Tuesday, July 25, 2017

HEAT II -- How to keep it down

Say it is very hot in town and the beach is far (or inconvenient to get to). What to do to cool down? Although Tokyo and Yokohama don't have a city beach, they offer several ways to beat the heat in summer.

Mainly, there are three kinds places where to go, public swimming pools, hotel pools, water parks. Each pool or park may have restrictions, as for tattoos, wearing of earrings or accessories, some pools forbid the use of sunscreen an other body lotions, and I guess all of them have a system where rest times are enforced every hour or so (meaning you must exit the pools).

1) Public swimming pools (outdoor)

All those pools charge a small fee to use the facilities. Price varies typically between 100yen and 500yen, and allows hourly or daily use, depending on facility, and opening times are normally between 9am and 5pm or 6pm.
Shiba park Aqua Field swimming pool is in the heart of Tokyo, close to Tokyo tower, Zojoji temple, and the imperial palace. This is a perfect spot to refresh during the day before hitting the night scene in central Tokyo.
Meguro Citizens Sport Gymnasium offers an outdoor pool for use during the summer months. This could be good for swimming, as it is open until late, to those who can wait until all the families with kids have left.
In addition, together with the bigger and heavier controlled, there are swimming pools in every big neighborhood and in many major municipal gymnasiums, so in July and August local residents can enter and spend some chill time. Restrictions may still apply. There are also zillion other indoor swimming pools, and they tend to be open year-round (like sports centers in  Meguro, Sendagaya, Yokohama and so on), mainly available to those who are serious about the swimming business.

2) Hotel swimming pools

Many 4 or 5 stars hotels include a swimming pool among their amenities. The Keio Plaza in Shinjuku and the New Otani in Akasaka are two of the hotels that allow non-guests to use the swimming pool during summer, upon an entrance fee. The cost is usually high, but this is an option that somehow offers movie star level kind of leisure. Because these pools are part of a hotel complex and are in the middle of the city, they are open until 8pm or so, so that people can enjoy the night views.

3) Water parks.

This is the preferred solution among the Japanese. They go to an amusement park, spend the day there and have tons of fun with their kids or friends. They all come with several water pools, slides, and what not, ensuring lots of activity. Depending on what kind of facilities these parks have, and their sizes, entrance fees vary from something like 500 yen up to 3,000 or 4,000 yen. Their opening times are also usually between 9am and 6pm.
Toshimaen water park in Nerima ward is probably the most famous park in Tokyo, just north-west of Ikebukuro, making it one of the favorite destinations. The park is boasting a spa, a water park and a swimming pool.
The biggest in the area, though, is probably Showa Kinen park in Tachikawa, which has something like 9 pools and wave machines, but charges over 2,000 yen entrance fee. The park gets very crowded on weekends or holidays, so much that the blue of the pool is not visible.
Hakkeijima Sea Paradise is a big complex south of Yokohama, built on an island at the mouth of the bay. It boasts an amusement park, an aquarium, a marine museum, a marina and a hotel. Basically, it can be a weekend destination, and the advantage is that the park is open year-round.
Again in Yokohama area, in Isogo town, there is Yokohama pool center, a site with a huge square pool divided into zones, one of which is shaped as a circle right in the middle of this square pool.
At last, I think Tokyo Disneyland's Disney Sea deserves a mention. Although one may think that a Disney park is far from being in this list, the water themed Disney Sea park is an exception. All attractions in there include water, so even if one can't really swim, one can definitely get the heat down.


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