# Millions of Japanese now chase a feeling that had no name, until some friends went out for dinner.

- Series: [Saunantakaa](https://miu.fm/saunantakaa.md)
- Published: 2026-10-06
- Page: https://miu.fm/saunantakaa/millions-of-japanese-now-chase-a-feeling-that-had-no-name

## Story

Millions of Japanese now chase a feeling that had no name, until some friends went out for dinner.

It starts with a trap shooter at the Melbourne Olympics in 1956. He sees athletes using something called a sauna, and asks a wrestler to study it for him. Back in Tokyo he builds one, with steam pipes in the walls and in the floor. The floor was so hot you had to hop to get in.

In 1966 a Finnish-style sauna opened in Tokyo. Some of the first customers covered their faces with towels and walked straight out. The others stayed.

Decades later came a manga, Sa-do, The Way of Sauna. Hot room, cold bath, then rest outside with your eyes closed. Three times. And something happens: the body goes quiet, the head goes clear.

A group of sauna friends, over beer and grilled meat, asked if there was a word for it. There wasn't, so they made one: totonou, to be put in order. In 2021 it was up for Japan's word of the year.

Finns have felt this for centuries. We never named it. Too shy.

Do you have a word for that feeling after the third round?

Sources: SAUNA no. 297 (Japan Sauna Association, 2001); SAUNNERS interview with Nakayama Makio (2018); RKB Mainichi (3 Dec 2021); Tanaka Katsuki, Sa-do.
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