「Tosa Mochizuki Onsen Himewako-no-Yu」 - A Visit

Returning home is part of my sauna journey. A four-day stay at my parents' house means I can visit at least three different saunas during my trip. As soon as my homecoming dates were set, I started researching which saunas to visit. While casually browsing Kochi Prefecture facilities, I discovered 'Tosa Mochizuki Onsen Himewako-no-Yu.' The facility boasts the prefecture's largest outdoor bath with natural hot spring water, carbonated baths, saunas, and a 15°C cold bath. Plus, it's a relatively new facility. This was a must-visit. Being quite free with my time, even though I was home for four days, I had no specific plans to meet anyone. This meant I could visit any facility that caught my interest immediately. I'm quite satisfied with this freedom in my life. On my first day home, I drove straight from home to Kochi city. Being a weekday morning, the highways were clear. I arrived at the facility without any trouble. The exterior looked like a traditional ryokan inn. I entered and completed the reception process. Since this was my first visit, I decided to explore before heading to the main bath. The facility was impressively equipped with a manga reading room, restaurant, body care and scrubbing rooms, and a women-only bedrock bath room. 'This is a nice facility,' I thought at the time. The moment I entered the changing room, an unpleasant odor assaulted my nostrils. What kind of smell? Foot odor. 'Oh shit...' I had arrived in the morning, not long after the day's opening. This suggested the smell was accumulated over time. Unable to focus on bathing, I checked online reviews. Sure enough, other users who had visited on different days also posted complaints about 'smelly changing rooms.' This meant it wasn't just smelly on the day I visited—it was chronically smelly. Changing room odors result from foot bacteria combined with insufficient cleaning and ventilation. While they probably do clean, the ventilation and disinfection are clearly inadequate. Perhaps it doesn't smell on other days. However, for visitors traveling from afar, if it smells bad on their visit day, that facility is smelly to them. I felt somewhat disappointed. I decided to proceed with my bath anyway. Holding my breath while undressing, there's a small space between the changing room and bath area where you can dry your wet body. The moment I entered that space and took a breath, it also smelled. 'Oh fuck...' I steeled myself again, cleansed my body, and soaked in the carbonated bath. I then repeated three sets of sauna and cold bath, but I couldn't achieve that usual sense of bliss and happiness. The changing room's smell had dampened my spirits from the start. Plus, I'd have to return to that smelly changing room when leaving. Wanting to minimize my time in the changing room, I dried myself thoroughly in the bathroom, then held my breath heading to the changing room. I changed at lightning speed and exited the changing room. During sauna travels, days like this happen. You can't always have experiences that match your expectations. While today's issue was odor, sometimes your rhythm gets disrupted by customers talking loudly in the sauna room, or you can't enter the cold bath because children are swimming in it. I believe this is all part of the sauna journey. Tonight, I might encounter another wonderful facility. Thinking about my next adventure, I drove toward my parents' house.