How to Sauna in Japan: Steps, Etiquette and What "Totonou" Means
The Sauna, the Cold Bath, and the Art of Resting
Travel around Japan and you'll find saunas in a lot of places: hot springs, neighborhood bathhouses, hotels, big bathing complexes. The sauna itself is only part of the experience, though. You heat up in the sauna, cool down in a cold bath, and then you rest.
Sauna → Cold Bath → Rest
Sauna lovers in Japan care about the whole cycle. If this is your first time, here are the basic steps, the etiquette, and the best part, which is doing absolutely nothing afterward.
Where Can You Experience a Sauna in Japan?
Sento (Public Bathhouse)
Sento are traditional neighborhood bathhouses. People come for the baths, but many have a sauna too. It's the everyday side of Japanese bathing, used by the people who live nearby.
Super Sento and Spa Facilities
Bigger complexes with indoor and outdoor baths, several saunas, cold baths and somewhere to lie down. For a first visit, these are the easiest place to start. Spa World in Osaka's Shinsekai is a well-known one: eight floors of baths and many saunas, a Finnish sauna among them. It doesn't admit visitors with tattoos, and that includes temporary tattoo stickers.
Hotels and Ryokan
Some hotels and traditional inns have a sauna next to the large shared bath or hot spring. Convenient if you want a sauna without leaving where you're staying.
Private Saunas
A room or a whole facility you book for yourself or your group, so you set the pace and nobody else is in the sauna. At Kumihimo KOBE, a 120-year-old house in Kobe rented to one group a day, the sauna stands in the Japanese garden.
Rules differ from place to place, so read the facility's own information before you go in.
How to Enjoy a Japanese Sauna
1. Wash Your Body First
Wash properly in the shower area before the sauna, then dry off a little.
At many public bathhouses and bathing facilities in Japan, nobody wears swimwear. Check the house rules where you are.
2. Warm Up in the Sauna
Sit down and let the heat do its work. There's no set number of minutes. You're not there to prove you can take the heat, so leave when you feel warm enough.
Some Japanese saunas are quiet places. Keep your voice down and follow the house etiquette.
3. Rinse Off Your Sweat, Then Try the Cold Bath
Rinse off your sweat with a shower or some water before you get into the cold bath. Stay in only as long as it feels good. A short dip is plenty.
And if cold water isn't for you, skip it. A cool shower works, or go straight to resting.
4. The Most Important Part: Rest
You're not done after the cold bath. Find a chair, sit down and give yourself a few minutes. For a lot of people in Japan, this is the best part.
First, you warm your body in the sauna.
Then, you cool it in the cold bath.
And after that, you simply sit and do nothing.
Feel the air on your skin. Notice how your body feels. There's nowhere to be and nothing to do. This quiet stretch is what turns a lot of people into sauna regulars, and Japan's recent sauna boom is as much about the rest as about the heat.
So on your first visit, don't stop after the cold bath. Do the whole cycle:
Sauna → Cold Bath → Rest
The last step might end up being your favorite.
What Does "Totonou" Mean?
Read about Japanese sauna culture and you'll run into the word "totonou" (ととのう). Sauna fans use it for the deep, settled calm some people feel after going through the sauna, cold bath and rest.
You don't have to reach it, though. Everyone feels a sauna differently. Don't worry about whether you've "totonotta" or not. Just do what feels good.
What Is a Sauna Hat For?
You may see people wearing small hats in the sauna room. Those are sauna hats, mostly there to keep the heat off the head and hair.
Put it on when you go in and take it off when you leave. It's optional, and some facilities have their own rules about wearing or bringing one.
Japanese Sauna Etiquette
A few simple points, so everyone enjoys it:
- Wash your body before entering the sauna.
- Rinse off your sweat before entering the cold bath.
- Do not put your towel into the cold bath.
- Avoid speaking loudly.
- Do not reserve a particular seat or space in the sauna.
- Follow the rules of each facility.
At sento and other public baths you share the baths as well as the sauna, so the same consideration applies in the water.
For First-Time Visitors
There's no "correct" time in the sauna and no required number of rounds. Some people do three. Others are happy after one. Just don't push yourself.
Drink water. Skip the sauna if you feel unwell or have been drinking. Get out whenever it's too hot, and skip the cold bath if it's uncomfortable.
And when you've finished, don't rush off to the next thing. Sit down. Rest for a while.
A Japanese sauna isn't about enduring extreme heat or cold. Warm up. Cool down. Then do nothing.
That last quiet moment is why so many people here keep going back.