S05 · E30

Koenji, What to Expect at the Public Baths

Koenji, Tokyo. An old-fashioned wooden building stands in an alley past a pure shopping street. It is a long-established public bathhouse that is open until 2 am. The baths are filled with workers returning from construction sites, young people living in cheap apartments and pursuing their dreams, parents and children who have been going there for 60 years, even a mysterious long-haired man... Men and women of all ages who happen to be there sweat in the same bath, talk about trivial matters, and drink coffee milk in one gulp. Once they hit it off, they went to an izakaya across the street for a quick drink. This is a story of an old-fashioned public bathhouse that is disappearing from the city.