Latest / bit of a Rambler / 055 O, Sento

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055 O, Sento · bit of a Rambler

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hello. My name is Kai, and I am a bit
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: of a rambler. I like to travel, learn and tell stories.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: And today is a tale of Sento. Sento are going
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: to get their whole own episode because they deserve it.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: Sento are the Japanese public baths that you can go
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: to that are all across Japan. And so there's like
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: the opodoh that's your personal bath at home, and then
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: there's the own sun, like the fancy hot springs that
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: might be artificial or natural and you just chill in
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the hot spring. The Sento are my favorite, especially as
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: a traveler. Sento are the public baths you can get
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: clean easy if you're backpacking through or if you just
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: want like a deep clean instead of using your house's shower.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: You can spend all day getting really clean and like
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: deep into your skin and you'll just feel as clean
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: and sparkly shiny new as you can after a day
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: at the cento. So first off, if you see a
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: sign with an ink drawn fish symbol on it, chances
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: are you are looking at a cento. So very often
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: that little fish on a sign is all the indication
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: you're going to get, especially in the city. That and
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: otherwise unassuming building is a luxurious spa with all sorts
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: of different hot tubs inside waiting for you to destress
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and relax in. The public baths are just that public baths,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: so they charge like a little bit of money up front,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: a really little bit. Three to seven dollars is very normal,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: or at least it was when I went a few
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: years ago. And you can find some for ten to twenty,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: but all the local ones will be under ten USD.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: So you pay little money. You get in there, you
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: bathe yourself first in a separate bathing area so that
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: you're completely clean first, and then you go into the
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: area with all of the different hot and soaks and
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: saunas and all that stuff. So they are a public
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: utility basically where you I mean, they're privately owned, but
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: you pay a little money and then you can wash
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: yourself and distress and soak up the culture literally, And
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: it really feels when you enter one, it automatically feels
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: like the oldest part of the city, even if it
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: was made that day. There's a very conscious effort to
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: not make everything look space age and new and whatever.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: They clean these CentOS constantly so it never smells weird.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I've been in dozens of them, and there's never a
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: strange smell, there's never a weird stain somewhere. Everybody acts appropriately.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: It's just a public utility for you to clean and relax, basically,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: and it's truly unique among any country I've been to.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: I've been to Moroccan baths, and I've been around to
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: a few other public baths, but they all feel dirty
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: or and weirder than the Japanese ones for me. So
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: and they whip you in the Moroccan ones and really
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: scour you, whereas you can kind of relax at your
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: own pace in the Japanese CentOS. I like them because
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: when you're there, it's very clear that everybody is there
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: for the same thing, get clean, relax, free their minds.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: Everyone just chills out and nobody has any stress and
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: we're all just letting everything go. And they're not all
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: the same. Like different sentos have different soaps. So you
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: have a green tea soak or purple tea soak. I
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: can't remember there was a purple one, but I can't
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: remember what they called it now. So you have a
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: whole bunch of stuff and then there will be like
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: a jacuzzi, or rather a hot tub with jets that
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: shoot out a baking soda water mixture, so that like
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: x fulliate or scanny, your skin is crazy smooth without
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: any you know, scrubbing or any of that. You're just
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: scrubbed clean by the baking soda and then your skin
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: is velvety soft. It's crazy. There's some with like electric things,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: so you put your arm next to these underwater bars
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: and if you get within a few centimeters, you'll get
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: little pin pricks of electricity kind of zapping you, and
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: it doesn't hurt. It's just like little it's difficult to
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: call them pin pricks because they really don't hurt. They're
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: just electric shocks, tiny electric shocks that wake your skin
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: and your muscles up. Some of them have larger pool
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: areas and the artificial onsen hot springs also like in
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: a couple of corners that you can go chill out
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: at if you don't want a specific soak like the
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: tea or baking soda or jet bubbles or whatever. But
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: they're all great so that I really like them, because
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: every single one is different, so I usually didn't go
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: to the same one, especially when I'm backpacking. Walking down
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: to town, and the first thing I would do when
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: I enter a town was like, where's the fishy symbol?
