Keio Takaosan Onsen Gokurakuyu — Restaurant in Tokyo

I came here 2 days in a row, visiting for 6 hours each day. Soak, eat, nap, soak, eat. I had a great time! Very relaxing experience. I visited on a Tuesday and Wednesday and both days were not busy. On the days I visited, it was mostly Japanese people and a few foreigners.

There are 2 natural hot springs, a carbonated bath, cypress (micro-bubbles) bath, a sitting bath, a theme (not hot) bath, and a cold bath. My favorite was the carbonated bath. At first I got dizzy quickly but I learned to alternate soaking and cooling off on the chairs or sitting bath. The shower and baths were very refreshing after being so sweaty and tired from the humidity.

The food from the cafeteria was good. I liked that they had tatami mat seating. I ate soba, tempura, and one of the grilled pork meal sets. I liked mostly everything except the grated yam soba. It’s a local specialty but the grated yam made the soba slimy.

The employees were very nice and I was able to communicate with them despite my lack of Japanese.

When you first enter the building, take off your shoes and store them in the lockers to the left. Then, buy your ticket at the ticket machines (they don’t take credit cards I think, only cash or IC card). Give your ticket to the counter employees and they will give you some English...

After coming down Takaosan, it seemed like a great idea to hit the onsen and see what food they got there. The entrance fee was set at ¥1,300 even on a Monday due to the autumn peak season. The regular fee on weekdays off-peak is only ¥1,100. If you don’t have a towel, you can rent a set or buy one at the entrance.

The restaurant was still packed at around 2pm when I got in. It took more than 30 minutes to get my order. It seems that the soba with tempura set is the house specialty and can be prepared faster. Not being too keen on soba, they let me switch the noodles to udon for the autumn special set that I got which costs ¥1,680. The tempura is maitake which was nice and crispy. The salmon sushi domburi was just so-so.

After lunch, it was time to soak in the onsen on the 2/F. It was packed! There were very few available lockers left, and almost no vacant shower stalls. Shampoo, conditioner and body soap are provided. Anyway, there are 2 indoor pools: a cold bath and an herbal one. On the patio, there’s a big milky cedar bath which smells great and feels amazing to the skin. There are four more baths outside: a carbonated bath, a hot one, not so hot one and a sitting bath. My fave is the sauna inside with a big TV. After bathing, you can dry your hair at the powder...

I’ve been here twice. My last onsen experience was a good even though it was crowded.

If you have a car, there is a free 3-hour parking area. The time will start counting as soon as you get the parking ticket.

We left our car and spent an hour in Mt. Takao first. Then the next two hours are in the onsen.

The entrance fee was ¥1,200 because it was Sunday. I don’t recommend going on weekends because it’s so crowded and though there are many hot springs, the place wasn’t that big. We also brought our own towels to save. You can also rent a towel if you don’t have it.

Their shampoo, soap and hair conditioner are so good! There’s also facial lotions that you can use.

After onsen, we ate at the restaurant. I’ve been here twice and unfortunately, the food is still bland. I ordered Katsu Curry and the Katsu was 80% flour. But the good thing is there is a free service water & hot green tea.

I recommend going to other place for food. But if you’re also lazy to go out like us, their food is still...