YAMADA ONSEN · NAGANO
YAMADA ONSEN · NAGANO
Journal — A Sauna Trip for Two in Nagano
2026.08.17
If two of you are going to a sauna in Nagano, booking it privately is the easiest way. How loudly you talk, who goes into the cold bath first, how long you rest — all of it is yours to decide.
A private booking does come with a clock, though. The Tenku Sauna at The TOJI.ba MATSUKAWAKAN, in Takayama Village, Nagano, is booked by one group at a time for 120 minutes. How you use those 120 minutes makes a real difference to the day.
Below we explain how to spend them as a pair, using the two private saunas here as the example: dividing the time, the order of cold bath and cool-down, what to bring, and the baths before and after.
Deciding the shape of it in advance keeps the 120 minutes from feeling rushed. The way we suggest going about it has three steps: the sauna room, the cold bath, and the open air.
Warm through properly in the sauna room for 8 to 12 minutes, tighten up in the cold bath for 30 seconds to a minute, then breathe deeply outside for 5 to 10 minutes while you look at the sky. That is one round, roughly 20 minutes.
Repeat it slowly, two or three times. Even three rounds use only about 60 minutes of sauna time, which leaves the other 60 for changing, showering, drinking water and talking.
Settling on the number of rounds first means neither of you spends the session watching the clock. Our page on how to use the sauna also sets out a suggested cycle for the Forest Sauna.
Two people almost always go at different speeds. One of you is fine in cold water and the other is not, and that is normal.
Both cold baths here draw water from Takayama Village. It is properly cold and still soft on the skin. Thirty seconds to a minute is the guide, but there is no need to force yourselves to match.
If it is too much, pouring water over your head and shoulders alone still works. Start there, and go in to the shoulders once you are used to it.
The cold bath at the Forest Sauna is 120 cm deep, so you can sink in to the shoulders and cool the whole body at once. With a private booking, one of you can head outside first without keeping anyone else waiting.
Both the Forest Sauna and the Tenku Sauna are used wearing a swimsuit and a sauna poncho. Because swimsuits are worn, men and women can go in together.
Forgetting them is not a problem. Everything you need can be rented on the day, so you can arrive empty-handed.
| Sauna swimsuit rental | 500 yen |
|---|---|
| Poncho rental | 680 yen |
| Face towel | 150 yen (free for overnight guests) |
| Bath towel | 200 yen |
Prices are subject to change; please confirm on the booking site. In autumn and winter, cooling down with a poncho over your shoulders is the best part of the day: warm body, cold air, and both of you go quiet for a moment.
The Tenku Sauna sits 1,000 metres above sea level and is private only. One group at a time, always booked in advance. Day use is from 9,800 yen (tax included) per group for 120 minutes.
The room is built generously in hinoki cypress, with a HARVIA tower stove and radiant heat from stone to warm you right through. Through the small window, the ridgeline and the sky sit framed like a picture.
The one thing worth agreeing on beforehand is the time slot, because what you see from the cool-down deck changes completely with it. In the late afternoon the sun goes down into the V-shaped Matsukawa gorge, straight ahead. At night the stars are overhead. In autumn the coloured mountains stand right in front of the deck.
We can arrange slots for the blue sky of the daytime, for sunset, or for the stars. Popular times fill quickly, so booking early is the sure way. Children of elementary school age and younger must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
The other building, the Forest Sauna, is shared by default but can be booked privately as well. Day use takes up to 10 people, so a pair fits into the same slot.
Day use costs from 2,300 yen (tax included) for 120 minutes, with reception from 10:00 to 20:00. There are two rooms, at 85 and 110 degrees, and the 85-degree room is scented with a blend our aufguss master mixes on the day.
The cool-down area has benches around the fire and reclining chairs. There are three kinds of seat, and the lie-flat space, where you can look straight up at the sky, is the most popular. From 20:00 the fire is lit.
If you want to make a longer afternoon of it, there is pizza baking in the outdoor oven: 3,980 yen (tax included) per group with one pizza, from 11:00 to 20:00 and booked in advance. It is available to sauna guests only.
See the Forest Sauna in detail
A private sauna works perfectly well as a day trip. Staying the night, though, plainly increases how often you can go in.
Room plans include the Forest Sauna at no extra cost, and from 20:00 to 23:00 it becomes time for overnight guests only, with the fire lit outside. That gives you the sauna twice: in the evening and again the next morning.
The hours of the inner bath change too. Day visitors can bathe from 11:00 to 20:00, overnight guests from 11:00 to 24:00. With check-in at 15:00 and check-out at 10:00, staying gives you roughly 23 hours here.
From Nagano Station there is a free shuttle for overnight guests, by reservation. Neither of you has to drive after the sauna, which is the strongest argument for staying.
See day use and an overnight stay compared in figures
Once the sauna has loosened everything, there is one more place where you can be on your own together: the private open-air bath.
For day visitors it is available from 11:30 to 15:00 and costs 1,000 yen for 45 minutes. It can be booked on arrival, but slots are limited, so booking ahead is recommended.
The baths on their own are 650 yen (tax included) per person, and for those no reservation is needed. Reception runs from 11:00 to 20:00, with last entry at 19:30. Details are on our day-use onsen in Nagano page.
Order lunch and the bathing is free. The semi-private space and the rest room are open from 11:00 to 16:00, which suits a day when you want to eat slowly after the sauna. See the lunch and day-use onsen in Takayama Village page.
There are public bathhouses within walking distance too. Oyu, in use since the Edo period, costs a separate 300 yen, and Takinoyu, the local communal bathhouse, is open to day visitors as well (it may occasionally be closed for cleaning).
Stay the night and the Forest Sauna is included at no extra cost, with 20:00–23:00 reserved for overnight guests. How the two buildings differ, and how we think about the sauna as a whole, is gathered on the sauna page.
Reservation
Hot spring water from a source first opened 700 years ago, and two private saunas.
An evening for the two of you, at an inn that takes nine guest parties a day.