Authentic Onsen after work
Posted by: kirin on 
Jul 4th, 2012 | 
Filed under: Daily LifeIt doesn’t always mean that you have to travel to an Onsen resort or countryside to go in an Onsen (hot spring). I suppose Ooedo Onsen Monogatari is sometimes introduced as a Higaeri Onsen (Onsen for a day trip) in a guidebook for foreigners who travel to Tokyo. But it’s not the only option. There are several Onsen facilities in residential area that offer authentic Onsen for the local people at a reasonable price and for daily use. Shiraku-no-Yu is a good example. 
photo credit: Shiraku-no-Yu official website
It’s not in Tokyo. It’s in Kawasaki but not in a major train station such as Kawasaki station. Nothing interesting may be found around the area, but its nearest train station is Yakou. Yakou is a train station between my station and Kawasaki station, so it’s not very far from my place. (10 minutes by train)
However, I’ve never inclined to get off a train at a station like Yakou, where there’s nothing more to offer except for the Onsen. It’s only a residential area, basically.
But now that I’m working in Kawasaki and I have a train pass from my station to Kawasaki, which allows me to get on and off at any train stations in-between, I’ve planned to get off at Yakou to go to the Onsen after work on Friday evening!
It wasn’t easy for me to find out this place. I’m poor at reading maps…It’s not on the main street, not very near the station, no signs to guide people from the station, but it’s totally in a residential area between apartments.
I could see most of the people who come to this place would be the locals who live nearby.
There were more people when I came, so I took this picture before I left when there were not many people around. I liked the interior, it’s very relaxing. 
When you enter, take off your shoes and put them in a locker (whichever open) and keep the wooden key with you. Then pay at the reception. If you bring a towel from home, it’s 850yen (1000yen for weekends). If you want to borrow towels, it’s 970yen (1150yen for weekends).
The way to approach Onsen and a changing room connected to each Onsen (Onsen for men and for women) also looked nice!
The Onsen was really good! I was quite surprised because I didn’t expect it so much, honestly. Somehow Onsen water was a bit salty and color was brown, which made me feel as if I traveled all the way to reach some hidden place. (instead of Yakou! lol I didn’t remember I was still in Kawasaki while I was in the Onsen.)
I could see it was an authentic Onsen, as I couldn’t stay so long in the water because it keeps me so warm. Also after finish bathing, I kept feeling hot for a while. You will not be able to get this feeling from normal bath or fake Onsen, where Onsen water is very weak, blended with huge amount of normal water. Also your skin becomes very smooth, after taking a bath at authentic Onsen.
Yakou and Kawasaki area is not on volcanic belt but according to them, they dug this area very deeply and Onsen water sprung. The water is nearly as close as sea water (that’s why it’s salty!) and it had been stuck in the layer of earth for hundreds of thousands of years where all kind of minerals from the earth melted into. That’s why they say bathing at Shiraku-no-Yu is like having a thalassotherapy. The sea water from old layer of earth is much more pristine than the one we have in the ocean today.
It was amazing! I was totally relaxed, almost forgetting that I was staying in Kawasaki, and it was after work. On the way back from the Onsen and while I was walking on a corridor, I was wondering how I was supposed to go back to my hotel room, and then I was surprised at myself wondering that. The whole experience even made me have such an idea very naturally! lol
I’ll definitely come back next Friday after work…hope I’ll be free from over-time work on that day!
BTW, I had a good quality sleep on that night and next morning I felt great waking up around 5:30am naturally! I’ll also write about the Izakaya (soba restaurant as well) and the cafe (macrobiotics cafe) in the facility some time later. I liked them too!
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July 4th, 2012 at 12:50 pm
Hi Kirin,
This Onsen seems like very interesting!
Until now, I have not being to any of onsen. Maybe I feel uneasy. But I would like to try in one of the days.
Thank you for sharing this information. Even if I want to go to Onsen, I can no need to travel all the way to Hakone.
