How to go to a sento in Tokyo (and an app to find one open tonight)

A sento is not a budget onsen. It’s the neighborhood bathroom, and for 600 yen it’s the best way to end a day in Tokyo.

When I lived in Nara, I had my sento, an old place where the lady at the desk always came to check I had everything I needed. In Tokyo, it was Stéphanie, a sento ambassador, who took me to Takara-yu, with its garden and its Mount Fuji painted on the wall. These neighborhood public baths are disappearing fast: Tokyo had thousands of them in the 1960s, about 630 when Stéphanie showed me around in 2015, and the public list of the Tokyo sento association counts 404 today. Better go while they’re here. Here’s how.

Sento or onsen: what’s the difference?

An onsen draws natural hot spring water. A sento heats tap water, with gas and sometimes still with wood. It’s the public bath from before private bathrooms: people went every evening, and many regulars still do. Its price is capped by the Tokyo government, so it’s the same almost everywhere: 600 yen for an adult since August 2026.

“Super sento”, bigger and pricier, with restaurants and rest rooms, are another story. This guide is about the small neighborhood baths, the ones with a chimney around the corner.

How it works, step by step

1. Shoes. Take them off at the entrance and put them in a small locker, closed with a wooden key you keep with you.
2. Pay. At the desk, the bandai, or at a ticket machine. Men and women split here: follow the noren, 男 for men, often blue, 女 for women, often red.
3. The changing room. Undress completely and put everything in a locker. Take only a small towel with you.
4. Wash before you soak. Sitting on a stool at a tap, carefully, rinsing off all the soap. It’s the one real rule.
5. The bath. It’s hot, often 42 to 45 degrees, sometimes more. The towel never goes in the water: on your head or on the edge. Tie up long hair.
6. On the way out. Dry off with the small towel before going back to the changing room, so you don’t drip on the floor.

Then tradition calls for a bottle of milk, plain, coffee or fruit, drunk standing with one hand on your hip. Nobody makes you, but it’s the best moment of the evening.

What to bring

A small towel, something to wash with and some coins. Many sento sell or rent towels and small bottles at the desk if you show up empty-handed, and the hair dryer often takes coins. Tattoos are generally accepted in neighborhood sento, unlike many onsen and super sento. If in doubt, ask at the desk.

Mount Fuji on the wall

Many sento have a huge Mount Fuji painted above the baths. These murals are the work of a handful of specialist painters, who redo them regularly, often in a single closing day. Looking up at that Fuji from the hot water is the whole charm of a neighborhood bath.

The nights not to miss

October 10 is Sento Day: 10-10 reads “sen-tō” in Japanese. On the winter solstice, December 22 this year, the baths fill with floating yuzu. Those are the best nights to go.

Finding a sento open tonight

This is where it gets tricky. Every sento has its own hours, its closing days (“closed on the 2nd and 4th Thursday”), its public holiday exceptions and its last admission time. Walking up to a closed curtain is the classic.

That’s why I made Noren, a free iPhone app: all 404 sento in Tokyo on one map, with their real hours, based on the association’s public list. The “open now” filter knows about closing days and public holidays, and you can search by neighborhood, station or name, or keep only the ones with a sauna.

And to give you a reason to go back, every sento has its own cat, drawn after it: a crane at Tsuru-no-yu, Daikoku’s lucky mallet and the Fuji mural at Oshiage Onsen Daikokuyu, swallows at Tsubameyu. You can only get the stamp on the spot, within 150 meters: you have to go. Stéphanie was already filling a paper stamp book in 2015, she was at 200. Noren does the same, with 404 cats.

No account, no ads, in English, Japanese, Chinese and Korean, with a short six-step guide for your first time. Hours can change on special days: for a night that matters, check before you go. Noren on the App Store, and the app’s page.

For the rules of bathing in hot springs, see my onsen etiquette guide, and for baths where men and women bathe together, the one on konyoku.