Iyashi Bedrock Spa - Toronto

Toronto’s newest hot spot gets you down on the floor.

by Anne Dimon

It’s not your average spa. There are no therapists and only one treatment offered at the year-old Iyashi Bedrock Spa: Rock Bathing. It’s hot, it’s healing, it’s totally relaxing and self-nurturing...I liked it a lot.

Located directly across the street from upper-Toronto’s very popular Sporting Life mega store, Iyashi is the first and still only Ganbanyoku (the Japanese word for Rock Bathing) spa in North America.

The self-administered treatment incorporates rare black silica bedrock imported directly from Japan. It is this black silica - with its reputed healing properties - that make the spa and the experience distinctive.

Iyashi vice president Ryusuke Juge, who arrived in Canada from Japan close to 20 years ago, explains that black silica – unique to the region of Hokkaido in northern Japan – is treasured because of its many natural minerals and its ability to emit far-infrared rays and negative ions when heated at low temperatures.

So, why is this good?