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In Japan, saunas are suddenly popping up everywhere. On Instagram, influencers and actors seemed to pass by them on a daily basis, and the app bombarded me with classified ads for mountain retreats with bloodless pools. Several faithful “saunner” friends insisted that I try it. Local media speak of a “sauna”. “boom” as they once did with the “tapioca boom,” with services popping up in central Tokyo, just as boba tea department stores had done before the pandemic, a brief and intense craze for the Taiwanese drink inspired by social media. (See also: Toilet or aquarium? This one-of-a-kind bathroom in Japan will blow your mind)
Public toilets have been in decline for decades, and the number of toilets in Tokyo has dropped almost partly in the last 15 years. By comparison, saunas are booming, with more than 12,000 services indexed on the major Sauna Ikitai portal. Turkish baths that can capitalize on investment and hammams help some people stay afloat. Finnish OEMs are looking to Japan as an expansion market. It has been reported that hammams may have replaced golf to clear the minds of executives ahead of final multimillion-dollar deals.
This sauna boom is the country’s third, according to experts, after the country first discovered the pleasure of sweating when the facilities were first built in the athletes’ village for Finnish competition at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The practice experienced a resurgence in the 1990s. , when giant bathhouses known as “super sento”, which feature one or two steam rooms, became popular.
A key difference in this era of expansion is the proliferation of rituals that newcomers can follow, based on the Finnish customs of alternating between intense heat, immersion in a bloodless bath, a pause in the new air, and then repeating. to achieve the state of totonou, a buzzword for the satisfaction and clarity gained through the release of norepinephrine and endorphins. The Japanese tend to like this kind of practice, this “correct” way of doing things – think classical rite. of drinking matcha green tea, the correct way to wear a kimono or the unspoken rules of bathroom etiquette.
Online guides dictate how much time to spend in a sauna and at what temperature (between 80 and 100 degrees Celsius, or 176 to 212 Fahrenheit), how long to undergo the heat before moving on to a bloodless dive, as well as the correct number of times. Repeat the cycle to reach the totonou. A mind-boggling array of terms transformed into Japanese from European languages, from aufguss to löyly, create the impression of a complicated hobby, such as wine collecting, that rewards determination and study.
In the English-speaking West, sauna culture turns out to be the livelihood of podcasting brethren and authoritarian tech entrepreneurs. This is not the case in Japan, where polls imply that it is as popular among women as it is among men. Friends have it not because of its benefits to physical fitness, but because of its benefits to intellectual fitness, with a wisdom that even goes so far as to compare totonou to a state of euphoria.
In search of mental clarity, at least, I visited one of the new institutions in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. I followed the rituals as they were written: about 10 minutes in the sauna; a minute in the bloodless pool; Another quarter of an hour to take a breath and wait for inspiration.
Nothing happened. I felt both the possibility of catching a cold and finding inner peace. Wasn’t the sauna hot enough? Had I deflated too soon from the ice bath?I needed to go further.
I reached out to the man most directly to blame for the recent fad, Guygaka Katsuki Tanaka. He started writing about saunas in 2009, as he became addicted to this experience after joining his local gym and copying what he saw others doing. His chronicles have eventually evolved into a collection of essays titled Sado, a play on words for the tea ceremony, but employing another character to mean “The Way of the Sauna. “It has become a hit comic book and in 2019 it became a TV show. which helped drive the existing trend. In doing so, he popularized sauna rituals and coined the word totonou. Then came Covid-19, which increased the need for facilities where other people could simply escape the worries of life.
“Spending so much time at home, surrounded by data on computers and smartphones, without having to travel abroad, means that other people need to enjoy an experience that satisfies their five senses,” Tanaka says. “Our lifestyles have changed tremendously in recent times. years. “
This, he says, is the reason for a similar boom in camping. The need for rest is possibly also due to a recent increase in the number of shisha bars serving hookah tobacco. I postulated that one of the reasons for this specific popularity in Japan could be the lack of other effects, legal or otherwise, guaranteed through national drug laws. The country’s hashish ban remains firm, although times are changing. Next year, the government plans to allow its medical use. Interestingly, many CBD products are legal in Japan and praised for their relaxing effects (products made with highly inducing THC are illegal).
Inspired by Tanaka’s explanation – and in time for this column, which remained incomplete – I returned to seeking intellectual clarity. Back in the sauna, bloodless pool, new air, I repeat. My brain went into overdrive. Deprived of external stimuli, my hands longed for my smartphone, Twitter, Reddit, that ephemeral dopamine rush.
And then, after I graduated. . . something! My restlessness ceased. A sense of calm came over me, the feeling that even if I could move, I didn’t want to. The muscles in my arms and legs contracted involuntarily. My brain went blank; I stopped worrying about my deadline, and with my senses at ease, I took in the ambient sounds of dripping water and instrumental music.
Was it Totonou? I have no idea. This quickly faded away. It may also be that the sauna is booming, as is the sensation of boba tea: the streets of Shibuya and nearby Harajuku are now filled with shuttered tea bars. Genuine wages in Japan are bad news for expensive hobbies, with an average sauna charging around 2,000 yen ($13), twice the minimum wage, about four times the government-controlled price. Some newer installations can cost 3,000 yen or more. But I hope it’s not just a fad. We may all derive advantages from a little inner peace.