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Because that was about the level of my Japanese. I
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: was studying it and making very little progress, so I
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: would just look around for the fish symbol, and when
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: I saw it, I walked in and there wasn't a
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: lot of people who spoke fluent English and were like, ah,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: welcome to our public bass please. But if you show
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: up in a cento and you say sento, they're like, okay,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: he's here for the public maths. It's not a difficult
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: tradition to enter into. So let's talk about the process.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: You find that little fishy symbol, you walk inside, if
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: there is someone standing behind a desk, you're probably in
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: the right place, especially if you say sento and then
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: they're like sento, then you're all good. So they'll usually
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: be a sign that tells you how much it is,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: or they will explain it to you. There's enough English
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: that you're going to be able to get by, and
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: even if not, they're so accommodating Japanese people as a whole,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: especially the service industry Japan, that they'll be able to
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: communicate the basic rules. How much is this, tattoos yes
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: or tattoos no? How long you can stay, which is
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: usually all day. But I do hear that some city
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: one say like you can stay for six hours or
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: you're supposed to say for four hour maximum. I've never
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: had that, And that was about my conversational ability regarding CentOS,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: saying cento centoka and then them saying cento this. So
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: you pay the entrance fee first. Sometimes you take a
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: little ticket and give it to the person at the desk,
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: and then they give you a receipt and then you pay,
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: So just do whatever, Just pay them. After you pay them,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: they'll give you your robe for afterwards or not, depending
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: on what the place is like. They'll give you a towel,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: and then they'll lead you to the locker room, so
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: you take off all your clothes. Everybody that's where everybody
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: dis robes, puts their clothes into the locker along with
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: the towel that they gave you, or the robe and
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: slippers whatever. Like I said, they're all private businesses, so
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: they all do it a little differently, but the process
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: is the same. After all of your stuff is safely
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: in the locker and you have your key, walk out,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: just follow everybody else. They're all going outside to the
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: washroom first, where you actually bathe, so you kind of
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: give yourself. It's not a sponge bath, a hand bath.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: There's usually going to be ten or twenty mirrors with
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: faucets sticking out in a line, and then little stools.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: So you sit on the stool. There's a bucket. You
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: fill up the bucket with the water, dump that over
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: your head. Now that you're all wet, you use the
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: very nice soap that they provide. I always love the soap,
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: and I have no idea what. Yeah, I'm sure it's
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: just Japan just has great soap. Maybe that's why, but
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know what kind it is. Anyway, the soap
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: is great. So you lather yourself up and then you
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: wrench yourself off with the bucket. You can wash yourself
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: as much as you want to. Just use all the water,
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: get yourself as clean as you can. But make sure
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: you get yourself clean because this is the bathing part.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: You're getting yourself cleaned so that you can go to
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: the sentoe and relax, because nobody wants a bunch of dirty,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: you know, dirt in the very nice baths. You don't
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: want to steep yourself in green tea, and then the
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: next guy that goes in sees a ring around the
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: tub that's not very relaxing. So you're treating the sentoe
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: with respect by bathing yourself as well as you can first.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: I especially like to rub my arms and legs very
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: well because I got hair all over my forearms and
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: my legs, so I try and make sure I don't
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: just have a bunch of loose hair popping up once
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: I get into the baths themselves. So you have washed,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: you have shampooed, you've soaked. You're as clean as you
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: would be normally. Because you can use as much water
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: as you want, you get very very clean. Now that
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: you are clean, it's time to get into those hot
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: tubs and jacuzzis and soaks. Baby. Like I said, you
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: might have the electric shock tub, you might have a sauna.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: You definitely probably have the polar bear plunge where it's
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: like very low temperature or water. I've seen one with
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: four different types of teas in a row, and it's
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: a very small, like one meter diameter like tea cup,
