(paper rustling)
- I feel like a cocktail at a tiki bar.
- [Ben] All right, enjoy.
I'll let you know when
it's time to get up.
- I'll be here.
(upbeat playful music)
- I'm Ella Dove and this
is What the Wellness?
Sometimes wellness can be a little weird.
So, I'm running around and trying out
all the wellness experiences from fitness
to beauty, to health, and whatever else
to find out when that
weirdness is actually worth it.
(upbeat harpsichord music)
I'm here at Sojo Spa Club
in Edgewater, New Jersey
where they have seven saunas, eight floors
and nine pools, one of
which is an infinity pool.
Why am I here?
Because somewhere in this
facility is a giant sandbox
where they're gonna bury me in hot sand
for a part sauna, part
gravity blanket experience.
Sojo transported 120
tons of black lava sand
over 7000 miles from Japan to New Jersey.
Apparently, they're the only spa outside
of Japan to have that.
So, let's go learn what that's all about.
This is Esther Cha, the
Marketing Manager here
at Sojo Spa Club.
Esther I know you've
been here since the day
the spa opened.
- That's right.
- So tell me what is going on here.
- The treatment came
all the way from Japan,
specifically the Ibusuki area.
The Japanese sand bath, they've been doing
for approximately a thousand years,
so it's a really old practice.
The idea is that the heat and the weight
of the sand as well as the water from it,
it creates a sauna
experience but it's kind
of a supercharged sauna experience.
Everything gets hotter faster,
the benefits are even
better than a regular sauna.
The first step for our guests is to wear
the authentic Japanese yukata.
It's a special kind of kimono that'll
protect your skin from
the heat of the sand.
And once you put that on the attendant
will cover you in sand
once you lie down on it.
The whole process takes just a few minutes
and the recommended time to be there
is about 10 to 15 minutes.
- All right, well, I guess it's time
for me to go get buried in some hot sand.
(intense harpsichord music)
- So basically we're gonna
make a skeleton bed first.
- [Ella] Skeleton bed?
- Yeah, now I'm gonna dig a little deeper
to make the bed more comfortable.
- Great!
- And to get it a little bit hotter.
- [Ella] It's pretty hot!
- [Ben] It's about 125 degrees right now.
(sand scraping)
And I'm gonna lay down your wood pillow
on which you can lie down.
- [Ella] So comfy.
All right, here I go into my skeleton bed.
- [Ben] You're gonna feel some pressure
and heat on your legs,
and your feet.
- Oh (laughs)!
It's heavy!
- [Ben] If it's ever too heavy or too hot
just let me know, I can shave some off.
- [Ella] Definitely warm.
(sand scraping)
- [Ben] Is the pressure okay so far?
- Yeah, it feels good.
- [Ben] Excellent.
(sand scraping)
- You must get your workout
every day, huh?
- [Ben] Yes!
I've already lost some weight (laughs)
- I bet (laughs)!
- It aids in detoxification, circulation
and reduces inflammation,
and I don't know if you can tell
but if you take a big whiff,
the aroma of the minerals
in the sand are really nice.
- Yeah, it does, it smells really good.
Are you gonna make me into
a mermaid when it's done?
- [Ben] Your session will last about
10 to 15 minutes, we'll let you know when
it's time to get up.
- Oh that's it?
- I'm actually gonna block out the sun now
with the umbrella
is that okay?
- Great, thanks.
- [Ben] All right, awesome.
(upbeat flute music)
- I'm definitely sweating.
(intense harpsichord music)
- [Camerawoman] Ella, what just happened?
- It felt really good and
very hot.
I feel a little high right now (laughs).
Definitely ready for a shower.
Cold one, probably.
(sighs)
(upbeat music)
When I first walked in
it was kind of weird
'cause you just lay in
this kind of gray sand.
But then Ben started to bury me
and it felt really good,
especially in the beginning
it kinda just felt like I was wrapped
in a warm, sandy blanket.
As he's shoveling it on you,
there's like a little bit of anxiety
like is this gonna feel weird?
And then as he starts to do it
it just felt really nice.
There was a lot of pressure, like,
in a good way on like my hipbones
and kinda my shoulders
and it really felt like
I was sort of decompressing
and stretching out
all of those muscles
without doing anything.
Slowly you start to get really really hot,
but unlike an infrared sauna
or even like a steam room,
it wasn't overwhelming.
Thank God for that yukuta,
yukuta, yukuta?
Because it protected me from the hot sand
and it smelled good.
Definitely one of the
weirder things I've tried
but so worth it.
Doing it here in New Jersey instead of
in Japan by the ocean was kind of nice
because I could hear the cars whooshing by
and it kind of sounded like the ocean.
(many car engines)
Sort of, almost.
Come, do it, it was very cool!
(upbeat playful music)
