#Japanese saunas: Enoshima Island Spa (Kanagawa)
A unique experience of sauna/hot bath on Enoshima island, but is it worth it?
Type of facility: Spa
Price: 1700 yen for two hours
Tower is not included
Tattoos: Not allowed
Shampoo/Body soap: Included
Sauna type: Dry sauna (retractable type), up to 3 people
Sauna temperature: 94°C
TV in Sauna: No
Cold bath (Mizuburo): 20°C
Hot bath types: carbonated bath, hot bath
Dryers: Free, many
Sinks: Many
Drinkable water: There is a water server in the locker room, but not inside the bath
Toilet: Wester style toilet
Payment: Cash and cashless
As per the homepage, this Enoshima’s natural water emerges from 1500 meters underground and provides a special body-warming experience. There is a view on Sagami Bay and Mt. Fuji, and it offers enduring heat and moisture due it being a “sodium chloride strong salt hot spring”.
There are some other private saunas on the island, however these are only private and outrageously expensive (for over 5000 yen). This is the only public Spa with sauna to visit here.
First things first > the changing room is absolutely enormous and looks very luxurious. This is indeed very hotel-like and worth noticing.
How is the bath? Similarly, very spacious. Carbonated bath is big, but not as much as the hot bath. It is difficult to say how many square meters it can have, but for me it is certainly one of the biggest public baths in Japan I have seen. Rather peculiar though, that there are only as many as two types of bath.
The water server is not inside unfortunately; you can only find it in the changing room. Which means that every time you might want to drink water from it, you need to go back to the dressing room, drying off your body with the towel prior. And since we are obviously using sauna this can be annoying.
So how is the sauna itself? Believe it or not, but today being May 2024, they still have COVID countermeasures. This makes the already small five-seat sauna to allocate only three people. I was lucky enough not to be forced to wait in queue for my turn, but I saw many people coming just when I finished my last set.
Mizuburo feels too warm with as high temperature as 20°C. It just doesn't feel cold enough and it is a bit hard to experience Totonou fully.
Especially since there is no gaikiyoku. You only have few chairs inside the bath to take. Otherwise you may go to the dressing room and have a seat on front of the mirror and sink. At first I thought that three seats lined up on front of the sauna are for the break, but upon reading the message above they are located there for customers waiting for their turn in the sauna which makes you think that it can get crowded at times.
In overall, 1700 yen could be considered a rip-off for what the place presents. Sauna has place only for three people and the bath does not really offer much apart from being big. Even the carbonated bath is not that dense. There is no gaikiyoku either. Rotenburo is only available with a pool ticket which is as expensive as 3000 yen. Still, this is the only sauna available in the vicinity.
One good thing is that you can see a sunset over the sea, provided the weather is nice and you visit at the appropriate time. The place is not too jammed as well, as long as you only want to have a bath. However, for that price I can give you many other better alternatives.