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: giant tea cup basically, and you sit inside the giant
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: tea cup in whatever style of tea it is, and
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: there'll be little placards that tell you like, this one's
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: good for your chie, this one is good for your skin,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: this one is good for your energy. And sometimes there
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: will be a large just regular room temperature pool area.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: Sometimes there will be like the onsend in set apart
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: from that, so like really hot hot springs with a
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: little bamboo waterfall coming out shooting fresh water and constantly.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: My favorite is probably the baking soda water mixture because
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: you just sit there, and mine had foot jets also,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: and so your whole body from all angles is just
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: being scrubbed with a wet well, you're in water, so
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: it's pretty wet with a water jet of baking soda slurry,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: and you're just scrubbed completely clean. It's completely painless. It's
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: just very very soft, exfoliant water, much less than a slur.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: It's mostly water. You can't like see the baking soda
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: in there or anything. But afterwards you're like the smoothest
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: skin you've ever had, and by you, I mean me.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: It was the smoothest skin I have ever felt on
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: my body before, especially on my feet, which I am
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: a backpacker, So I walk for you know, two months
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: at a time, and my feet are an inch of
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: callous covering the entire bottom of my foot. My heels
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: are made of boot rubber material. So it's a very
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: novel and a comfortable experience. Just be so smooth and clean,
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: so clean. There's no setup that you have to do,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: or there's no route that you have to follow. I
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: know that because I really like to adhere to the
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: cultural traditions. So I was kind of worried, like, oh,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: you have to go in after you bathe, you have
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: to go on the tea first, and then go in
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: a room temperature and then go in the hot spring
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: and then go to But uh no, because I watched
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: and people just go to whatever they feel like going
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: to when they enter. All the Japanese people who were
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: sentdoeing with me in the public baths. So whicheverone sounds
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: good to you. And I'm sure there are like fifty
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: different kinds of things that I haven't mentioned because they've
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: slipped my mind at the moment, or like I haven't
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: been to that particular centa. But whatever one looks, you're like, oh,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: I wonder what it's like to soak in that bowl
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: of medicine, because there'll be a medicinal little hot tub.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Go do that, just try it out, and then if
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: you like it, great. If you don't like it, get out,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: go to the next thing. You're gonna like one of them,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: or probably like a dozen of them, and you can
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: just stay in there for as long and little as
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: you like. And then you just do that all day.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: That's the whole day. That's what's so great about this.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: You just soak and relax in hot or cold water.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: Like I love going into let's say the baking soda one,
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: and then I'll go on the hot spring, I'll get
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: really hot, and I'll go on the polar bear plunge.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: I'll go straight from the cold water into the sauna.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: I just love all the extreme differences that are all around.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: If you want, they have massuses, you pay an extra
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: ten bucks or something and then you can get a
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: massage at some of them, the ones that have that
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: set up. So you get to choose your own adventure
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: and just go around the sento and there'll be people
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: all around you doing the same thing. Everyone's trying out
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: different stuff, and yeah, your whole goal there is just
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: to relax, so it's wonderful. I'll generally spend in a
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: couple hours, like I'm usually there for at least an
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: hour because I'll use the sauna and I like to
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: sit inside here or there for a while, so it's
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: usually at least an hour, but I think two hours
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: is about a good max for me. You can stay
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: as long as you want to. There's usually no time limits,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: and when you're done, I have seen people just leave.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: But after I get so hot and my skin is
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: breathing and sweating and everything, I like to take another
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: shower after, so I'll take a whole second shower or bathing,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: a cleansing. I'll undergo a second cleansing after all of
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: my hot tub gallivanting and just make totally clean again,
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: especially if I'm backpacking, because obviously one of these clean
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: as possible before you head back out on the road.
