I'll be staying in Tokyo in early April for two weeks.

The original deal was to stay in Yoyogi 3 in an old 2 storey house (now a rarity in this area) and use the local Sento as the bathroom had seen better times.

Alas, this won't be quite so straightforward as I'd originally supposed.
As suspected, the bathroom actually is knackered. And as old traditional houses in Yoyogi 3 are such a rarity now, the local Sento is closed.

However, there's been a big change of circumstance recently and this is why I'm asking for assistance here.

I'll be taking a passenger with me. The accepted advice is that expectant mothers should not be using a conventional Sento/Onsen.

I know there are Sento with cooler baths in Tokyo, what I don't know how to do is locate them. Anyone have any idea what the options for public bathing are for pregnant women?

Any leads accepted with gratitude.

EDIT: RESOLUTION IN POSTS 21 & 23

The best advice would be to search online for　東京銭湯（or 温泉)　ぴあ and do some research from there. Alternatively, once you`re here, any bookstore should have some onsen/sento pias that will list location along with various amenities (in a generally detailed fashion, with pictures). A quick search found the following site:
http://hotspringtokyo.com/

errr... you do realise that neither myself nor my husband read or write Japanese, don't you?

Please realise I'm already very familiar with Tokyo Sento & Onsen (ぴあ - I honestly don't know what it means)
Here's a thread I already prepared on this very subject
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/japan...kyo-onsen.html
Fat lot of good it's doing me now

I can do some more research online (you probably have no idea how many fruitless hours I've already put into this) but at a bookstore . Online translation tools are much trickier to use when you're looking at paper .

This is what the link you provided looks like to me: http://www.excite-webtl.jp/world/eng...%96%7C+%96%F3+
If there's a connection to lower water temperatures and suitability for pregnant women, I can't make it out at all. (Only link in the page was this one: http://www.excite-webtl.jp/world/eng...=JAEN&wb_dis=2 about as useful as a kappa no he)

Some help would be very much appreciated.

Is this an announcement?

LapLap is going to be a mommy?

Well that calls for a big round of CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Apparently cold winters in England do have a silver lining.

No advice on the cooler baths, but if you need me to check something locally let me know. I can swing by the Minato Ward office for example, but could also call for the area around Ikebukuro.

^^^

Mike

Ahhh which reminds me... I will have to tend to my duty being an Uncle after this month....

Mabodofu Nemawashi here I come in July!

Sanosuke!

You're in good company.

Check online and the recommendation is negative:

"ですが、妊娠してからの大浴場での入浴は不衛生ですのでお勧めはしません。
浴場で滑って転んで流産してしまうかもしれませんし････もう貴方だけの体じゃないんですか ら････"

Due to sanitary and safety reasons (slippery floor).

Not sure I can accept the challenge of travelling up to Ikebukuro for a bath (too many steely ladies brandishing sharpened elbows at belly height )
but this is a good lead I should have considered for myself.
There's an English language phone line for the Shibuya ward (where Yoyogi is) and I can try the Shinjuku Ward office also.

There is a very nice bath in Minato Ku I can use, but it involves a two hour round trip. I very much want an alternative. This visit is going to be tiring enough as it is.

And thanks very much for the good wishes! It's a huge turning point for us, much bigger (and scarier) than merely getting married.


(I'm sure Sanosuke is also very nervous about the prospect of becoming an uncle)


Where did this advice come from??
If pregnant women payed any attention to this kind of tosh none of us would swim or take part in ante-natal pool exercises (slippery floor...)
I wonder if there's a discount for using the showers and taps at a Sento when pregnant as we're effectively barred from the baths themselves.


I didn't realise I'd be setting out to uncover the hidden mystery on how all the pregnant women in Tokyo who live in residences without baths manage to wash and maintain their hygiene standards. Their plights unacknowledged by unconcerned authorities keen to keep their health and safety records unsullied. I'm feeling more Japanese all the time

The only tepid baths I can think of off hand are in places that are typically labeled "Kuhrhaus". They tend to be a compromise between a swimming pool and an onsen. Co-ed bathing in a warm pool with swimming costumes on... Not entirely unpleasant. Generally there are jacuzzi's and other things around the main pool. And they have lots of aquarobics classes and so on.

Having said that, I don't know of any such facility around Yoyogi...

I suppose there is always the olympic swimming pool, which offers a very large, chlorinated, pool (at bracing temperatures) and plenty of showers...

A to be mother asking for onsen/sento advise on what looks like a ladies website.

I guess you are looking for any exception if you already know many sento bar pregnant clients? I did see several sento websites had this kind of wording "...tattoos and pregnant..."

I'm not looking for just any exception.

I'm looking for somewhere with cooler sento because the normal ones are too hot for me and the little one to bathe in safely.

That's why pregnant women are advised not to use them. The 'slippery floor' bit has little to do with the real dangers of sento/onsen bathing.

If sentos are closing in inner cities because traditional houses are disappearing, then it will be doubly hard to find one offering lower temperature for pregnant ladies who still live in those few traditional houses? May be obasans?

In any case, using the search term "東京 微温泉", here is one in Nishi Shinjuku. Which should be close enough to where you will be and 25.9 deg C should be pretty cool.

http://www.juken-net.com/magajin/maga/79.htm

BTW, it seems this onsen is naturally at this temperature, not a consideration to pregnant clients.

Human body actually regulate internal temperature to a pretty constant level regardless of the ambient temperature. The temperature caution should be the fact that bather may be a little dizzy come out of the onsen after fighting the elevated temperature and not the fact that internal temperature is elevated. Only sick people have elevated internal temperature.

But I guess you are not concern with what other people are concerned about such as gems and slippery floors in onsen/sento.

I'll bet it isn't! That's 1,900yen (nearly �14) for a dip
Thanks (and well done!) for finding this. Shame it's priced well above my means.

Germs and slippery floors do not particularly concern me, just as they don't concern other women who keep fit in pregnancy by swimming. Now gems on the floor is actually something I've come across and does concern me. Happily, I can feel confident that the gem, once handed in, will be returned to it's owner

Apart from the elevated risks of dehydration and hypotension for pregnant women, there are links between maternal hyperthermia and fetal malformation. The risks might be low, but this is not something I want to gamble on.

----------
I just called the Shibuya Ward and lodged my enquiry with them. I've arranged to call back next Friday so that they have time to look into this for me.
I'll post back when I find out some more.
Thanks again, mjm, for the lead.

You can check it out yourself.

"...十二社天然温泉..."

I am not sure they put chlorine in onsen/sentos.