Tokyo, March 24
Door: Yaru
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Yaru
24 Maart 2020 | Japan, Tokio
Hello there! Writing part of today’s log from Oedo Onsen Monogatari located in Odaiba!! It’s so nice and comfortable here~ Really a good place we chose to go to but more on that later in the log
So as said Today’s planning had Odaiba~
You can compare Odaiba with Flevoland but then bigger hahaha it’s an artificial and man-made island located east in Tokyo! It is about an hour from our hotel and if you take the right train you’ll drive over Rainbow bridge! We didn’t take the right train XD but we did see the bridge from the train so that was nice too.
Once arrived we went on our way to check the onsen first to see if it was open or not due to COVID-19. Yesterday I said that Ueno was calm but that couldn’t compare to Odaiba. There literally was no one in sight. An occasional car here and there and literally maybe 2 or 3 people every kilometer. The sun shone brightly but the wind on Odaiba was a lot stronger too and very cold~ Probably because we were surrounded by water but I was glad I had put on some warmer clothes today.
The onsen was open to our pleasant surprise so once that was confirmed we went on our way to the shopping center.
It’s getting late now. We’ll have to go back to the hotel :) This is the latest we’ve ever been outside in Tokyo XD
I’ll write further once we’ve arrived in the hotel.
2:40PM JST
Oops it’s super late but i’ll continue my story.
Odaiba isn’t super big so everything was doable by feet. We first visited Venus front. You stepped into the building and it was as if you stepped into a different world. You were suddenly surrounded by postmodernism and roman-esqe architecture and the ceiling was made to look like as if you were just walking outside. It was really beautiful to see but the center itself was extinct XD It’s really weird to see seeing a part of Tokyo this calm. I know I already talked about how it’s not as busy as we expect it to be but if you compare Shibuya with Odaiba then it’s like comparing Paris with Apeldoorn. It was that calm in Odaiba.
Well we had lunch in the Venus fort. Got a really nice banana smoothie and french toast with chocolate and banana slices.
Leaving Venus fort we went towards the Gundham statue. Gundham is a really popualar mecha animation and here in Odaiba there is a really big statue of one which gets changed throughout the year with different types of mechas. This time there stood a brilliant white gundham. A lot of people asked Jo-anne if she could take a picture of them XD She was trying to make photos herself but she got interrupted a lot of times hahaha.
Nearby the gundham statue was also a really big ferris wheel, sadly though it wasn’t in motion so we couldn’t get on. The plaza surrounding these sights contained small fields with many tulips. They were all in bloom already and it was so colorful and pretty!
We walked around Odaiba quite a lot that’s why I’m jumping from topic to topic right now because there’s a lot to tell!
A bit further down the road there was a really nice viewing point over Tokyo’s skyline and Rainbow bridge!
We didn’t know but there they had also displayed the official Olympic rings! It was floating on the water nearby Rainbow bridge. Also on our side of the water was a smaller imitation of the statue of liberty. There was a lot to see and admire. It’s really beautiful to see a skyline with so many modern and big buildings. Especially if you’re not used to such architecture and infrastructure it’s pretty astonishing. We took a few polaroids there and took a bit of time to just watch everything. We didn’t stay too long though as the wind here was even stronger and colder so we quickly went inside a nearby shopping center.
There was an Aquarium inside but again, closed. They did have a few small, round Aquariums in the building itself where they had a few fish in. They even had an Eel and one really big fish. They looked kind of scary to me XD but Jo-Anne found them cute. Tastes differ I guess hahaha.
In the foodcourt we tried our first Takoyaki, also known as Octopus balls. The method of making is similar to ‘poffertjes’ but these are round and very very soft dough balls mixed with vegetables and stuff and in the middle there is a small piece of Octopus leg. The octopus did taste okay but I’m not a fan of the dough. The inside is very soft and almost paste like, didn’t suit my taste XD
So now it’s finally time for the Onsen! I should probably explain a bit what that actually is. Onsens are traditionally known as Japanese hot springs but also known as public bath houses located around these hot springs. This particular onsen is a bit bigger and different than the general ones.
