Ever since I started my weekend sauna trips, my life has felt incredibly fulfilling. That's because I'm experiencing what it truly means to be alive.
People in modern society are starved of real experience. Whenever something comes up, they turn to the internet, drowning themselves in its virtual world. Because information is always just a tap away, you can feel like you know something without ever actually experiencing it. Personally, I think living that kind of life is a waste. We should always be seeking out genuinely human experiences — feeling truly alive. In that sense, sauna is wonderful. Your heart rate climbs, sweat pours out of you, and then you plunge into a cold bath that makes you feel like you're flirting with death. And then comes that supreme state of totonou — a bliss you surrender yourself to completely. When you're in a sauna, you feel it in your bones: I am alive.
This week's sauna journey takes me to Kagawa Prefecture. I'd known about Golden Time Takamatsu for a while. It sits right in the heart of Takamatsu City — the busiest entertainment district in all of Shikoku — and boasts a sauna exceeding 100°C, a cold plunge bath at 8°C, a natural hot spring with free-flowing source water drawn straight from underground, and a self-service löyly sauna. There's also an outdoor relaxation area that's completely exposed to the view of the surrounding buildings and hotels — something the facility proudly calls the King's Outdoor Relaxation. It has a slightly eccentric edge to it, but there's no doubt it's top-tier sauna in Shikoku.
11 a.m. I park nearby, take the elevator up to the reception floor, and buy a two-hour ticket along with a bottle of aroma water from the vending machine. Why buy aroma water at reception? At Golden Time Takamatsu, they sell several varieties of aroma water for use in the self-service löyly sauna, and you can pick your favorite for 500 yen. Plenty of facilities offer self-service löyly, but being able to choose your own aroma water is genuinely rare.
I head to the lockers on the same floor as reception, and something playing in the background catches my ear — music I recognize immediately. It's the soundtrack from the drama Sado. I can't believe it. I follow the sound and find the TV in the locker room playing Sado on a loop. I ask a nearby staff member, "Excuse me, is this playing continuously?" "Yes," they reply, "it runs on a loop the entire time we're open." In all my visits to sauna facilities, I've never encountered one that — on top of a free-flowing natural spring — also runs Sado in an endless stream. I hadn't even gotten into the sauna yet, and I was already buzzing with excitement.
I pull on the paper shorts from the locker and take the elevator up to the upper floor. I strip down in the changing room, and it's time to step into what is undoubtedly Shikoku's finest sauna. Entering the bathing area, I find the cold plunge bath right next to the main sauna — where aufguss events are held — with the free-flowing natural spring and plain hot water lined up alongside. The layout is perfect. Beyond that are the washing stations, and facing them sit the self-service löyly sauna and the herbal steam sauna side by side.
I start by washing up and easing into the free-flowing natural spring. According to the sign, it's a free-flowing radon natural hot spring, classified as a therapeutic spring based on its temperature, mineral content, and concentration — also known as a radium hot spring. Japan has no shortage of natural hot springs, but the chance to bathe in one officially designated as therapeutic is rare. Once I'm in, I notice a smell reminiscent of the golden spring at Arima Onsen — something between sulfur and iron. The temperature is around 38°C, and it feels absolutely wonderful. I can feel the tension draining out of my entire body. After about ten minutes, a pleasant warmth has spread through me, and I decide it's time for the main sauna.
The main sauna at Golden Time Takamatsu is enormous — partly because it hosts the aufguss event known among sauna enthusiasts as the Hell löyly. It could easily fit thirty people. Inside, two Metos iki stoves sit side by side, with the thermometer reading 105°C. I let my mind wander to what aufguss at 105°C must feel like as the sweat rolls off me. After about ten minutes of sitting with my thoughts, I hit my limit, rinse off, and sink into the 8°C cold plunge bath. The water is soft and remarkably pleasant. Is this groundwater? I glance at the description for the cold bath: it reads "supreme cold plunge bath." Apparently, the water is filtered from the same free-flowing natural spring until it runs clear. That would explain the smoothness — it's nothing like tap water. Even so, nobody can stay in an 8°C bath for long. Sufficiently cooled, I make my way to the outdoor relaxation area.
The large bathing area at Golden Time Takamatsu is located on the 7th floor of a mixed-use building. On the 7th-floor balcony, reclining chairs have been set out for outdoor relaxation. A handwritten sign at the entrance to the balcony reads: King's Outdoor Relaxation. Just what kind of view awaits?
I stepped outside and was immediately stunned. Being on the 7th floor, the surroundings open up beautifully — it feels wonderfully liberating. But the flip side is that you're completely visible to the buildings and hotels all around you. For a split second I thought, is this really okay? But after a scorching sauna and a cold plunge, I had no mental bandwidth left to care. I settled into a chair, and the supreme totonou session began. The sheer openness and bliss of it all gradually shifted my feeling to: honestly, I don't mind being seen. I'd imagine anyone who visits Golden Time Takamatsu ends up feeling the same way. There were a few other guests out there, and not one of them seemed the slightest bit bothered.
For my second set, I moved to the self-service löyly sauna. Unlike the main sauna, it's an intimate space seating about six people, with a Metos stove sitting in the center. You ladle aroma water directly onto the stacked stones. The lighting is dim and there's no TV. I love this kind of sauna — it forces you to be completely alone with yourself. As luck would have it, there were almost no other guests, so I had the place to myself. I sweated for a while, then decided to do a löyly. I mixed the green birch aroma I'd bought at reception into the water and poured it over the sauna stones. An enormous cloud of steam and fragrance instantly filled the room. The heat was at a level where coherent thought becomes impossible. I felt a brush with death — and that, right there, is what being alive feels like.
At my limit, I moved to the cold plunge bath. Groundwater at single-digit temperatures cooled my overheated body in one swift rush. Once fully cooled, I returned to the King's Outdoor Relaxation. Once again, completely exposed to the surrounding buildings, I stretched out and soaked in that extraordinary sense of freedom. It felt unbelievably good.
All told, I completed four full sets of sauna, cold plunge, and outdoor relaxation that day. I couldn't believe a sauna this exceptional was within an hour's drive of home. Incredible — Golden Time Takamatsu. I found myself genuinely regretting not coming sooner. Shikoku still has so many wonderful saunas waiting to be discovered. In Kagawa Prefecture alone, I've already got several more spots on my list. Heading out toward the Kansai region is always an option, but exploring Shikoku sounds just as exciting. With those thoughts swirling in my head, I got in the car and drove on toward my next destination.