July 4th, 2012 at 2:34 pm
That's nice of you. It's great sometime you need to find time to relax after a week long of pure work. You have to pamper yourself so you can gain strength for the next week of work. The place is nice as shown on your pictures. I hope I could also visit there soon. Thanks for sharing!!
July 4th, 2012 at 11:05 pm
Thanks for the comment. You can find this kind of casual Onsen at several locations in Japan. ^ ^ It's not bad to pay 1000yen or so to have Onsen in the city area and refresh. ^ ^
July 4th, 2012 at 11:09 pm
Right, you don't have to travel all the way to Hakone and stay over there. ^ ^
But I understand it's not easy for non-Japanese people to get used to bathing in naked among other Japanese women. I guess it's easier for me to do that among strangers.
Weekdays there are less people. So you may gradually try one of weekdays with less people. ^ ^;; haha!
July 11th, 2012 at 9:17 am
Hola Kirin. ¿Que tal estais todos? Espero que bien.
Oh my… this pace is pretty.
As i read it, i understand it is basically a spa, isn’t it?
I went once to a spa here, but i didn’t like much. But this Onsen looks so peaceful, and in contact with nature. I love that. If i go to Japan some day, i would like you to show me this Onsen or any other similar to this, but i also would love to visit some typical sake bar, maybe in a backstreet. Basically i would like to visit places that are not specifically designed for tourism, i prefer to know and see how people lives in JP, how is the daily life and the culture itself, and know the whys and hows. If i managed to learn Japanese, i would love to hear stories and tales form old people, like your grandmother or grandfather. You know what i mean? Of course i would visit the Mount Fuji and monuments, but i wouldn’t mind to skip it and see other things that i cannot see in TV documentaries. You know?
Thanks for this post and for creating TKE. Keep up your good work!!!
P.S. Is there any chance to have a TKE version for mobile or tabletPC.
P.S.2. Thanks to your koto videos, i managed to play Sakura with my violin, at least a small part from the begining part. It’s very hard to do that, but note by note, i write the score down and test with violin. Right now, i already got a full page with sakura in western notation, but i already need a lot to finish all. The only problen is that my violin is a baroque volin, and it’s really hard to understand how JP music is tuned in comparison with western notation. Whatever, thanks a lot for your great vids.
July 12th, 2012 at 4:51 am
Hi Kirin,
Thanks for the post!
I went to Japan last month and only experienced ofuro in the ryokans (the owner called the hot tub 'ofuro', not onsen), is this counted as onsen?
I didn't manage to visit Hakone because my schedule was too tight, and it's really nice to know there's an authentic onsen near Tokyo.
And yes, I was really embarrassed having a bath together (even with females too) in public, but maybe because I'm asian too (Indonesian) people didn't stare much at me
I really like Japan and I'm planning to visit again next year
July 14th, 2012 at 2:02 pm
Hi Melissa,
Thank you for your comment. ^ ^
Ofuro means bath. But it's not clear if that Ofuro had an Onsen water or normal hot water. If you felt hot and kept sweating for a while after you had a bath, it's highly possible that the water was from hot spring (Onsen). Otherwise, it's a normal tap water that is heated by gas. ^ ^;;
July 14th, 2012 at 3:23 pm
Hola Alberto,
Estamos bien gracias. Sabes que? He empesado a trabajar en una oficia y lo que pasa es que estoy ocupada y cansada y no tengo suficiente tiempo que seguir TKE blog. T_T (llorando). Ademas no tengo tiempo para ver la telenovela en espanol… Voy a olvidar la lengua hoy mismo!
I totally understand what you mean, because I'm also very much interested in how the local people lead a life more than the typical places for the tourists to take a picture. That's why I like to make more local friends, eat local foods, hang out the places where the locals would love to, and shop at a local supermarket and etc. ^ ^
P.S. I'm sorry I don't know how to do that. I don't even have a tablet PC or smartphone. Do you mean you can't see the page from those as it is?
P.S2 Cool! I think the violin version is also very beautiful. I haven't played koto for months, because of my work. T_T (llorando otra vez)
July 19th, 2012 at 10:22 am
Me alegra que esteis bien.
