This is the time when people who are busy day and night can be the most themselves. Because you have limited time, you can focus on what you like and what is important to you, interact with people you wouldn't normally meet, and enrich your lifestyle. A new series of B:MING by BEAMS has started, focusing on people who naturally enjoy such "morning activities". The fourth installment is by Sho Inaba from the Shueisha UOMO editorial department. In addition to being in charge of fashion and watches, he has developed a love for saunas and even has his own serialized project! This time, we covered Finland, the home of saunas, which we visited for a magazine project.

At the gym, I feel like I'm working out to take a sauna.

Q: Mr. Inaba, when did you start liking saunas?

``It's been more than 10 years ago. At that time, I belonged to a department called ``non-no'' at a women's magazine.I was surrounded by only women, so there was a strong bond among the few male employees and designers. When I was stuck at work or wanted to freshen up after completing proofreading, I was influenced by a senior colleague who liked baths, so we all went to Spa LaQua near the office. It was a group of people, myself included, who were not very good at drinking, so before we knew it, we had developed a routine of taking a bath rather than drinking. However, it wasn't that I had a bizarre love for saunas from the beginning; I just loved baths. One day, I participated in a "heat wave" event at Spa LaQua, which was still rare at the time. Aromatherapy water is poured onto sauna stones heated by a heatwave therapist to generate steam, and towels are swung around to create convection. Strictly speaking, this style is called ``Aufguss'', and not only was I shocked by the intense heat, but for the first time I realized how good it felt to cool down in the cold bath afterwards. From then on, the only way I could take a break from work was through heat waves. ”

Q: So your range of activities continues to expand from there?

``Basically, my home base is Spa LaQua, but when we heard about the openings of Therma-yu in Shinjuku and Yukemuri no Sho in Tsunashima, we all went on field trips. Then, I also started to take an interest in the town public baths near my house, and it feels like I'm starting to explore them. I also started going to the sauna at the gym I was going to more often. Alternating hot and cold baths with cold baths are said to be effective in preventing muscle pain. Up until then, I would only take a quick shower after exercising, but I would take it slowly for about an hour. In fact, you might be working out to get into the sauna. But the goal is wellness, and I often feel that. I'm not really interested in bragging about saunas like, ``I've been to ...'' or ``I go to ... times a week.'' (LOL) I want to relax in various places and feel healthy. That's the best. ”

Not for relaxing and sweating
Where to start the engine for the day

Q: What benefits do you see in morning saunas?

``Public baths generally open in the afternoon, but if you go to a large facility like Spa LaQua or a hotel on a business trip, you can enjoy the sauna from the morning. I don't wake up well, so it might be more like taking a shower in the morning. It is said that saunas are less taxing on the heart and lungs than soaking in a bathtub, just as you should not soak in 100-degree hot water even if you are in a 100-degree sauna. Furthermore, I'm sensitive to cold and my feet often get cold in the morning, so I'm glad that the high temperature warms me up from the inside out. And I take time to think about work. It's like putting together the framework of a manuscript in the sauna, creating a plan in your head, and then going back to your house or office and writing it all down. It is by no means a place where time passes by in a daze, but rather an opportunity to start the engine to spend the day. ”

Bath towel ¥4,900+tax、 Face towel ¥1,500+tax

Q: Now you have a series in your own magazine and are in charge of a major feature!

``Actually, for the past seven years since I moved to UOMO, I've been submitting sauna themes to planning meetings, but they never got accepted...I felt like, ``Why are you talking so passionately about saunas?'' . It wasn't easy for people to understand the appeal, but I guess I noticed that more and more of my colleagues and the creators I meet at work were liking saunas, so a few years ago I was assigned to do a small feature on saunas. It seems that the current editor-in-chief had read it when he was in the previous department, and he gave me a chance and said, ``If you like it that much, why don't you serialize it yourself?'' I'm honestly happy that more people are looking at my field of interest. ”

Q: And it evolved into a business trip to Finland. What do you find appealing about visiting the home of saunas once again?

“I think it boils down to the fact that saunas have no special status.Japan is experiencing a somewhat unusual boom right now.I used to be like that myself, but in Japan, saunas are treated as special events, and they are treated as a reward event. However, just as Japanese homes have bathtubs, Finnish homes have sauna rooms.I felt how closely they are connected to daily life.Even when I visited a public sauna for an interview, there were many people there before going to work. There were quite a lot of them.When I say ingrained, I mean it's a culture.I remember the first time I visited Highbury Stadium (the former home ground of Arsenal in the Premier League), which was located in the middle of London. Just before the match started, local customers started arriving in droves, but before you knew it, the house was full, cheering on the match, and leaving quickly after the match was over.Arsenal fans' love for soccer is part of their daily routine. I felt something similar.”

Sandals ¥6,800+tax<Ufoss>

Q: What kind of time is “morning” for you, Inaba?

``Having a sauna in the evening as a reward for the day can help me work harder, but I also think that by waking up early and doing something on my own, I can spend the rest of the day more actively. By the way, what you need to do in order to continue using the sauna in the morning is to continue using the sauna at night (lol).According to the ``Stanford Style: The Best Sleep Science'' I read a while back, it says that it is important to have a good quality sleep for the first 90 minutes after falling asleep. In other words, it is best to go to bed in a relaxed state.Saunas calm the autonomic nervous system, so you can fall asleep in a state where the parasympathetic nervous system is dominant.In other words, waking up starts from the moment you fall asleep. As an editor, my daily schedule is irregular, and it's difficult to organize it on weekdays.So, at least on the weekends, I sleep in the sauna, so I can refresh myself in the morning and think about various things. I reset my crazy body clock and eat a delicious breakfast. Then I can tackle everything with a positive attitude."