Today, I had already done 9 sauna and cold plunge bath sets, but strangely, I wasn’t tired at all. At Kobe Sauna, I did 3 sets from 2 a.m. and 3 more from 8 a.m. Then at Rumor Plaza in Kyoto, I did 3 sets from noon. From there, I headed to Tsuruhashi and was about to enter the sauna again. Since I’m constantly in the bath, my body is silky smooth. I went inside, checked in at reception, and headed straight to the large bath area. After cleansing myself, I soaked in the natural hot spring indoor bath. While looking out over the garden-like open-air bath, I slowly warmed my body. My warm-up was complete, so it was time to enter the sauna. At Noba no Yu Tsuruhashi, there are two saunas. The first is the main sauna, where aufguss and other programs are held every 30 minutes. The other is a sauna where you can do self-löyly in silence. First, I headed to the main sauna. Just as I was about to enter, I saw a sign saying entry was prohibited. It seemed an aufguss was in progress. I decided to wait outside for a while. After some time, a large crowd emerged looking utterly exhausted by the heat. In the same flow, they jumped into the cold plunge bath and looked incredibly comfortable. When I entered the main sauna after the aufguss, I was overwhelmed by heat so intense it made it hard to breathe. The humidity was unbelievable. Even inside, white steam was visibly rising. I wondered just how intense the aufguss had been. Before I had even sat on the bench for a minute, sweat began pouring out. Since I had already been in saunas so much today and the conditions inside the sauna room were so extreme, I couldn’t stop sweating. In about 5 minutes, my heart rate reached its limit. I left the sauna and went to the cold plunge bath. It was plenty spacious and deep, and designed so you could submerge yourself. I rinsed off the sweat and slowly cooled my whole body. They seem to use groundwater, and the soft water wrapped around me. The outdoor bathing area was also well equipped, with many chairs available. I sat in one of them and reflected on the day. When I go to the sauna at night, I always try to look back on the day. When that’s done, I either go completely blank or think about the issues I’m dealing with. I think the sauna is a good place for thinking things through. When I act on ideas that come to me in the sauna, things often move in a positive direction. In that sense, you could say the sauna has saved my life. I can’t imagine a life without sauna. For the second set, I went into the sauna where self-löyly is possible. This one also had plenty of humidity and felt amazing. The sauna stove is positioned below the bench, so you can directly feel the steam rising from the löyly. All that’s there is heat, air, benches, and people. There’s no blue light. Maybe the other guests were also focusing on themselves, because they sat with their eyes closed in meditation. I’ve visited many sauna facilities, and everywhere I go I encounter different kinds of saunas. There is no such thing as an identical sauna. Each one is original. That’s part of what makes sauna so great. Once again, I was able to encounter a wonderful sauna. After leaving the sauna and getting into the cold plunge bath, my body told me that 2 sets were enough for today. Doing more sets isn’t necessarily better. What matters in sauna is listening to your body. My sauna activity for today ends here.

While eating at the restaurant inside the facility, I plan tomorrow. There are two ways I approach sauna trips. One is the style where I carefully decide in advance which facility to visit. The other is the no-plan style, where I just dash out of the house. This time I chose the latter, so I decide my destination and accommodation in real time. I really like this travel style. Since there’s no plan, unexpected things naturally happen, and because I haven’t done enough research, I may come across facilities that are different from what I imagined. But that is life, and that unpredictability is what makes it interesting. Now then, when I thought about where to go tomorrow, I suddenly remembered something. There was supposed to be a renovated hot spring facility in Osaka recently. I had heard it was a major renovation that cost over 1 billion yen. I had also seen information saying they built one of Japan’s largest saunas, capable of accommodating 140 people. After looking into it a little more, I found that it’s near Shin-Imamiya Station. It’s also easy to access from Tsuruhashi via the Osaka Loop Line. My destination for tomorrow was decided. Tomorrow morning, I’m going to SPAWORLD HOTEL&RESORT.