Maenohara Onsen Sayano Yudokoro — Restaurant in Tokyo

This was my first experience at an osen and I loved it! It’s a 10 minute walk from Shimura-Sakaue Station (Mita Line, I-27, exit A2) and it hardly feels that long at all since it goes by a lovely park you can observe while passing. I went on the weekend in the evening thinking it would be less foot traffic(?) and I’d say it was busy but not overwhelmingly crowded.

Changing rooms in general, no need to be shy everyone is very nude and nobody cares or is staring at you so embrace it even if it’s intimidating at first. The towel set for rent comes with a body towel and a small face towel; next time I’m bringing a smaller body towel from home since that really is enough for me when the only purposes of the towel is to cover up parts of your body out of modesty sake while walking about and for drying off. General warning for the osen, the water is SUPER HOT and will dehydrate your body so do not push your body (20 minutes is PLENTY plenty of time) or you might have trouble walking immediately after like I did😅. Rest, trying a “coffee milk” to cool down and lying down in the tatami mat area (outside of changing rooms) is simply bliss. I’m personally not a coffee enjoyer but the flavor of milk and coffee is neither overpowering for each and the drink is the perfect amount of sweetness as a whole that I truly recommend at least giving a try💞💞💞.

I think other services such as a massage are well reasonably priced. When I go again I’d be happy to try aromatic therapy or another practice foreign to me, but not every visit I feel needs to have the extras to be already very satisfied (which is a positive thing).

Food is amazingly good, one of my favorite meals of my life honestly. Though I could understand very little and not speak any Japanese the staff at the serving area (and at reception desks) worked easily with me to make sure my order was what I wanted and fulfilled.

Payment is super easy, the machine takes cash and card and all payments throughout the visit are charged to your shoe locker key so you pay it all at the end. