Sento spectacular -- Tokyo's amazing public baths

by Mark Buckton

Does the thought of getting nude with the neighbors or starkers with strangers in your local sento, or public bath, raise a smile or make you cringe?

Whatever your personal take, most reading this will be aware the process of bathing in true Japanese form has long been a communal, often social, activity.

Even so, it’s still one part of traditional life that can put some visitors, and nowadays Japanese too, on edge.

Still, if you’re not too far on the shy side, we recommend you swallow your pride, understand that your own bits and pieces are of little interest to anyone else and take off the towel.

To most Japanese people, sento are a thing of the past, born of an era when houses did not have their own bathrooms in the decades and centuries up to around 1970.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view. Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.