a chatter of people, blow dryers, water trickling and a vintage records echo through the shoji doors of a neighborhood building.
someone greets you at the door and you choose a ticket from a small machine that looks like the one you just ordered ramen from.
slippers wait for you letting you know to leave your shoes behind, and suddenly the lockers outside of the locker room make more sense...
the man that greeted you calls you over to trade your shoe key for a wearable rubber one, two towels and a look at an infographic of how to bathe, now you know to leave the big towel behind.
a short few steps down the hallway and a mom helps her two young daughters blow dry their hair.
after finding your locker you flow with the room, into the steam, and sit near the woman who changed next to you one minute ago.
you fill your bucket, twist the handle for the shower head, and look through the mist for the soap, to realize she nudged it nearer to you.
then you flow again with the everyday rhythms room, 5 minutes in the large warm bath, bobbing as our feet hold our bodies to the tile.
10 minutes in the carbonated one and we look at mt fuji on the wall.
1 minute in the hot tub alone.
30 seconds in the cold plunge if you're brave, you use a bucket on the left to cool your feet beforehand, a drain sits in the floor there to do so, and a ladle and two seats are set to the side for women to cool off their feet during their sauna breaks.
you flow out calmer and smoother than you came in, confused on where to dry off? And meet up with those who may have been on the otherside of the wall from you, to enjoy a beer or yogurt drink, listening to the records that drew you in, after becoming a part of the chatter.
I studied the history, program and ritual of the japanese sento, and got to personally visit one this spring, after deeply studying the japanese water supply system, which similarly approaches grand complexity and sacredness with humble intentionality.
I'm bringing this culture of water to chicago, through repurposing union park's old gymnasium. with these systems and rhythms that exist in the everydayness of the sento as a guide.