Society

Inside Tokyo's bath houses: Behind the scenes

Jan 19 (ONLY in JAPAN) - Bath houses in Japan have been a part of the culture for hundreds of years and in Tokyo, there are 600 of them in neighborhood all around the city.

At Japanese baths, you must be naked which is normal in Japan, but public bathing may be new some people. In Japan, there is an expression - hadaka no tsukiai (è£¸ã®ä»˜ãåˆã„) "we're all equal when naked" - so don't worry! We're here just to bathe and relax.

These bath houses called sento have evolved from their Showa era post war design to modern interiors that may surprise you. Some look like they're from sci-fi movies from the year 2050 and other have gone back in time to the 1920's Taisho era when everything was made out of wood and glass. The industry is under going big changes and there's never been a better time to experience Tokyo's sento culture than right now.

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