I finished work at 4:00 pm on Friday and jumped into the car. As always, the determination that Friday brings is in a different league from other weekdays. The moment I’m liberated from a week of work, the switch for a sauna trip flips. In an instant I cross Awaji Island and race to Nishiakashi Station in Hyogo Prefecture by car. From there I take the Shinkansen to Nagoya Station, then transfer at Meitetsu Nagoya Station to a limited express to Meitetsu Gifu Station. It’s about a four-hour journey, but thinking about the sauna waiting ahead makes it feel trivial. I arrived at Gifu Station and started walking toward Shin Gifu Sauna. Since it was April, groups of fresh-faced new employees were shining with youthful energy everywhere. While glancing at those who had just started their professional lives, I was heading to the sauna. What freedom. After a short walk I saw the exterior I’d seen many times in magazines and on websites. I checked in at a very neat, clean entrance. Shin Gifu Sauna is a capsule hotel where you can stay overnight, and I planned to sleep here tonight. I had reserved a premium room in the annex. The annex felt like a share house: several rooms in a row with shared toilets and washbasins. The upper parts of the rooms weren’t closed off by walls, so sound carried between neighboring rooms. In other words, if you happen to be next to someone who snores loudly, you’ll have a fully stressful night. My room was directly opposite a toilet. The next morning I would wake up to the rare experience of hearing another guest’s or a staff member’s bathroom noises, but that’s another story. If you prioritize complete privacy, I wouldn’t recommend staying overnight. But that’s not the review I want to write. The real attractions of Shin Gifu Sauna are the sauna and the cold plunge baths. Let’s enjoy them thoroughly. Shin Gifu Sauna has an emotionally stirring origin story. The operator, Makoto Nishiyama, had originally run several izakaya. One of the sauna facilities he used to frequent closed in December 2020, causing the rent for the property to drop significantly. He decided to build a sauna there. Nishiyama raised funds using a business restructuring subsidy and crowdfunding, poured in the hospitality spirit he had cultivated running izakaya and his dedication as a sauna enthusiast, and managed to open in August 2022. This facility is the passionate crystallization of Gifu’s history and culture. Entering the large bath, it felt smaller than I had imagined; there is no open-air bath, only an indoor one. The rest area is accessed by exiting the large bath once; chairs and such are arranged beside the changing area. Birch trees and vihta are hung in this rest area, creating a well-crafted atmosphere that is lovely. Back to the indoor baths: Shin Gifu Sauna’s signature is the cold plunge bath fed by the Nagara River’s subterranean spring water. I could say I came here for this very cold plunge. I’ve visited Gifu many times, and the prefecture could be called a holy land for cold plunges—the natural water potential in Gifu’s cold plunges is astonishing. After cleansing and warming my body in a hot tub, I headed to the main sauna. There are also about three private saunas for 1–2 people in the same large bath area, but I’m not fond of cramped spaces, so I focused on the main sauna. The main sauna operates with two heaters: a far-infrared heater and a convection-style iki stove. The top bench reaches around 95℃ while the lower bench is about 70℃, so there’s a significant temperature difference by tier. It’s great to have many options depending on the temperature zone you prefer. I warmed my body slowly and finally headed to the cold plunge bath. Shin Gifu Sauna has three types of cold plunge baths. There’s the 15℃ flow-through called The Just, the 8℃ single called Extreme Gold, and a gentle one around 25℃ called Zero Gravity. Still, I wanted to start with The Just. The instant I submerged, I was surprised by how soft the water felt. The Nagara River’s subterranean spring water enveloped my whole body. I stayed still and let my body cool down thoroughly. After about a minute I felt the chill reach deep inside. I left the cold plunge, wiped off the droplets, and moved to the rest area. Surrounded by the gentle scent of birch, I lost consciousness for a while. It was unbelievably pleasant. While relaxing in the rest area, staff began to gather in the large bath one after another. An aufguss event was about to take place. Shin Gifu Sauna puts a lot of effort into aufguss, and they apparently have aufguss specialists on staff. What made me want to experience their aufguss was watching the staff prepare. They meticulously checked their towel techniques and simulated various movements they would perform inside the sauna. Above all, their eyes were impressive—the eyes of people who had made up their minds. I decided I definitely wanted to receive the aufguss and joined in. This aufguss style was called the Infinite Heatwave. From the start of the aufguss until the last guest left, the staff kept fanning continuously. In other words, it’s an endurance match of staff versus guests. Multiple staff members take turns fanning, but I had never encountered an aufguss that used this battle structure before. Usually a program is set and it ends when the time’s up. The content of the aufguss was also very unique: one performance per song, but both the music and the fanning style varied completely by staff member. In a single aufguss you could witness many different towel-handling styles, which was incredibly fun. I reached my limit partway through and left, then cooled my body down thoroughly in the 8℃ single, Extreme Gold. A single-person cold plunge is just right after an aufguss. Back in the rest area, a staff member who had finished the aufguss gave me some extra gentle air. They should have been exhausted, yet I couldn’t help but be moved by the hospitality. I’ve received aufguss at many facilities, and to be honest, a lot of them felt like routine work performed as part of the job, which rarely moved me. But at Shin Gifu Sauna I felt professional passion for the first time. The hospitality spirit that began in izakaya seems to dwell in their aufguss as well. After a wonderful time, my sauna activities for the day concluded. I planned to sleep here and go back into the sauna again in the morning.

At 6:00 am the next morning I woke up to the sound of someone using the bathroom, either another guest or a staff member. It was a rare awakening I wouldn’t experience in everyday life. However, when you stay at a sauna facility you can head straight into the sauna after waking up, which is wonderful. For that reason alone, the odd awakening earlier is forgiven. When I went to the large bath just after 6:00 am, many people were already there and the air was thick with heat. In one corner of the bathing area, staff were sitting exhausted and worn out. Had they really been doing aufguss since 6:00 am? Incredible. After the intense Infinite Heatwave the previous night, they were already running aufguss again early in the morning. Their passion for aufguss is the real thing. My morning sauna was one set. I slowly warmed my body in the main sauna to wake up, then finished with The Just cold plunge. My day began with the Nagara River’s subterranean spring water. It was a luxurious morning. After changing, I prepared to head to my next destination. Today I would move to Kani City to visit a facility I’d been curious about for some time. The facility’s name is Natural Hot Spring Mitsumine. My Gifu sauna trip was far from over.