There is a place I always visit whenever I go back to my parents' home. That place is Iyadani Onsen Daishi no Yu in Mitoyo City, Kagawa Prefecture.
The first time I visited was a year ago. My father told me he had found a great hot spring and brought me along. It sits at the foot of Iyadani-ji Temple, known as the 71st sacred site on the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage. The building itself is old, but it's quite large. There's also a roadside station and lodging facilities on the premises, so it serves as a hotel as well. The main bathing area is incredibly spacious, and every single tub is filled with high-quality natural hot spring water — a real luxury. On top of that, the sauna runs close to 100°C, and the cold plunge bath is 18°C with enough room for more than ten people. I remember thinking, "There was a seriously good facility right nearby all along."
Ever since then, visiting Iyadani Onsen Daishi no Yu whenever I come home has become a family tradition. This homecoming was no exception. I had already done 4 sets in the sauna and cold plunge bath at Golden Time Takamatsu in Takamatsu City that morning, and topped it off with an eccentric outdoor cool-down session that left me in a state of perfect relaxation — but by evening I had completely reset and found myself thinking, "I want to go to the sauna again." "Shall we head out?" my father called out like a commander giving an order. My mother was already fully ready to go. Since I was the one driving, her look said it all: hurry up.
On the way there, we chatted as a family. That time is wonderful in its own right. It's not a given that your parents are healthy, and you never know how long these moments will last. I'm truly grateful that we can talk openly and honestly with each other as parent and child.
We checked in at the front desk as usual and headed inside. We arranged a time to meet after bathing, and I went into the men's bath together with my father. Since my father smokes, he dropped his things in the locker and immediately went for a cigarette. I, as usual, stripped at lightning speed and stepped into the main bathing area. The spacious bath hall greeted me, and along with it, the familiar scent of the hot spring water drifted over. That same calming smell as always. It feels like coming home.
After washing up, I soaked in the plain hot spring water as I always do. Iyadani Onsen Daishi no Yu has a wonderful variety of baths: a herbal bath, a reclining bath, a bubble bath, two plain baths, and an outdoor bath — all filled with natural hot spring water. The water quality has a slightly slippery, silky feel to it. As a result, the floor of the bathing area gets slick, and young children often slip and fall. For what it's worth, my very adult mother apparently had quite a spectacular fall herself at some point, and I have caught her coming out of the bath looking thoroughly embarrassed. But that aside, it really is exceptional water. Even though you're only soaking for a short time, your body warms up quickly and deeply. It gives you the feeling that you could go straight from the hot spring to the cold plunge bath without even needing the sauna.
Before getting into the sauna, I did a quick cold water rinse in the plunge bath. Then, finally — the sauna. The sauna at Iyadani Onsen Daishi no Yu is a rocky sauna running at 95°C. There's also a periodic automatic löyly, which keeps the humidity high and helps you build up a satisfying sweat. Just five minutes inside and the sweat is already pouring out. After the sauna, I rinsed off and slipped into the 18°C cold plunge bath. This cold plunge bath is wonderfully spacious — easily enough room for ten people. That gives you the freedom to really relax and settle in. And since the temperature isn't set too cold, you can take your time letting your body cool down properly.
After the cold plunge, ideally you'd want some outdoor cooling down, but the outdoor space here is small with only two chairs. There are also only two chairs in the indoor area, so when those are taken, I usually just perch on the edge of a tub. That said, you can reach a perfectly fine state of totonou even without a dedicated rest space. The proof of that is Ogaki Sauna — what I consider the best sauna of my life — which has no outdoor space and no chairs at all. You sit on a bathing stool or on the edge of a tub, and you can still reach the most sublime totonou. As long as you heat your body thoroughly in the sauna and cool it down properly in the cold plunge bath, outdoor cooling isn't strictly necessary. All you need is somewhere to sit.
After that, I did two more sets of sauna and cold plunge bath, and that wrapped up the evening sauna session. I moved to the lounge and was relaxing with a juice when my mother came out. She had a wonderfully refreshed look on her face. When I asked her about it, she said there had been very few people and she'd had the sauna and cold plunge bath practically to herself. It sounded like she got her fill, and I was glad for it. Soon after, my father came out too, so we all climbed into the car and headed home. On the drive back, the whole family talked about hot springs and saunas. Every single one of us loves saunas.
Looking back, it was probably only natural that I became a sauna enthusiast. Growing up in this family, going to the sauna was simply part of everyday life from a young age. By the time I was in elementary school, doing 3 sets of sauna and cold plunge was already the norm for me. That's because my father — himself a devoted sauna-goer — made sure to instill it in me. And I could feel the effects for myself. I played baseball from elementary school onward, and the difference in how tired I felt the next day depending on whether or not I went to the sauna after a game was remarkable. Going to the sauna usually meant the fatigue was gone. I didn't understand why it helped with recovery back then, but now I do. When blood circulation improves, the metabolic waste products that cause fatigue get flushed out along with it.
Developing the habit of going to the sauna from such a young age may have been a stroke of luck. Even as an adult, whenever time and money allowed, I went to the sauna — and every time, I came out feeling refreshed. No matter what was weighing on me at work or in my personal life, by the time I stepped out of the bath after sauna and cold plunge, none of it seemed to matter anymore. Whatever disappears after a sauna session was never that important to begin with. The sauna has been effective at erasing the things that don't deserve my attention. These days, I go to the sauna every single day, and I feel like my life has never been better. End each day with a sauna session, come out feeling clear and sharp, then sleep. Wake up the next morning and do it again. If I can die somewhere in the middle of that cycle, I'll die happy.
Thinking thoughts like these, I drove my parents home to the house I grew up in.
