorry!" I blurted out. Technically, he was the one at fault for not locking up in a public facility, but the best outcome here was no confrontation. When I apologized, he said, "Oh, my bad." Relief washed over me. Kyoto has many sentos, and most of them welcome customers with tattoos. The last time I visited Hakusanyu Rokujoten, there was someone with tattoos covering every inch of their body except their face. Sharing a space with a person like that does give you a bit of a jolt, but it has nothing to do with enjoying the sauna and cold plunge, so I put it out of my mind. Same deal this time. Gokouyu's main bathing area is spread across two floors. The first floor has a wide variety of tubs, while the second floor is home to the sauna, the cold plunge bath, and an outdoor bath. There's also an iwaburo (rock sauna) available for an extra fee. I rinsed off and made my way up to the second floor. Sure enough, the tattooed man from the restroom was there too, but I walked right past him and into the sauna without a second thought. Gokouyu's sauna has a really interesting layout: the sauna room is split in two, divided down the middle by glass. You can open a door to move from one side to the other, and each side runs at a different temperature. I started in what they call the classic sauna, warming up at around 85°C, then after a while crossed over into the bona sauna on the other side, which pushes past 100°C, to finish things off. The cold plunge bath is right outside the sauna. It's fed by Kyoto's abundant groundwater in a flowing, spring-style setup, and it's more than generous in both depth and size. Water cascades down from above like a small waterfall, and the tub is constantly overflowing, which keeps things clean. Above all, the water is soft. No chlorine smell. Pure, clean natural groundwater wrapping around your entire body. I submerged all the way up to my head and cooled down to the core. Right beside the cold plunge is the outdoor bath, with chairs set up for resting. The flow between them is perfect. I honestly couldn't believe a neighborhood sento could be this well put together. If I lived nearby, I'd never bother using the bath at home. As I sat in the outdoor air, that distinctive sense of refreshment you only get from a groundwater cold plunge washed over me. It's a strange thing, but when you get into a truly high-quality groundwater bath, the sensation in your pores is overwhelmingly different from tap water. It feels like you're soaking in mint water — a kind of cool, tingling feeling that spreads through you. Gokouyu's cold plunge feels like around 18°C, so it's not brutally cold, but it chills you right down to your core. It feels absolutely wonderful. I went in for my second set at the same pace, and sure enough, the tattooed man was there again. We sweated it out together, side by side, then I sank back into the groundwater plunge. Wrapped in that refreshing sensation, I finished my two sets. Ideally I would have gone for a third or fourth, but since today was all about sento hashigo, I called it here. I changed quickly and stepped outside. My next destination, Hakusanyu Takatsujiten, was about a five-minute walk away. Two sets at Gokouyu, then the walk over acting as outdoor recovery time, then three sets at Hakusanyu Takatsujiten — that would round out a perfect sento-hopping day. What a luxurious trip it is, being able to hop between two nationally renowned establishments like this. Lost in that thought, I walked on, until the sign for Hakusanyu Takatsujiten came into view.