Expectations can often lead to disappointment, but when you have little to no expectations, you might encounter results beyond your imagination. My experience at "Sayama-go Onsen Niji no Yu Osaka Sayama Branch" was exactly that. On this day, I visited "Nobuta no Yu Main Branch Habikino" in the morning and completed four sauna sessions, then checked into my hotel at 15:00 for a nap. I don't have the habit of setting an alarm when I sleep, so only the divine knows when I'll wake up. I fell asleep after 3 PM and woke up at 6 PM. Had I really napped for three hours? The sun had set, and it was getting dark. In such a case, there's only one destination: the sauna. I needed to visit a facility that would serve as both a wake-up call and a perfect end to the day. That's why I decided to visit "Sayama-go Onsen Niji no Yu Osaka Sayama Branch." "Sayama-go Onsen Niji no Yu" is located in Sayama City, Osaka Prefecture, and I would probably never have the chance to visit in my life unless for a special purpose. With the spirit of "once-in-a-lifetime encounter," I drove to the destination. Upon arrival, I found a rather large facility, well-maintained and clean, with a design-rich interior that caught my eye. I headed to the large bath on the second floor and quickly undressed. First, I washed my body and headed to the open-air bath. At Niji no Yu's open-air bath, you can soak in the natural hot spring water that wells up from underground while watching a waterfall. The open-air bath faces a cliff, from which water cascades down. It was a very open space, and I relaxed there for a while. The open-air bath also features unique attractions, such as the egg-shaped "Tsubo-yu" designed by a renowned designer, offering experiences you can only have here. After thoroughly warming my body in the natural hot spring, I headed to the sauna room. Inside, a large stove with stacked stones sat in the center, surrounded by seating. The automatic löyly every 10 minutes and occasional staff-led löyly created high humidity, and the aroma was fantastic. Moreover, there was no TV inside the sauna room, and the lighting was quite dim. Where a TV might have been placed in the initial design, a "Vihta" made of bundled birch branches was displayed. Naturally, talking is prohibited. The sauna's temperature, humidity, aroma, and lighting were all to my liking. I sat cross-legged, slowly closed my eyes, and focused my senses on the heat and aroma of the sauna. Honestly, I didn't have high expectations for the sauna, but encountering such a wonderful sauna was a stroke of luck. When you encounter something beyond your imagination in an unexpected place, your happiness multiplies. Wrapped in a sense of happiness, I was able to sweat it out nicely. The cold plunge bath is located right outside the sauna room. The walls are entirely embedded with high-quality charcoal, and water is continuously supplied along these walls. The charcoal-filtered cold plunge bath has a smoothness to it. Although it feels a bit cramped with space for about three people, I was lucky to have it all to myself. The water temperature is around 15°C, which is also a very well-balanced temperature range. I cooled my body thoroughly for about a minute and then sat down on a resting chair. Niji no Yu seems to have a particular focus on its relaxation spaces as well. In addition to having numerous chairs set up in the spacious open-air bath, there are also chairs placed in various spots in the indoor bath, allowing you to sit down whenever you want to take a breather. There's also a dedicated outdoor air bath area, so you won't have trouble finding space even with many guests around. It's suitable for quietly achieving totonou alone or enjoying a warm bath while chatting with friends. It's an excellent facility. After that, I repeated the sauna → cold plunge bath → rest cycle three times. Fortunately, no one was talking inside the sauna room here, allowing me to focus inward. It's often difficult to have a good experience at a facility with just your own efforts. This journey made me realize that achieving the ultimate state of relaxation requires cooperation with the surrounding guests. This is because incidents like the one at "Nobuta no Yu Main Branch Habikino" can happen.

After leaving the large bath, I lay down for a while in the tatami room within the facility and decided to have a meal at the restaurant. Next to the table I was guided to, two women were passionately discussing something. 'That's why I told my husband! If you're going to cheat, do it in front of me!' I see, I can somewhat understand the gist. She seems quite furious. The other woman seems to be on the defensive. It's easy to be carefree since it's someone else's business, but she seems about to boil over, so it might be better to enter the sauna and cold plunge bath before the meal. That way, she might be able to have a calmer conversation than now. In life, various problems arise, and problems occur within myself every day. Stress accumulates. Unavoidable things happen. There are times when you lose direction. At such times, first, enter the sauna. Do three sets of sauna → cold plunge bath and reconsider. Then, you might come up with a new solution, or you might realize that what you were worried about doesn't matter at all. On the other hand, there are things that can't be resolved even after entering the sauna. Those are significant matters. That's how I perceive it. Most things are forgotten after a refreshing sauna and cold plunge bath. I might get scolded by the woman next to me for being so carefree, so I'll end it here for today.