So, after much prodding by my friend Olivia, I finally decided to try traditional Japanese bathing. Olivia is very fond of visiting our local sento (bathhouse), but she had not yet convinced me to come with her. This evening, however, she upped the ante by inviting me to the Odaiba Oedo Onsen (an onsen is a hot spring). I finally caved, since I’m doing onsen this weekend in Hakone, and I figured it would probably be a good idea to do a trial run.
I’m just going to do a quick description here, because I should be sleeping, as I have to be up in 5 hours to go to go Hakone. The Oedo onsen is supposedly an actual onsen, but it seems very fabricated, as it is quite a recreational facility. Bathing there was a particularly complex procedure.
When you arrive, you remove your shoes and place them in a locker (one of many). From there, you proceed through the decorated lobby (of which I have a photo and will eventually post) to the check-in area. There, you pay the basic onsen fee (roughly 2000 yen, or $20) and receive a key attached to a cord that goes around your wrist. On the key is a barcode. The key is to a locker in the respective changing area.
Once obtaining a key, you proceed over to the yukata area and select a yukata from the designs available. Then you enter the changing area for your gender, designated by a large cloth hanging over the doorway. In the changing area, you find your locker, stowe your belongings, and change into your yukata. This was a relief, since I had my school bag with me and my computer, and I was worried about what I would do with all this stuff. So, I stowed the first locker key and all my belongings and clothes into the locker and locked it with the second locker key.
From here, you are free to wander a little inside “shopping area,” which has food, snacks, palm readers, and shopping. When you are ready (which was for us, immediately, since we wanted to be out by last train and it was already almost 10 PM), you can enter the bath area and follow the signs for your gender towards the baths.
The nice thing about this onsen is that they provide pretty much everything you need to bathe, including soap, shampoo, moisturizers, hair products, hair dryers and even a brush and toothbrush. So, we went to our THIRD lockers and disrobed from the yukata. We were also given two towels. One was for drying off, and the other was for taking with us into the onsen. Stowing everything in the third locker, except my glasses which I forgot to remove and the small towel, we proceeded to the bathing area.
Traditional Japanese bathing requires that you scrub yourself off in a stall before entering the springs or bath to soak. So, Olivia and I sat down on some stools and scrubbed off. The bathing area itself was nice, with granite or marble, ambient lighting and steaming baths all over. There were probably five or six different baths inside and a few outside as well.
After we had scrubbed off, we proceeded to explore the baths. We pretty much just flitted from one to another, trying not to overheat. The jacuzzi was really relaxing, and the milky mineral bath was also nice. Outside was nice too, although the water was quite hot compared to the air, which made it refreshing but easy to overheat. The steam room was also surprisingly pleasant. It wasn’t too wet, and it wasn’t too dry. I did almost pass out a couple times.
When we decided to head back inside, I was grateful there was a vending machine there, because the world was spinning and things were starting to go black. That’ll teach me not to eat a substantial meal before onsen! Next time, I’ll know. And I’ll bring bottled water with me to the bathing area.
The experience itself was very relaxing. The water just soaks into you and gets to every muscle. I probably could have stayed out there longer if I hadn’t gotten dizzy. The bracelets functioned as an accounting system as well. A barcode reader on the vending machine read the code and dispensed drinks. All of the little shops functioned the same way as well.
After we had some beverages and dried our hair, we redressed in yukata and wandered through the shop area looking for ice cream. We found a group of people from school, got ice cream, and chatted with them for a bit. Before long, however, it was 11:30, and we had to hustle if we wanted to make last train. The others planned on staying there all night, but I didn’t want to be a zombie for hakone tomorrow, so we headed home.
It was a little pricey for the amount of time we spent there, which was only an hour or two max, but, overall, it was well worth it! After we changed back into our clothes, we dropped off our locker keys and the check out personnel charged us for whatever we’d purchased using the wrist bands. Mine was only 620 yen – ice cream, a tea and a sandwich pack for the road.
We hopped the train and headed back across the bay to Shimbashi station and headed home from there. I also highly recommend taking the train across the bay. It’s very cheap, only 370 yen, and it was a gorgeous ride. I tried to snap a couple photos, but I only had my cell phone camera, so they turned out pretty blurry and bad.
There were a lot of services that we didn’t even take advantage of in the onsen, including the foot bath (only co-ed bath), the massage chairs, the foot massage machines, the full-body massages, the lounge, etc. Also, if you decide to stay past 2 AM, they will charge you an extra 1500 yen, but you can stay there all night until 9 AM and sleep in the lounge.
Anyway, that’s all the info I have about the Oedo Onsen Monogatori for the moment. It’s definitely worth checking out if you are in Tokyo and can’t get out of the city to visit a “real” onsen.
Ja mata!
Since visiting, I have subsequently written a couple of articles on Ooedo Onsen Monogatari. Hopefully, they will be of use to those of you interested in visiting!
Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Part 1: Directions and Overview
Ooedo Onsen Monogatari Part 2: Procedure for Entering and Navigating the Baths