When you travel for saunas, you end up visiting places you'd never set foot in during ordinary life. Tsuyama City in Okayama Prefecture is one of those places for me. I'd never been there before, didn't know a single person there. I came purely because there was a sauna I wanted to try. There's always a sense of excitement when you step into a place for the first time. What scenery awaits? What kind of people live there? It's completely uncharted territory.
Tsuyama is located in the northern part of Okayama Prefecture, and I drove from Okayama city toward Tottori. It was raining. This is a trivial observation, but ever since I started my sauna travels, it rains an awful lot. So many weekends have been wet this year that I sometimes wonder if it rains every single Saturday and Sunday. As a result, almost all the exterior photos I post of facilities were taken under cloudy skies. Pondering this as I drove, I arrived in Tsuyama.
At 3 PM I checked in to Hotel Route Inn in front of Tsuyama Station. Hotel Route Inn is my go-to accommodation. I find it deeply comfortable and always sleep well there. One of the most important things for a successful trip is getting proper sleep, and whether or not a hotel suits you can make or break the quality of your rest. Sometimes you wake up inexplicably early. If you sleep well, you can go full throttle from the next morning, so having a hotel that works for you really matters.
With time to spare before evening, I decided to write blog posts in my room. I always bring a laptop on trips, using any free time to write articles or register information needed for running the site. Working on the road somehow feels more productive than working at home. Maybe my senses are sharper when I'm traveling. I got so absorbed in writing that 6 PM arrived in a flash. Time to head to the evening sauna.
Tonight's destination was Gokuraku no Sato Ebisu no Yu Kawabe. The facility is about a 10-minute drive from Tsuyama Station, sharing a site with a pachinko parlor and surrounded by a spacious parking lot. I parked and stepped inside. The place was bustling, and almost everyone looked like a local. Facilities loved by the community have a special kind of energy. The shop inside sold original merchandise, and I got the impression there are plenty of sauna enthusiasts among the regulars. The restaurant menu was impressively extensive, featuring chicken katsu curry and dishes made with sozuri-niku, a local Tsuyama specialty. I decided I'd eat some of that famous local food after my sauna.
I stripped down at lightning speed in the changing room and headed to the main bath. That morning I'd visited a private sauna where you wear a swimsuit, but honestly, the naked sento style suits me far better. The bathing area had a simple layout with several different tubs lined up. The outdoor section was spacious, and I enjoyed a long soak in the rock bath. It wasn't a hot spring, just regular hot water, but the outdoor area had plenty of relaxation space, so finding somewhere to rest after the sauna would be no problem.
After scouting out the baths, I warmed up in the outdoor bath and moved on to the sauna. The sauna room was large enough for about 20 people to sit comfortably, heated by a far-infrared heater. The benches were generously wide, so you could stretch your legs out or sit cross-legged with ease. As Finnish-style saunas have been on the rise lately, there's something quietly reassuring about a classic Japanese far-infrared sauna like this. The customers around me were all locals, and that homey atmosphere probably added to the feeling. It was wonderfully comfortable.
After sweating it out in the sauna, I moved to the cold plunge bath. It was positioned right next to the sauna room — perfect flow. The water temperature was around 16°C, deep and wide. I was able to cool my body down thoroughly.
Since I'd already done 4 sauna sets that morning, I wrapped up the evening after 2 sets.
After the sauna, it was time for the customary meal. From the extensive menu, I ordered the Hokkaido Obihiro-style pork rice bowl and the sozuri-niku stir-fry. Sozuri-niku is meat shaved from close to the bone of a cow. Apparently, in Tsuyama, Okayama, the dialect word for shaving or scraping is sozuru, and that's where the name comes from. The texture has a satisfying chew, with umami that deepens the more you bite into it — not unlike chicken seseri.
Discovering food you can only eat in that particular place is one of the great joys of travel. On sauna trips, the sauna itself sharpens your senses, including taste, so everything feels even more delicious. This happens every single time, but I find myself in a state of genuine happiness while eating. I feel truly alive, and the fact that food tastes this good is proof of it.
After enjoying the meal, I returned to the hotel and went to bed early, ready for the morning sauna ahead. Tomorrow I move on to Mimasaka City to experience a private sauna — a handmade wood-fired sauna with a free-flowing cold plunge fed by underground water, attached to a cafe. Tomorrow's destination is kobatoisa cafe&sauna.