Popular sand bath at Ibusuki, Japan.
Ibusuki City is located almost an hour train ride from Kagoshima, Kyushu. It’s been on my bucket list for the longest time as this past weekend I finally had the chance to get around to visiting a Sunaburo (aka. sand bath). It’s been a traditional cleansing treatment for the past 300 years, and recently has been working it’s way on promoting itself as one of the most unique experiences on Kyushu.
The weight and natural thermal heated sand is very effective to cleanse the body through perspiration, and improving circulation. The suggested time for a good sweat is at least 10 minutes, however, if it gets too hot they don’t recommend guests push themselves to continue.
Sunamushi Kaikan Saraku
A popular sand bath house in Ibusuki. From Ibusuki Station it’s either a 5 min taxi ride, or a nice scenic 15-20 minute walk along the beach. Walking along the beach can be interesting to see the steam rising from the sand…just by looking at it made my summer day feel hotter.
When entering the sand bath everyone strips down and heads out only wearing the robe provided by the bath house, carrying with them their towel and maybe any toiletries to wash off afterward ~ Camera included! On the beach, the attendant will have prepared a little body dip in the sand with a well defined derriere-grove! Now that’s detail!
At first the feeling of being “buried” made me a bit uneasy, because it’s not a common situation I come across on an occasional basis…not to mention that the feeling of “rising up from the ground” was pretty memorable. It’s probably the closest zombie experience I’ll ever have with my conscious still intact.
Sunamoshi Kaikan. The famous sand bath house in Ibusuki. Admission: ¥900
BC Roll in Japan 