This Sunday we visited Therme Ogawa which is located within walking distance from the place we are living. Like many other Onsen(hot spring) places in Tokyo area, this “Therme” has added a few more hot tubs and other facilities which make a stay more enjoyable. For me the biggest criteria to visit such a facility is always the question whether they have a sauna. Therme Ogawa has two of them, one in the men’s section and one in the women’s section. Additionally they have a steam sauna, foot bath, massage onsen (a kind of jacuzzi with hot spring water) and a variety of indoor and outdoor onsen pools. I am usually no easily satisfied when attending a sauna in Japan, but Therme Ogawa definitely made me happy. 
First of all, they operate the huge sauna cabin (see picture on the right) at a temperature of 90 degrees Celsius. There are enough benches so that even during the most crowded time everyone finds a seat and the oven is producing heat only (not like some other places where they called it a sauna, but it was literally a huge steam cooker). The entrance fee on weekdays is 800 Yen (8 EUR) and on weekends they charge 1000 Yen (10 EUR), whereas one can stay as long as he/she wants. There is a restaurant inside that offers various dishes and if one wants to take a massage there is staff waiting to knead your body at a very reasonable price. The only small drawback, compared to other places, is that there is no relax area where you can sit on a chair/bed and take a short nap from the exhausting treatments in tubs, saunas, etc.
Overall I can recommend that place for anyone in western Tokyo area, especially to those who are looking for a good sauna environment.
[...] Therme Ogawa runs a 竃風呂 or also called 蒸し風呂 (steam bath) which is a kind of traditional Japanese sauna. The 竃風呂 has its origin in the Edo period and with around 45 degrees is less hot than a Finnish sauna. However, a humidity of more than 70% makes you sweat almost as fast as in a normal sauna. Moreover, one does not sit in the 竃風呂 but lies on the floor while wearing a yukata. Thus, being wrapped like a potato in an aluminium-foil one sweats even more easily. I was a little bit suspicious about this kind of steam sauna, but I really enjoyed that place. One can really relax inside the small spherical building which hosts the steam sauna. Moreover, sweating is different from the sauna where most of the action is caused by massive heat. As the usage of the 竃風呂 adds only 200 Yen (including the yukata) to the entrance fee I am sure to go there again next time when I visit Therme Ogawa. AKPC_IDS += "1562,";Popularity: unranked Posted in Japanese [...]