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: So I do a second final cleansing, and then I
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: go into my locker, I get my clothes. Sometimes there's
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: a robe and you can just wear the robot to
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: the relaxing room, but either way, you get dressed or
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: put on your robe and they go to the relaxing room,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: which is almost as great as the relaxing hot tubs
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: you just came from. So after your experience in the
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: public baths, there is usually a big, wide, open spaced,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: open area relaxing room. My favorite one had all beanbags.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: There's like a dozen beanbags in a semicircle in front
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: of a huge wall to wall ceiling to floor set
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: of glass walls. And it was on top of a
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: mountain and I just looked out over the entire countryside
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: as the sun set coming out, and it's magical, Like
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: you couldn't have a better experience. I certainly didn't. That's
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: probably my favorite Centa experience. And then all around the
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: ring of that area, outside of where the bean bag
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: chairs would be, there'll be an ice cream kiosk and
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: a like simple stir fry okinomi yaki the Japanese omelet kiosk,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: and like little food things all around so you can
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: pay five bucks and get whatever snack or food you want.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Then there will be like little games or arcade machines
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: right around there. It's just another like chill out, snack
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: game room relax after your experience, which is good they
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: have that because you're in hot tubs for like two
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: hours or four hours if you're just going buck wild,
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: and that's a long time. Like I have gotten lightheaded,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and it's just an experience for my body. So I'll
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: get tired and in the relaxing thing'll be like ready
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: to fall asleep, which you can do. I've seen people
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: sleeping in those chairs. Just don't snore and disturb everyone
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: else's serene, relaxing contentment. So that's it. Your relaxing room
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: is over. If you're wearing the robe, you can go
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: back to your locker and change into your regular clothes.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: Usually you just change into your clothes before you go
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: out into the relaxing room. So but when you're finished relaxing,
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: when you're like, okay, I'm recovered from my intense chill
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: out marathon all day and I'm totally clean, you just
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: stand up and say thank you and goodbye, and you
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: leave those guys, and then you check your offline maps
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: like I do, and you're like, all right, there's one
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: twenty six kilometers that way, and you just start walking
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: in that direction because that's going to be the next
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: town you visit. And that's how I spent my initial
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: three months in Japan backpacking. I just walked from one
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: sento to another, and I just look for that little
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: fish and I was like, I wonder what's in this one,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: and it would be They're all different. It's really interesting,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Like one had a perfectly natural looking recreation of a
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: grotto with a small stream entering it. They all look traditional.
• 16:58
  Speaker 1: There's not too many new architecture, stainless steel things inside.
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: It just looks like a traditional bathhouse. And they all
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: offer different amenities and different hot tubs and all that
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So it's new every time, but you
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: know you're gonna get the same comforting relaxation period that
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: you got at the last one, and maybe this one
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: will be even better. But at its baseline, the absolute
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: worst Japanese cento is still ultra clean. There's no weird
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: smells or blemishes anywhere stains. It's going to have basic
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: hot tubs and like two weird ones that are still comfortable,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: like green tea or Moroccan tea or whatever the heck.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: You're still going to have a great relaxing experience at
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: the worst Japanese cento I did, Like the worst one
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: I went in was oh, and the worst ones are
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: also going to be like the cheapest ones, or I'll
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: say the ones who offer the least variety and amenities
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: are the cheapest ones. So even if you're just like, oh,
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: this one only has five hot tubs, plus the polar
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: bear plunge, plus the sun and the towel and the
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: soap and the like the worst one, you still get
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: completely clean, and it's still completely relaxing, and it only
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: costs you three dollars. It's great. I was gonna try
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: and add like the things you should watch out for,
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: but I've never had to watch out for anything in
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: a public baths. Like if you have tattoos, some sentos
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: don't want you in there because it's tied to the
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: yuck is a and it's just basically like a tradition
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: now not to allow tattooed people into some public baths,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: But other public baths have the sign right there tattoos
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: are okay, so and you can ask them. If you
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: don't know, they'll tell you right away. Other than that,
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: I've never been to a dirty public bath. They're constantly
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: cleaner than any building hype ever into, so you don't
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: have to worry about that. There's nothing to worry about.
