This week, I set out on a sauna trip in Osaka. On Saturday morning, I drove all the way to Habikino, Osaka Prefecture. My destination was Nobehanoyu Honten. It is one of Osaka's top super sento, and also a facility visited by sauna enthusiasts from all over Japan. When I arrived, I stepped into the atmospheric building. An hour later, a small incident would occur inside the sauna room. When I entered the large bath area, the dark, modern atmosphere made it easy to forget that it was morning. The lighting and other details were probably carefully designed to help people relax. I warmed my body in the indoor natural hot spring, then moved on to the open-air bath. The open-air baths, using natural hot spring water generously, had many tubs and seemed able to accommodate a large number of people. I settled into the source-fed hot spring and looked up at the blue sky. Not a single cloud in sight, and the weather was beautiful. The fine weather was on my side too, and my sense of happiness only grew stronger. It was about time to head to the sauna. Nobehanoyu Honten has two types of sauna. The first is the main sauna called Netsufu Joya. It is a spacious sauna with two stoves, an iki stove and a rocky stove, and can accommodate more than 20 people. The room is dark with the lights dimmed, and there is a sign asking guests to refrain from talking. The second sauna is a self-löyly sauna called Netsu no Shitsu. It is a space for about 10 people, with no TV and a no-talking policy. Each sauna is a place for people to face themselves. For my first set, I decided to go to the main sauna. There were about 10 people already inside the spacious room, each absorbed in their own world. The only thing I could hear was the sound of the TV. If talking is prohibited, I wish they would remove the TV too.. Heat from the two sauna stoves gradually raised my body temperature. My heart rate also started to rise. It was proof that my blood was circulating more actively. Once I reached my limit, I went into the cold plunge bath. The cold plunge bath at Nobehanoyu uses groundwater. It does not seem to be free-flowing, but you can still feel the soft quality unique to groundwater. I cooled my body thoroughly. During the outdoor bathing break afterward, I took in the fresh morning air deeply through my nose and slowly exhaled through my mouth. It felt as if I were ventilating every corner of my body, and my mood became fresh too. Now, on to the second set. I headed to the self-löyly sauna. That is where the incident happened. When I entered the sauna room, it was so dark it reminded me of a meditation room, and I could already see several people in a meditative state. I sat on the upper level, closed my eyes, and pleasantly felt the heat of the sauna room. The quality of the self-löyly sauna is outstanding. By dimming the lighting and establishing a no-talking rule, it makes it easier to enter a meditative state, and the cold plunge bath is located right outside the sauna room, so the flow is perfect. In addition, the large open-air bath area has many chairs available, making outdoor bathing after the cold plunge bath comfortable as well. After the outdoor bathing break, you can warm your body in the proud natural hot spring, or head back to the sauna again. I appreciated having so many options. In the end, I did four sets of sauna, cold plunge bath, and outdoor bathing break that day. It felt amazing from the morning. After this, it was time for the meal I had been looking forward to.

On a sauna trip, my rule is to eat whatever I want without holding back. I was extremely hungry, so at the restaurant inside the facility I ordered a set of soba, tempura, and sushi, plus miso katsudon. Every dish soaked beautifully into my body after the sauna. I already felt like a champion, but it was still the morning. That meant I could enjoy this perfect moment once again at night. So where would I enjoy it? During my advance research, there was a facility that had caught my attention as possibly being incredibly good. That facility was Niji no Yu in Sayama, Osaka City.