How to Use a Japanese Sauna

Figures read from our database 2026-09-14 06:35 JST — rankings and counts are calculated at this moment, not stored.
Newest facility info in this set 2026-08-15 / Source: publicly available Google Maps listings. The HONMONO Score is calculated by this site from that data.

Japanese sauna culture borrows from Finland but has its own vocabulary and its own sequence. This page explains the words you will see on our listings, so the 1,706 facilities in our database make sense before you pick one.

The words you will see

サウナ(sauna)

The hot room itself. Most Japanese facilities run a dry room heated by an electric or wood-burning stove. Benches are tiered — the higher you sit, the hotter it is.

ロウリュ(löyly)

Water poured over hot stones to raise the humidity. The word is borrowed from Finnish. At some facilities a staff member does this on a schedule and fans the steam toward guests with a towel; that performance is called アウフグース (aufguss).

水風呂(mizuburo)

A cold water bath, entered after the hot room. This is a separate pool, not a shower. Rinse off sweat before getting in — entering the cold bath without rinsing is considered rude.

外気浴(gaikiyoku)

Literally “outer air bathing”: sitting or lying outdoors, or in a ventilated space, after the cold bath. Many facilities put chairs on a balcony or terrace for this.

ととのう(totonou)

The Japanese word regulars use for how they feel after cycling through those three steps. It is a name for a subjective experience, not a medical claim. We do not measure it and make no claims about health effects.

The usual sequence

Wash your body at the shower stalls first, then repeat this cycle as many times as you like:

1. 1. Hot room (サウナ)
2. 2. Rinse off, then the cold bath (水風呂)
3. 3. Rest in open air (外気浴)

How long to stay in each step is a matter of preference and of how you feel. Facilities post their own guidance, and staff will tell you if something is not allowed.

How we score facilities

Every listing carries a HONMONO Score built from six categories. The category names map directly onto the vocabulary above, so a high water_bath score means the cold bath is what people single out.

• Heat qualitythe hot room
• Water baththe cold bath
• Outside airthe resting space
• Cleanlinessupkeep
• Facilitywhat is on site
• Authenticityhow sauna-focused it is

Where the facilities are

Coverage is not even. These five prefectures hold the largest share:

• Hokkaido298 facilities
• Tokyo198 facilities
• Kanagawa85 facilities
• Osaka66 facilities
• Aichi42 facilities

What we cannot tell you

Three things visitors ask about most are not in our data, so we do not publish figures for them: admission prices, whether tattoos are accepted, and whether towels are included or rented. These vary by facility and change often, and guessing would be worse than saying nothing.

1,624 of the 1,706 listings carry the facility's own website, linked at the top of each detail page. That is the place to check those three before you go.