I had my first experience with sento a few years ago, while I was in Tokyo for a year as an exchange student.
My friend offered me to take me to the public bath after class. As I am very curious and liked my previous experience with onsen I decided to try. The first time being naked in front of the other ladies and my friend was a little bit embarrassing but I was excited by this new place after 5 minutes I totally forgot about it. With my friend it became a ritual : every week during a year we went to the same sento, this precious time was our beauty, relaxation and girls ‘talk moment. We were bringing hair mask, body and face scrubs etc., it was like our customized spa.
After that I left Japan for a few years, and came back four years ago to work in a Japanese company.
At that time, I felt I very exhausted and stressed by the new environment and I remember Japanese public bath. I started to look for one near my house and the second I entered in I got overwhelmed by the warm feeling and memories from a few years ago. I felt I was ‘back’.
Since that moment I started again to go to the sento every week. As luck would have it, my new home is only a six minute walk from the sento I used to go to during my university, days. Luckily the sento owner remembered me. It is very enjoyable after a workday to relax in the sento, taking care of myself, chatting with the old ladies and sometimes watching TV in the sauna. After the bath, I often sit at the entrance sofa, and drink a beer while talking with the owner. As I learned a lot about the sento, I started to look around more and more and discovered that every sento was unique and has its own atmosphere, design and its charm. I want to share and mke discover the precious and beautiful culture of sento and help it not to disappear.
- Sento ambassador of Japan http://www.1010.or.jp/sento-ambassador/
- Sento free lance writer in French/English/Japanese (for exemple http://www.timeout.com/tokyo/art/the-art-of-sento ).
- Conference and talk show , some of my work:-Conference in Adachi kuyakusho about the risk of the heat-shock and the benefit of sento-Conference in Haneda airport international terminal about the charms of sento-Conference in Haneda airport national terminal about the-Conference and sento photography exhibition for Tokyu-hands ( http://www.enjoytokyo.jp/shopping/event/1326482/ )
- Tokyo public baths measures council menber for 2015/2016 http://www.metro.tokyo.jp/INET/KONDAN/2015/01/40p1u101.htm
- Sento guide, for foreigners visiting Japan and group (for more information do not hesitate tosend me an e-mail.
- Sento tour and event planning on request (for example for the school Coto Academy http://cotoacademy.com/blog/event/sento-japanse-public-bath/).
- Working with Toshima-ku and Oota-ku sento committee to realize the new web.
- Work with media http://www.tokyo-sento.com/press/
Contact: [email protected]
Picture by: http://www.1010.or.jp/
My beautiful logo designed by Ayumi Asada and Julien Cabrera
This post is also available in: Japanese