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: It's inexpensive a great way to clean yourself, a great
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: way to relax. Everyone is kind, The service people are
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: ready to help you with anything you need. Do you
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: need two towels instead of one? Ask them they'll give
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: you a second towel. Like there's just no worries. It's
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: all about helping you clean and relax and purify yourself
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: and just chill out. I appreciate the utilitarian aspect of
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: these facilities. Any town or city you are in has
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: a bath house within a couple of blocks, and you
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: can go to it clean yourself, relax. Let's say you're
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: a digital nomad and you just had a really tough day.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: Set a time or for three hours, walk for fifteen
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: minutes to the bathhouse, completely distress for two hours, go
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: back and go back to work. Even if the rest
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: of the day sucks and you have to work on
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: that thing, you just totally chilled out for two hours.
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: Your day was made better by this public utility that
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: you can access at very little cost to yourself as
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: often as you want. That really is a good distressing option.
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: I've obliquely mentioned this. I want to mention the comforting
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: anachronism aspect or characteristic of public baths. When I step
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: into a public bath, I don't think, oh, this is
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: a new building trying to emulate what once was. It
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: much more feels to me like this is Japan a
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: thousand years ago, and the city or town has built
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: up around it. They've replaced some of these pipes, like
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: they don't use lead pipes anymore. But the water itself
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: feels like it's coming from a thousand years ago. There's
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: nothing that throws you off and you're like, oh, this
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: is so this is too modern. It's not enjoyable as
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: what it once was. It feels like a bath house
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: you see in a Japanese painting or something. They all do.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: So it has a very wonderful traditional atmosphere that I
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: really enjoy, even the way they treat you. I mean
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Japanese service. The Japanese service industry is phenomenal in general,
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: but it just blows my mind how consistently accommodating they
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: can be in what must be a very high stress
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: environment for these service people to work in. But I've
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: never met a rude Japanese service person. And like I said,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: I've literally been to dozens of the public paths. I
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: went to one almost every single day while I was traveling,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: sometimes twice a day. To be honest, I'd go to
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: one in the morning. If I came upon a new
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: place and it was like ten or eleven am, I'd
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: be like, oh, why not, this is a new town,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: new one, I'd go to it. I'd walk for five
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: or six more hours. I'd be in a new town
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: and I'd see the little fish and I'll be like, well,
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: I'm going to try this one also. So I've probably
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: tried like a hundred Japanese on sense because I've bet
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: or sorry Japanese sentos, because I've been to Japan I
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: don't know half a dozen times, and they've always been pleasant.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: They've always been an accommodating, comforting experience. Even one time,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I lost my key at one and I was beside
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: myself because I'm I like to be pretty careful with
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: all my things, and I could not understand how I
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: had lost the key because it has an elastic you
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: put on your wrist and I wasn't swimming around or anything.
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: It was just walking from hot tub to hot tub.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: But a staff comes in and they like two or
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: three staff came in and helped me look for the keys.
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: And then I found it next to one of the
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: hot tubs I was in and it was over and
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: I was naked, because you are all naked in the
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: public bass. The service people were closed, but it didn't
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: feel awkward because they were so professional. They just walk
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: in they say what can we do. I was like,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: I lost my key, and they're like, we'll look for
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: it first, and if we can look for it, you
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: pay a little fee at the front and it's all good.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: So let's look for it for a few minutes. If
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: we can't find it, no problem. And I was like, yeah, okay,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: And then we looked for it. We found the key.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: It was no problem, and I never felt awkward or
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: embarrassed because my locker held my clothes and that's what
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: the key was for. So I couldn't change and then
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: tell them first. So I just had to stand there naked,
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: naked and not afraid. New reality show set in Japanese sentos,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: because I knew that they were just going to help
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: me and no one was going to be like, look
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: at the dumb naked American who screwed up. Everyone just
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: so accommodating and professional and helpful. I like to shower.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: I like to get clean, and I'm a backpacker, so
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: those two don't really go together unless you're in Japan,
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: because you can walk all day and then clean yourself
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: completely at the beginning of the day and at the
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: end of the day for a few dollars, like literally
