Super Sento Yamato No Yu In July, 2002 a new "super sento" bath called "Yamato no Yu" opened in Mukainada, along Hiroshima's coast. "Yamato no Yu" is located right bang smack between two factories, namely, Mazda and Delta. (Delta supplies Mazda's car seats). It is a canny location, as there can be nothing better after a day of dutiful toil in the workshops of those two ennervating enterprises than to pop next door, strip off your sweaty stinking clouts and sink your careworn body into one of "Yamato no Yu"'s several and various bathtubs.

Outdoor Rotenburo Baths The location was also well chosen due to the close proximity of the bath-house to the sea - it has been built on land that was reclaimed from the sea within living memory - meaning that a plentiful source of warm, brackish water can be drawn up from as deep as 1,000 meters below the surface of the earth. This water constantly refills the outdoor baths, while the water that supplies the indoor baths is what you might call bog-standard chemically-treated bath-house water. In style as well as in the source of their water, the outdoor baths resemble hot spring resort baths. There are two pools, each one designed with rocks or slabs of stone.

Indoor Baths
By contrast, the indoor baths closely resemble the kind that you find at modern bath-houses. Although they do not partake of the curative properties of the natural water that supply the outdoor baths, they have several treats of their own to offer: simple and still, clear, hot water baths, warm Jacuzzis and a variety of jet baths where you may either lie recumbent or tread water while they pound your flesh with jets of airy, bubbly, steamy, soothing water.
The indoor baths are separated from the outdoor baths by a large window that fills most of the inner wall of the bath-house (arranged symmetrically so that the women's wing and the men's wing arrange themselves around a square courtyard, divided by a partition separating the respective outdoor baths). This arrangement of baths and glass gives the indoor bathing area a sense of openness where you may survey the tranquility of the rotenburo filled with naked fellows relaxing in baths, or lolling on the chairs and benches, or reclining on the bamboo matting. For their part, the outdoor bathers may feel more enclosed merely by being outside and yet cloistered away from the outside world.

There is also a dry sauna and a steam room. The sauna is quite a large room with bench seats arranged in terraces and a t.v. to keep your mind off the excessive heat of the place. On the wall there is a clock with a twelve minute dial, which causes the minute hand to move with a pleasing celerity. Just outside the sauna is a plunge pool, the electronic thermometer of which registers a brisk 17.5 degrees.
Next to the plunge pool is the smaller steam room where you park yourself on a low stone stool and observe your flesh turn itself into a river of water and wonder what quantity thereof has come out from within you compared to the water added from the steamy air.

Now it is probably time to go and soap up in the washing area. Soap and shampoo dispensers are provided, so you don't need to bring your own soap although if for any reason you wish to buy it at reception, you can.
In the changing rooms there are a couple of massage chairs. There is also a professional massage service, which I have not tried. Both body and foot massages are available.

Canteen
There is a large and comfortable canteen where a variety of snacks and drinks are on offer. You buy a ticket from a machine for the item you want and present it to the woman at the counter who gives you a plastic numbered tessera; fetch your order when you hear your number called. The tempera udon that I had was a bit on the stingy side - and the tempera fell off the prawn as soon as I looked at it. Draft beer costs ¥450 for a medium sized chu-jokki.

It is well worth becoming that most precious of all Japanese categories, a "member" of Yamato no Yu - even if you do not intend to return. To become a "member", shove 200 yen into the first ticket machine you come to and take the ticket to the reception desk where it will be exchanged for a card after you have filled out a simple form. The card enables you to get 50 yen off this and fifty yen off that and by the time you have had a few beers - which now only cost 400 yen - you will have recouped your membership fee.

Although bathing at Yamato no Yu is more expensive than an old sento in town (¥600), I think it is worth it. There are so many different baths to try and the waters in the outdoor baths are even "soft and healing." Don't forget to give yourself plenty of time - I managed to while away three and a half hours last time I was there!

How to get there
Yamato no Yu is located close to Mukainada station, on the Hiroshima-Kure line. Mukainada is the first stop after leaving Hiroshima. If you come by train, then when you leave the station head back along the road towards Hiroshima. When you pass Mazda, (on your left) you will see a car park with blue banners lining the street. The building across the carpark is, as it proclaims in illuminated characters, Yamato no Yu.

You can't, and shouldn't, miss it.

David Hurley
4th August 2001