Aya Honoka

Aya Honoka is a big day-use bathhouse in Sapporo's Kiyota Ward, open around the clock, with eight different baths spread across an indoor hall and an outdoor area. Indoors there's a silk bath, an ultrasonic bath, a reclining bath, and a carbonated bath; outside is a medicinal herb bath and a cold plunge. The water isn't from a natural hot spring, it's ordinary water heated for the baths. Saunas come in three styles: a high-temperature room with an automatic steam release every hour, an almost odorless steam sauna where you rub salt into your skin, and a barrel sauna outside. Three ganbanyoku (岩盤浴) rooms, each kept at a different temperature, sit alongside a restaurant, a rest area, and a kids' corner. The outdoor bathing side opens onto a long view into the distance. It's built for a whole afternoon or an overnight stay, closer to a big bathhouse-and-sauna complex than a quiet ryokan bath.