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In
1977 the city changed its mind about rotemburo - outside baths. Rural
rotemburo had always had a delicious whiff of licentiousness, but
in Tokyo, the sexes bathed separately, so the city assembly thought:
why not? Nozawalando embraced the opportunity and installed Tokyo's
first legal rotemburo. It is the work of a skilled stonemason: shallow
and large enough for you to lie prone as the breeze fans your face
and the water, heated to not much more than skin tempurature, laps
your weary frame. In this world of temptations, it is the closest
you will ever get to returning to the womb, and when you drag yourself
out of the bath there is room to relax stretched out on duckboards
next to the bath with your towel under your head as a pillow.
There is a vigorous electric bath and a herbal bath of unsubtle scent.
Inside bathers can slide open glass doors to the outside, turning
the whole bathhouse into a rotemburo. There are fluffy rugs in the
sauna, which costs an additional 350 yen, and there is considerable
more room at the hot and cold faucets than is usual, for expansive
scrubbing sessions.
In the carpeted and chandeliered lobby ramune - old-fashioned lemonade
- goes for 100 yen the classic bottle and there are two first-class
massage chairs, the best I've ever seen (5 minutes for 100 yen), for
which there may be people waiting.
There is beer just across the street.
current review
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