¿Que? No… ¿me estas gastando una broma? TKE es lo unico que miro en internet. ¡¡¡Si ya no escribes mas entonces ya no tendre nada que mirar en internet!!! Y ademas mi prima y mi padre tambien leen TKE y dicen que les gusta mucho. Por favor sigue con TKE!!!
¿Como voy a poder ir a Japon el año que viene si no nos cuentas cosas interesantes sobre el?
¡Ah! Felicidades por tu nuevo trabajo.
Ok, some english lol.
About the mobile version, yes i can read TKE from within my TaletPC. The problem is if i use a web browser, TKE is unconfortable to read, either had small text in portrait mode or doesnt fit the screen in landscape mode. Also because mobile devices are slower than PCs, the page loads and scrolls slower because of all images in the banners and so.
If I use a RSS feeds program I can read TKE perfect, but i cannot read or write comments, so I need to use the web browser again.
Here i send you some images of TKE in my Tablet:
this is TKE in web browser in landscape mode:
http://4gp.tw/bar/134268955190.jpg
here, the same but in portrait mode:
http://4gp.tw/bar/1342689685464.jpg
this looks good, but font is too small so i need to zoom in
and last one, TKE in rss feed program:
http://4gp.tw/bar/1342689877607.jpg
this looks the best, loads fast and text font is easy to read, but sadly, i can’t comment
BTW, thanks for writting TKE, you are the best
P.S. how can i write a foreign post? I would be interested in writting something about stargazing, and teach something about astronomy for amateur astronomers
Do you think it would be an interesting post? I was thinking about a serie of tutorials about constellations, planet viewing with a telescope, asteroid and comet tracking, and so on.
July 19th, 2012 at 12:09 pm
Hola Alberto,
Tu prima y tu padre tambien leen TKE? Oh! ^0^ Saludos para ellos.
Voy a viajar a Okayama y Hiroshima antes de empezar un nuevo trabajo y quiero escribir acerca de mi viaje en TKE.
¿Vas a viajar a Japón el año que viene? ¿Estas seguro? ^___^ That's cool~~.
Thank you for sharing your pictures showing me how TKE look like on tablet PC. I have no idea how to make it more comfortable for you to read it via tablet PC. (lo siento…) It was at least good to know that it's visible. ^ ^;;;
P.S. If you can write about something particular and you have passion, you should do that. But I personally don't know much about astronomy and so I can't advise you how that theme is perceived by the amateur astronomers. What do you mean by foreign post? Do you mean you want to write the astronomy blog in English or to foreigners or something like that?
I think what's important is your passion and goal. Normally it takes years to gain regular readers. At first you may feel bored because you'd feel as if you were writing to nobody. Every post receives no comment and no reaction from people, but you have to pass such period of time for the first few months or several months, and especially at the early stage, you'll have to write a post quite often to attract more readers and Google.
I noticed it took me many years to gain certain amount of readers per each day, but it's so easy to lose them once I stop updating TKE less.
Anyway, I think it's good you challenge something like that, as you have a field you can teach people, which is wonderful. With that you could help/guide people. ^_^
July 22nd, 2012 at 6:02 pm
Yeah, my father likes about Japanese Tea ceremony and everything that is about Japan life in general, aikido and about zen philosophy, and my cousin is a fan of manga, anime, sushi. Otaku girl will fit her pretty well
I'm more interested in day-to-day life, religion, way of thinking, ancient literature and music… Right now I'm reading this book, I suppose you know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pillow_Book. So far I love it.
Well… about travelling to Japan… Yeah, I would love to and that's my plan, maybe go with my cousin or maybe with another friend, but everything depends on economy. You know… Japan is incredible expensive for us: food, accomodation, travelling, so I don't know if I can save enough money for that because my salary got reduced so I got less money for my hobbies, but at least I will try.
Basically I can't die before visiting Japan.
About the foreign post, I was not talking about a blog. I saw once at TKE some posts written by other people, not being you or the other girl working with you. Maybe I am mistaken. That's what I was refering to.
Whatever, be happy.
Matane.
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