We visit the 24-hour male-only sauna just outside of Hakata Station and ponder a strange sight

The spa is only a two-minute walk from Hakata Station in Fukuoka City. 

Hotel Cabinas Fukuoka, western Japan’s largest capsule hotel for men, boasts an incredible 500 capsule rooms in an extremely convenient location across from the hustle and bustle of Hakata Station. It also has a 24-hour sauna open to both hotel guests and non-guests which includes several types of baths. Our Japanese-language correspondent and Muji enthusiast Masanuki Sunakoma stopped by the facility during his recent travels south and wanted to share his experience.

To get there, go straight through the intersection in front of Hakata Station’s bus terminal. The hotel is located along Taihaku-dori (大博通り) on the left. Masanuki recommends it as a good home base for any first-time travelers to Fukuoka, whether for business or for fun, due to its great location and only costing about 3,000 yen (US$23) for a capsule room.

▼ Take a direct path across the intersection

▼ The sign for Hotel Cabinas Fukuoka

Enter and you’ll be greeted by rows of shoe lockers, where you can stow your shoes and then proceed to the front desk. The standard rate for unlimited use of the sauna during a single visit is 2,420 yen, but there are several more economical deals for shorter stays, including the 120-minute “sauna course” for 1,210 yen and the 4 a.m.-11 a.m. “morning sauna” course for 1,320 yen. Masanuki arrived a little after 10 a.m. on this particular day, so he went with the 120-minute sauna course.

Reception will give anyone using the sauna facilities a locker key to store their clothing and possessions. You can change into the hotel’s provided indoor loose clothing on the second floor and then proceed to the baths on the 11th floor via elevator. Masanuki was impressed with the size of his locker–he could easily store his travel bag within it as well. Anyone with extra bulky luggage can store it in one of the larger lockers on the first floor of the building (for an additional fee).

▼ The comfy clothing that the hotel provides during your visit to the spa

After changing, Masanuki was quite fired up to relax (if that makes any sense).

After stripping in the changing room on the 11th floor in order to enter the sauna, he noted that it was reasonably crowded for being a Saturday morning. He decided to begin his experience by cleansing his body in the high-temperature large sauna room. This room is able to accommodate about 15 people and offers two levels of seating in the shape of an “L.” It was dim in a pleasant way and the temperature varied a bit depending on where Masanuki sat but generally hovered around 90 degrees Celsius (194 degrees Fahrenheit). He enjoyed sweating out his impurities while mindlessly tuning in to the TV program that was playing.

▼ Masanuki’s rendering of the inside of the large sauna room since no photos are allowed

There’s actually one other type of sauna room in the building as well, the milder, lower-temperature “Royal Sauna,” with a temperature of about 60 degrees Celsius. It also features a foot bath and cold-water bath of 17-18 degrees. Masanuki took a few moments to cool down in this room after being in the hot one and then made his way up to the deck chairs on the rooftop, where he sprawled lazily in the Fukuoka breeze.

It was then that a strange phenomena occurred, the likes of which he had never seen before. A number of younger men who emerged from the cold-water bath made a beeline to the chairs to enjoy a wind bath as well. They sat there…with their towels on their heads.

▼ Masanuki’s rendering of the spectacle with some areas censored for your optical protection

He wondered if this was a habit of Kyushu men or just these guys in particular. Maybe it was just too bright where they were sitting, or maybe it was a new trend. Either way, the synchronized symmetry of their poses with everything on display was somehow…artistic.

In any case, after refreshing himself in all of the sauna facilities, he headed to the hotel restaurant on the 10th floor. The menu was fairly extensive and he knew that if he were staying overnight at the hotel he’d have plenty of options to pick from for each meal.

At this point he didn’t have a lot of time left so he settled for an “Oroyaku,” which is the combined form of the carbonated beverage Oronamin C plus the probiotic milk drink Yakult. Thanks to this morning self-care strategy, he felt completely refreshed heading into the rest of the day.

All in all, Masanuki recommends Hotel Cabinas Fukuoka for any male travelers to Fukuoka due to its proximity to Hakata Station, super amenities, and relative cheapness. He shares that it even has work stations for those in town on business.

For more about saunas in the Tokyo area, check out these comparable capsule hotels in Shibuya or Shinjuku or this Finnish-style sauna for something unique.

Hotel information
Hotel Cabinas Fukuoka / ホテルキャビナス福岡
Address: Fukuoka-shi, Hakata-ku, Hakata-eki-mae 2-18-1
福岡市博多区博多駅前 2-18-1
Website

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