I can’t relate this to anything I know. This massive building is 8 floors high but not really because some of the floors were missing. There is an open bit in the middle that went up 3 floors. Ground floor is the entrance, more like a theme park than a spa. You got your ticket and magnetic wrist band. The wrist band is how you pay for things as you don’t have your clothes on most of the time. After you go through the turnstile you put your shoes into a little locker (not designed for big western shoes).

Now take the escalator up to the next floor, which is #3, floor #2 seems to be missing. This is the entertainment floor. (More about this floor later.) Take the elevator to the men’s level, #5; the fourth floor is missing too. Level 6 is for women. I don’t know much about this floor except that my daughter-in-law described it and it sounded a lot like the men’s floor. Every month they switch the men’s and women’s floors so you have something new to come back to. Don’t know about floor 7 (missing also) but 8 is the roof which is a mixed swimming pool where you must wear a bathing suit. This complex is a great equalizer. In the common areas, all the men wear blue shorts & tops and the women a pink gown.

It looks like everyone is wearing pajamas. On our floor we stripped out of our street clothes, stuffed them in a locker and proceeded to the many delights of the baths. There are six theme rooms, Bali, India, Greek, Japanese, Byzantine and the hot springs outside on the deck. The Bali room has a soaker pool with a water fall and lovely pink underwater lighting. The Indian one has massage baths and for some unknown reason a big stuffed elephant in the middle. The Greco Roman area looked like something out of a movie set. The area I like the best was the hot springs. It looked so much like a natural hot springs I have visited in BC with the added pleasure of real cedar hot tubs.

You must not miss the “wash stations” where you sit down for your Japanese style shower, shampoo and shave. Remember baths are for soaking, not washing. Now picture several hundred men strolling about naked from room to room each with a small orange colored towel trying to nonchalantly cover their privates or for some unknown reason some had theirs folded and placed on top of their heads. Surely not to keep them dry as there are great piles of fresh ones everywhere. This is modern efficient Japan, not an old quaint bath house. After soaking and trying the different areas try sitting in the lounge with a beer and watching sumo wrestlers and golf on TV (still naked except for damp towel). This is where the magnetic wrist band comes in handy.

Now it is time to join the family in the 3rd floor. You shower on the way out, use another orange towel and dress like every other male in the building in blue PJs. Thank goodness extra large in Japan just fits me. The 3rd floor can satisfy many needs with a beauty salon, massage rooms, games arcade, common area and half a dozen restaurants. If you couldn’t read the menu they have pictures and sometimes even plastic models of the food. I’m told that plastic food models is a growth industry in Japan. There is beer at the bar for the adults, ice cream and hotdogs for the kids and the games arcade for everyone.

The huge massage room offers among other choices, Swedish, head & shoulders, full body or just your feet varieties. I tried the feet one as I had been doing so much walking. This turned out to be not a nice gentle refreshing massage but a real pounding that fortunately did make my feet feel better in the end. So after a massage, dinner, games and sitting around it is time to go for another soak in the baths. Same routine but now you’re an expert with the towel.

On the way out you pick up you clothes in the locker room on the men’s floor, dress and catch up with the family near the entrance. The magnetic bracelet is turned in and all your expenditures calculated, very efficient and impressive. You pay your bill and collect your shoes where you started. A very different, but very Japanese day out with the family.