Experiences / Wellness
A public bath or a city onsen
銭湯と都心の温泉 せんとうととしんのおんせん
Wellness · Local life · Late night · Quiet
Tokyo still has some four hundred sento, the neighbourhood public baths with a Fuji painted on the wall, and a handful of real hot-spring onsen — Toyosu's bayside complex, the Azabu-Juban bath, the black-water baths of the old city. The etiquette is simple: wash sitting down before you get in, no swimwear, no towel in the water, tattoos may be a problem at large onsen but rarely at a sento. Twenty minutes in forty-two-degree water at nine at night is the best thing you can do for a day of walking.
- How to arrange it
- Sento need no booking and sell towels and soap at the desk; large onsen complexes book online for busy evenings.
- Price band
- ¥
- Allow
- 60 min
Where to book it
Roppongi & Azabu
Azabu Kuromisui Onsen Take-no-Yu
麻布黒美水温泉 竹の湯
¥ · 60 min · English: no
A working neighborhood sento in Minami-Azabu drawing genuine black-coloured natural hot-spring water (sodium bicarbonate cold mineral spring), not a re-heated tap-water bath. It has operated in this form since 1987 and keeps ordinary sento pricing and hours.
Tsukiji & Toyosu
Tokyo Toyosu Manyo Club
東京豊洲 万葉倶楽部
¥¥ · 120 min · English: partial
A large-scale hot-spring bathhouse drawing genuine natural hot-spring water piped up from deep underground, set inside the Toyosu Senkyaku Banrai market-and-food complex next to the fish market, so a soak can be paired with an early or late meal in the same building. It is a proper onsen facility rather than a neighborhood sento, with both indoor and rock-garden outdoor baths.
Named operators, each verified against its official site. We list the booking route and whether English is spoken; hours and prices live on the official site. All operators
Places
Azabu-Juban shopping street麻布十番商店街
A village high street between the embassies — taiyaki since 1909, a soba house since 1789, and a public bath.
75 min · Azabu-juban (Namboku / Oedo lines), exit 4
Toyosu Market and the tuna auction豊洲市場とマグロの競り
The world's largest fish market behind glass — tuna auctioned at dawn, sushi counters upstairs, and a rooftop lawn on the bay.
150 min · Shijo-mae (Yurikamome), direct by walkway