onsen – YQtravelling

Before planning my trip to Tokyo, I made a note to visit Ooedo Onsen Monogatari and spend a night there.

My other plan was to overnight at a cybercafe but chickened out and stayed at a budget hotel instead.

The icing on the cake was when I found out that there was an event for my favorite anime/manga Gintama at Ooedo Onsen and that I would be there during the last two days of the event.

For me, staying overnight at Ooedo Onsen meant saving one night’s stay at a hotel. Since I already want to soak in hot springs, adding on the extra 1,700 yen wasn’t too bad. But if you are travelling in pairs, this might be a more expensive option for accommodation.

Checking in

Since I was going to spend the rest of my night at Ooedo Onsen, I decided to pay for the evening entrance (past 6 p.m. 1,680 yen) instead of day entrance fees (from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 2,180 yen). I also bought my tickets from 7-11 so there was a 180 yen discount.

Before heading to the ticket counter, visitors need to put their shoes in shoe lockers.

After putting away my shoes, I went to queue with the rest of the people. Since there was still about 10 minutes before 6 p.m., everyone had to wait patiently.

About 5 minutes before 6 p.m., a lady dressed in traditional outfit came out with a pair of clappers and said lots of things in a sing-song tone.

I remember from their Web site that she’s the kanban-musume Oshino. This literally translates to “Signboard girl” which means she’s the attraction of a business.

Too bad I wasn’t too sure what Oshino was saying. I guess it was to welcome all of us to Ooedo Onsen.

Ooedo Onsen's kanban musume (Sign lady) — Ooedo Onsen’s kanban musume (Sign lady)

Soon, the counters opened for the evening session. I handed over my my coupon and was given a wristlet with a barcode taped over and a key.

Before heading into the changing room, everyone gets to choose a yukata. There are different designs and sizes of yukata. I picked on with purple flowers.

After yukata choosing, it’s time to hit the lockers. Find the locker corresponding to your wristlet. It’s in Japanese so if you don’t read hiragana, you might need help.

The size of the locker was enough for my backpack.

At the lockers, strip down to your underthings and wear the yukata.

Remember that the left side needs to be on top, or else you are wearing the bathrobe as a corpse would.

Strolling on Edo street’s

In my yukata, I went out to the fake Edo streets. There are plenty of food stalls around so don’t worry about being hungry. There’s also free hot tea and both hot and cold water so you won’t go thirsty.

When I was there, there was a performance at 7 p.m. I think the shows change every season.

Soaking in hot springs

I couldn’t take photos at the onsen or its changing room so I can only tell through words.

Before heading to the ladies’ hot spring area, we need to put our things in another changing room. There’s other lockers here to put yukata and underthings in before heading to the hot spring area.

In the changing room, there’s a corner with samples of makeup remover, toner, face lotion. There’s also hair bands and toothbrush provided.

Before heading to the hot spring, take everything off. Everyone strips naked so no need to be shy.

The hot springs are divided into indoor and outdoor pools. There’s a large section where everyone washes their hair and body. Free shampoo, conditioner and body soap is provided too.

After vigorously washing and conditioning my hair, I headed to the pools.

There were a variety of pools and areas:

Ooedo Onsen hot spring which was real undersea hot spring, instead of just hot water. The color was a bit rusty. There was also a side with recycled Ooedo Onsen hot spring which didn’t have a rusty color.
40 degrees Celsius pools
Massage jacuzzi pool
Pool with frothing machine which makes the water much more “fine” and is good for the skin
Cold water (brr)
Sauna
Outdoor pool

The pools outdoors were limited. There was only a large pond and an area with a few fake vintage bathtubs.

Off to bed

After soaking in the pools for the longest while, I head to the changing rooms and bought myself a small glass bottle of milk.

At about 11 p.m., I decided that it is time to find a place to sleep.

Ooedo Onsen has a capsule hotel but it’s catered only to men. The private rooms are too expensive for me.

I think there are also large halls where they layout tatami for people staying over. This I’m not too sure though.

My choice was the ladies’ lounge on the second floor. Here, they have reclining chairs with mini TVs. They even provide blankets.

Most of the chairs were taken by the time I got there. I found a chair with a broken TV and settled there. A mother and her young son slept one chair away.

I put on my eyemask and ear plugs and tried to sleep on the 150 degrees chair.

Suddenly as I was drifting off to sleep, I heard a loud rumbling noise. I took off my eyemask and discovered an older lady snoring in the seat next to mine.

It wasn’t easy blocking her snores out even with my earplugs but I managed to sleep.

In the morning, I woke up and realized that she was gone. I was also surprised to find that it was almost 7 a.m. which meant that I had less than 1 hour before the pools close for cleaning.

I went back for a last soak of onsen. Soaking in the morning and at night was different. I could see the blue sky in the outdoor pool while at night everything was a blur because I wasn’t wearing glasses.