Oedo Onsen Monogatari, what a wonderful and fun place!! So relaxing and fun to be able to have visited this. We entered the building and we had to take off our shoes and could store them in shoe lockers. There first was a check if you didn’t have a fever or was sick in any way. After that was confirmed you could go and check in. You’d get a wristband with a barcode on it and a key for the locker you’d get. You had to choose a Yukata and could choose out of 5 different patterns~ Women and Men’s changing rooms were seperated (of course) and there you could change into your yukata. We had to figure out how to put on the belt properly since it was this fairly long strip of fabric. Turned out there was an instruction paper on the side of the lockers XD We only noticed when we had it already nicely tied up. Well we did it about right.
Once dressed we stepped into the mail hall and here is where Oedo Onsen Monogatari differs. Inside there is this whole ‘festival’ like set up with traditional games, a lot of food stands and other facilities. There are some photo spots and 2 spacious foodcourts. There is a tower in the middle and from there hang rows of cute lanterns which light up the place. There are 2 big Tatami mat rooms and outside you’ll have a foot bath. In other parts of the building you’ll have the actual hot springs and you can actually stay the night at the onsen if you want to. The onsen is open from 11AM until 9AM the next day~
It was all super cozy and atmospheric!! Really as if you were attending a festival but have the comfort of a living room at the same time. The wristband you got at the beginning is actually the way to pay for stuff here. They’ll scan the barcode on it and it will be added to your receipt! So you don’t have to bring anything with you into the main hall. It’s super handy~ My phone was also almost empty and I forgot to bring a cord for my power-bank and they even have charging spots where you could store and charge your device for only a ¥100 per 20 minutes. Ideal!
We first chilled a bit at one of the Tatami mat rooms and I took a small nap haha. After that we both had to charge our phone and while that happened we got dinner. There was a lot to choose from as they had stands from Korean food to Ramen and Snacks like ice cream and stuff. We chose to get some curry and torikatsu with rice since we didn’t have that for a long time and it was a nice change of food for once. Our wristbands got scanned and the food was served. Naturally it tasted great XD
After dinner we checked upon our phones and decided to charge it for another 20 minutes and get to dessert. There was a stand which sold these huge bowls with shaved ice and syrup!! So we got that :D The onsen was nice and warm but it was nice to have the shaved ice as dinner had made me a little bit hot haha. I couldn’t finish the bowl thought it was too much XD but it was good. I had Blue syrup and my tongue was super stained, even my lips were a bit stained with the color.
After eating our fill we got our phones again and decided to check out the footbath. It was around 7:15PM by then so the sun had already set by then. The foot bath was just outside and the place was so cute! They had decorated it with all these fake pink sakura and spotlights here and there. The bath itself were illuminated by blue light strips and had stones in different patterns and sizes on the bottom so that if you’d walk on it you’d get a supposedly ‘foot massage’, man did that HURT. The water was warm and you could see the steam dancing above the water but walking through it really wasn’t pleasant at all XD So we just said on the edge like most of the people and enjoyed the fresh air and hot water :) Of course we also took some pictures with the sakura and they had cute parasols you could take for a picture~ After some time it got quite cold since only your feet are in the hot water and the rest just has to deal with the wind that passes through so we decided to go back inside.
There was this small arcade hall and we wanted to play some games! You needed special play tokens for that and again you could put your hand with your wristband into a machine where they would scan you barcode and then you could choose how many tokens you wanted. Ingenius, it’s well-thought of because like this nobody can really steal anything and you don’t have to bring cash with you. You’ll pay everything afterwards.
We played some rythem games and tried our hand at some crane games, to no avail XD it was still fun to do!
In the end we relaxed in the other Tatami mat room. Those were open until 9:30PM and after that closed we decided to go back to the hotel as well.
We got dressed again and gave our wristbands back at the cashier and paid for everything we used and of course the entrance fee. We got our shoes and travelled back to Akasaka :)
The highlight of today was definitely the onsen and we’re both really happy we decided to visit it. It was such a nice and fun experience of a Japanese Hot spring and it was very laid-back and relaxed too. We didn’t have to get naked and get uncomfortable. We could just stay in our yukata’s since we didn’t enter the actual bath. I really liked Odeo Onsen Monogtari and highly recommend spending half a day there as it’s totally worth it! Go there when you decide to have a chill day and you’ll definitely come back rested and well :)
It’s really late now so I’m going to stop writing. I just wanted to post today’s log since I said I would commit to it and I also like to write it!
Sleepwell~
- Yaru
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