Communal sento bathhouses may be foreign to most tourists, but they’ve been an inextricable part of life in Tokyo for centuries. While no longer an essential element of the city’s infrastructure – most Tokyoites are now content to bathe and shower at home – sento have been undergoing a renaissance of sorts in recent years.
Some bathhouses have reinvented themselves with sleek interiors, others by opening a pub or eatery on their premises. Yet others, like Daikoku-yu right beneath Tokyo Skytree, have decided to take things back to basics.
A shining example of the old-school neighbourhood communal bathhouse, Daikoku-yu stays open through the night and fills its tubs with natural hot spring water pumped up from deep under the city. The star of the show is the spacious rotenburo open-air bath, where you can soak while gazing at Tokyo’s tallest structure and taking in the faint nocturnal sounds of the city.