After the soak, I changed back into my real clothes and checked out.

REVIEW
Stayed: Ooedo Onsen Monogatari
Pros: Save on entertainment and accommodation; fun
Cons: Snoring seatmates; not having a real bed

During my trip planning for Tokyo, I was most excited about visiting the Ooedo Onsen Monogatari hot spring theme park.

It wasn’t only because I desperately wanted to soak in hot springs and to stay overnight there. It was also because my favorite manga/anime Gintama was having an event.

The onsen place and the anime company teamed up to bring us “Ooedo Onsen Suspense Theater” where visitors can participate in games to win prizes and most of all, enjoy our favorite work.

This post will be very image heavy as I want to show you everything they had at Oedo Gintama Land.

Another warning, you will probably have ZERO idea what I am rambling on and on about if you have not read Gintama.

If you have not read the series, please head to your nearest comic bookstore and buy yourself the books. If all fails, there are the *cough* pirated versions online *cough*.

Outdoor fun with Gintama cast

When my shuttle bus reached Ooedo Onsen Monogatari, I almost squealed out loud seeingthe giant blow-up of Elizabeth guarding the entrance in his yukata.

Gintama's Elizabeth in Yukata at Ooedo Onsen Monogatari — Gintama’s Elizabeth in Yukata at Ooedo Onsen Monogatari

It was close to 6pm when I arrived. The mini outdoor event would close at 6pm so I had little time to play around.

There was two photo taking stations there. One of posing with the police car of the Shinsengumi police force.

I posed with a fake bazooka and Okita’s favorite eye masks. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to get into the car.

Gin-chan’s broken down scooter was also there for photo opportunities. Too bad they didn’t have his helmet or it would make an even more awesome photo.

Gintoki's motorcyle — Gintoki’s motorcyle

Floating in the wind was Gin-san in his yukata. My inner fan girl was shouting really loud by then. The pink banner says they are selling salted red bean paste–the taste for adults–at 280 yen. I think it’s ice cream.

There was even a shop selling Gintama merchandise. Being the cash-strapped traveller, I couldn’t afford to buy the stuff which were pretty much useless even for decoration.

Shinsengumi Police Station selling Gintama goodies

I did get myself one capsule. It was Katsura in yukata with a Elizabeth-yaki. (Too many jargons in this line!)

Entering Gintama Land

After having fun with photos, it was time to head into the theme park.

Elizabeth noren decorating the entrance of Ooedo Onsen Monogatari

Another banner with Gintama characters greeted us inside. My favorite female character Sacchan was disappointingly not among them.

At the waiting area, they put up Gintama goodies. I was really tempted by the Gintoki yukata but the price was too scary for me.

I think the partnership between Ooedo Onsen Monogatari and Gintama team is perfect because the theme park pretends to be a town in ancient Tokyo (Edo) and the comic is set in a fictional ancient Tokyo.

Gintama game

The highlight of Gintama Land was “Ooedo Onsen Suspense Theater”, a game to find one of the characters.

Shinpachi’s glasses was discovered by his elder sister, O-tae. O-tae was worried about Shinpachi and asked both the Yorozuya and Shinsengumi team to find her brother.

[Note: One of the running gags in the series is that Shinpachi=glasses. And the characters would talk to a pair of glasses as if it was Shinpachi,]

As a player, you buy a glasses pouch for 500 yen to play the game. I chose to be the Yorozuya intern while others can choose to be the Shinsengumi intern.

I went around the theme park, looking for the stamp stations. It took a while to find all five because I couldn’t decipher a large part of the instructions. X_x

While walking around, I found really cool cutouts and models of the characters.

For example, at the footbaths, Kondo Isao posed in only his underwear and covered with honey. It was from the chapter where they had to lure something in the forests.

Shinsengumi's Kondo Isao covered with honey — Shinsengumi’s Kondo Isao covered with honey

The very adorable but also very sadist Sogo with a bath towel.

A poster of the aliens also appeared at the footbath. Strangely, the lines say: “When you enter the baths, soak yourself up until your shoulders and count to ten before you COME OUTTTTT!”

Oi! What shoulders, this is a footbath!

Large panels like these appear at game stations.

Mini games

Besides the search for Shinpachi, there were three mini games along the way.

I forgot to take pictures of the fishing for water balloon games but I have the other two.

One of it was the paper fan throwing game. The player kneels in front of the two Styrofoam figures and try to knock it down with a fan, I failed at it and my fan flew way off the target.

I was much better at the anpan (red bean bun) throwing game. Each beanie bag of fake red bean bun flew into the holes representing faces.

At the end of the game, you will find Shinpachi. Turns out, the pair of glasses is not his. He also says angrily, “What do you mean I am not myself without glasses? No one goes to the bath with glasses, does he?!”