You will find other types of public bath houses that fall somewhere between Sento and Onsen.
In the way some Onsen facilities have expanded their size and attractions, non-onsen bath houses have tried to do that as well. If the bath house making such improvements is a government-authorized Sento, it will call itself a Super Sento. That simply means a bigger Sento. Those that cannot call
themselves Onsen and Sento will come up with a creative new name.
Here is an example: XXX Kenko Land, Spa XXX, or XXX-yu and XX no yu (yu of XX) including "yu (hot water)" in the name to indicate the business. There are restrictions about use of the words Sento or Onsen. Sento can only be used by a government-authorized business, and Onsen has to use hot spring water.
Kenko Land sounds little old fashioned, now. It's a Japanese word from the Japanese word "Kenko (kenkou in Japanese writing)" which means health and the English word "land". These half-Japanese, half English words used to be very popular in the past, but not so much now. This sounds to me like a place with a few big bath tubs and saunas maybe, and a restaurant with big bottles of beer and traditional Japanese favorite food, plus a touring theater play. Yeah, I recall a few Kenko Land places in 80's; these theater plays were popular, having traditional but not classical dramas. Mostly middle age and older people would go from the bath area to the theater to see the performance. Younger people liked to use the bath area during such a performance because that meant less crowds. It seems not many places have such performance any longer.
That's why the word Kenko Land sounds an old facility to me. However, some recently built or updated contemporary facilities use the word Kenko Land, too. Probably the building has been remodeled but it uses the same name as in the past. Or maybe it is a totally new place but uses the Kenko Land name. I would say they mainly target families and older customers.
Here is the website of such an establishment, Omiya Kenko Center in Omiya City, Saitama.
The words spa sounds contemporary and most are, but not all. A place calling itself a spa offers spa-like services such as hair salons, nails, facials, and aroma therapy massages. It may have a restaurant as well, and, in an effort to boost image, will offer trendy, updated dishes like health-conscious salads and a glass of wine (instead of ramen and a big bottle of beer). The word spa is likely used to target those image-conscious younger women. Reality varies of course.
This is one of them, Spa World in Osaka.
Places calling themselves Kenko Land or Spa use spring water as well. In this blog for our convenience, we use the word Spa for the individual public bath houses, either with a hot spring water or regular tub water, having a variety of bathtubs, sauna and other spa services. Japan has a number of Spa places. Even though you don't have time to go an Onsen area, you can enjoy one of them in the area close by and convenient to you.
Just to clarify, you can find day spas in the US. But in the States, a day spa doesn't include public bathing. Both countries have esthetic salons, but in Japan they may be with or without public baths. A spa in Japan usually includes public baths most of the time. I don't think there is a regulation for the use of the word of spa (like with Onsen and Sento).
On the other hand, a place might be a shady business establishment if it uses the name Kenko Land but has no public baths. Everyone in Japan would it expect a place with that name to be a public bath house. Developers in the States must observe businesses like this might be surprised by how many of these types of businesses there are in Japan. Maybe plans are already in place for bringing them to the U.S. All these public bath services and esthetic day spas comprise a huge industry -- lots of people love to spend money on them, perhaps more many other types of entertainment. Western people don't like public baths? You'll see. Trends change and people adopt new things.
We will have more information in posts to come about these Spas as well as Onsen.
I should note that public bath houses are not co-ed. Co-ed Onsen baths do exist, but mostly in the nature areas. And even then, the odds of meeting naked young girls even in those places is low. The odds of sharing a bath with wild animals would be better.
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