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: three to five dollars is very common for the smaller
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: bathhouses because they service so many people that they don't
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: need to inflate ticket prices, and they would be you
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: can feel that if they tried to price gouge there
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: would be a riot, because that's just not how Japanese
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: businesses work generally. Typically from what I've run into and
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: I've seen, it's just like, you pay three dollars, you
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: take advantage of these facilities, thank you, we'll see you
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: again maybe and done. And I've mentioned the price a
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: few times, but I should say it. They are cheap.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: It's amazing how cheap these facilities are. They're cheap because
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: they're so ubiquitous, and because after you get it running,
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: you know it's just water and you have to make
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: sure the pumps all work, so you don't need a
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: ton of upkeep money compared to say a restaurant, but
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: you do need to keep it sparkling clean. There can't
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: be any weird smells. Have to make sure all of
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: the pumps are working, so there is a lot of
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: work that goes into it. But the ticket prices are
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: kept cheap. I don't think I've ever paid more than
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: ten dollars to visit a public bath in Japan. Maybe
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: I'm thinking maybe there was one time I paid eleven
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: or something. But my favorite experience that I mentioned earlier,
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: that was seven dollars seven dollars and I spent five,
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: four or five hours altogether cleaning myself, visiting every single
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: hot tub there were like twenty something different hot tubs,
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: plus the sauna, and then cleaning myself again and then
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: relaxing the relaxing room. And that was seven dollars for
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: a basically all day experience. The affordability cannot be overstated.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: It's amazing value for your money, amazing value for your money. Amazing. Okay,
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: this is another ineffable. Maybe I should just call the
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: sex try and lump them all together. The intangible things
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: that you can't quantify, but it's a characteristic of the experience.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: That is the arrival at the cento after walking, especially
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: to the cento. So if you're backpacking, and or even
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: if it is like thirty minutes outside the city and
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: you take a car there, the arrival there, it's the
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: regular arrival of every destination. But because it offers so much,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: so consistently, I certainly have a special appreciation for arriving
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: at a cento. I'm never like, I hope this one's good.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: I will walk for five hours or backpack, you know,
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: my shoulders are sore and my feet are heavy or whatever.
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: But then I'm there. This anticipation builds up, and once
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: you get there, you know it's going to be good.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: And it always is a great experience and a very
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: relaxing experience and rewarding experience and unique. It's always unique.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Each cento has their own way of doing things and
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: their own esthetic, their own hot soaks, and their own
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: I don't want to call them activities, but their own offerings.
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: The offerings of each cento is unique to that public bath.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: So I love arriving at a public bath much more
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: than I like arriving at I don't know, a donor
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: kebab shop, or like, what's another comparable example, when I
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: get to a new hostel or hotel or whatever. I'm
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: always excited to see my new place, but I'm always
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: a little trepidacious about what I'm going to have to fix,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: how I'm going to have to understand the location, like
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: does their water filter work? Or like do they have
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: laundry on site? Or like all just all these little considerations. Oh,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: this chair doesn't quite fit correctly, and there's all these
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: little things that you have to keep awareness open. You
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: have to be mindful of your surroundings, which isn't awful,
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: of course, it's a good thing, but it can be
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: a little fatiguing, Whereas the arrival at a cento allows
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: me to rest assured that the staff will be taking
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: care of everything the right way. Entering a cento is
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: the time to abdicate some small sliver of self preservation
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: and pamper yourself and relax, and the service staff will
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: basically just take your money and then get out of
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: your way, and you can just get clean and lay
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: all your worries at the door. I love that feeling.
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: And you're physically clean after, so you get rid of
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: all your stress, but you're also physically clean after, so
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: it's a double whammy of good feeling. If you go
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: to Japan, go to one of the public baths. If
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: you need a reason to go to Japan, go for
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: the public baths. I visited sentos down crooked, hundreds year
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: old alleys, others glorified on mountaintops amid cherry blossoms. Sentos
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: are extremely unique, valuable cultural experiences worth participating in. If
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: you have any questions or want to share a cento
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: story of your own, send me a message at bit
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: of a Rambler at gmail dot com or on all
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: the socials and I'll get back to you. Enjoy life,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: soak it in.