Summertime Modern Hot Spring Healing at HOSHINOYA Tokyo

This coming season, travelers can find serenity at the centrally located luxury ryokan, HOSHINOYA Tokyo, where they can book the Modern Summertime Hot Spring Healing Program to combat summer temperatures. HOSHINOYA Tokyo’s Hot Spring Healing Program is rooted in the science of adjusting the body to summer heat by warming it through hot spring soaking, moderate exercise, and soothing food and beverages. Maintaining a consistent temperature indoors and outdoors allows for a smoother and more pleasant travel experience. At HOSHINOYA Tokyo, guests can warm the body and soul by visiting HOSHINOYA’s rooftop onsen, participating in Bon Odori dance and an instructor-led “Edo Power Walk” through historic sites and landmarks. Indulgent dishes from Nippon Cuisine, like Pork Tomato Fermented Ginger Sukiyaki, will also be served.

 
Known as the ryokan in the sky, HOSHINOYA Tokyo is a 17-story urban oasis in the heart of the city. The ryokan offers a relaxed ambience with intimacy and surprise – qualities that are rooted in traditional Japanese ‘omotenashi’ (hospitality). The core elements of HOSHINOYA Tokyo are modernized to align with present-day Tokyo but remain authentic to Japanese culture. Guests can visit the natural hot spring bath, separated by gender, on the top floor and enjoy flavorful and intricate “Nippon Cuisine” dining on the lower levels. Exclusive only to the those staying there, HOSHINOYA Tokyo is a private retreat in bustling Tokyo where guests can indulge in a moments of serenity.

Summertime Modern Hot Spring Healing is a stay program to warm the summer-chilled bodies with natural hot springs, bon-odori (bon festival dance), and meals using fermented products. Summer is a time when people are more likely to get a heat stroke and summer fatigue as the large temperature difference between the indoors and outdoors tires the part of the body that regulates body temperature and the autonomic nervous system. For this reason, it is important to adjust the body to the heat by sweating moderately in the summer through hot spring bathing or by proper exercise and eating. In addition to enjoying a hot spring bath in summer, guests can warm their bodies through stylish and glamorous bon-odori classes, walking, and having energy-storing meals to get through the summer.

Background

Because of the large temperature difference between indoors and outdoors in summer, heat stroke, and summer fatigue are more likely to occur due to body temperature regulation and autonomic fatigue. To prevent heat stroke, it is recommended to get used to the heat by sweating through bathing and moderate exercise. In addition, it is important not to cool the body because cold food and drinks can cause the internal organs to cool down and decrease gastrointestinal function, leading to swelling and loss of appetite. HOSHINOYA Tokyo is a Japanese ryokan where guests can enjoy natural hot spring waters from 1,500 m below the ground. Traditional Japanese hot spring healing regulates the body's autonomic, endocrine, and immune systems not only through bathing, but also through elements such as natural scenery, hiking, and a balanced diet. We developed this Summertime Modern Hot Spring Healing program in the hopes that the customs of hot spring healing will give clues to overcome the hot summer.

Characteristics of the Summertime Modern Hot Spring Healing

1. Bathing instructions and drinks to warm the cooled body in summer

The hot spring water of HOSHINOYA Tokyo has high salt content, which helps retain heat in the body. Through a soak in the hot springs, participants are instructed on the timing of bathing based on sympathetic and parasympathetic rhythms, and lectured on stretching in the hot springs. In addition, this plan provides drinks without cooling the body to replenish the body for lost water and nutrients.

In addition to tea and tea confectionery upon arrival, we also offer a refreshing yet physically pleasing hot herbal tea, a mix of peppermint and loquat leaves, after the hot spring soak. Inspired by the loquat leaf bath, a summer tradition believed to prevent hot weather fatigue and diarrhea in the town of Edo, it is combined with peppermint. Menthol, the main ingredient in the fragrance of peppermint, is said to increase stomach activity, improve indigestion and increase appetite.

2. Exercise and sweat comfortably while enjoying summer in Tokyo

From the Edo period to the Meiji period, when hot spring healing became common, people enjoyed visiting temples and shrines, visiting historical places, holding parties with shamisen and dancing, and socializing with people at hot spring destinations. In this plan, participants can practice the Bon Odori dance, which is part of a summer festival, with an instructor and get moving in the "Edo Power Walk," a tour of historic sites.

The “Edo Power Walk" is a walk-through of historic sites and landmarks associated with Edo in areas now known as Marunouchi and Nihombashi. A professional walking coach will teach the right form, and aims to get to the goal, Fukutoku Shrine, which was loved by Ieyasu Tokugawa (first shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate). The walk starts from 6:00 AM when there are few people and at a cool temperature, so that guests can enjoy walking around the city comfortably even in summer.

3. Warm the body with a meal using seasonal ingredients and fermented products

This plan offers "Pork Tomato Fermented Ginger Sukiyaki" and Nippon Cuisine using fermented products that store energy with summer vegetables and fermented foods.

"Pork Tomato Fermented Ginger Sukiyaki" is a pork, tomato, and onion sukiyaki made with warishita stock mixed with fermented ginger. Ginger, which is said to warm the body, is used as a key ingredient, and by using fermented ginger, the number of good bacteria such as lactic acid increases. To finish off the meal, we offer handmade fresh pasta kneaded with Japanese pepper and leaf buds, which are said to warm the body and activate the digestive system.

Nippon Cuisine with fermented products is a course meal that blends traditional fermented foods from all over Japan with French cooking techniques. Food that has increased its nutritional value and umami through fermentation and aging is combined with seasonal ingredients and rare ingredients from all over Japan, and cooked using French techniques to bring out the appeal of the ingredients.

Overview of Summertime Modern Hot Spring Healing

■Period: June 1 - August 31, 2023
■Capacity: 1 group per day (2 ~ 4 people)
■Price: 145,000 yen per person (includes tax and service charge) *not including room fee
■Price Includes: Dinner (Nippon Cuisine & Pork Tomato Fermented Ginger Sukiyaki), breakfast, bathing guidance, drinks before and after bathing, Edo Power Walk (includes rental wear), 1 spa treatment (90 minutes), Bon odori dance practice, late checkout
■Reservations: Reservations required at least 14 days in advance on the official website
■Eligible for: Guests staying at HOSHINOYA Tokyo
■Others: Menu and ingredients may change depending on the situation

*Source: Hoshino Resorts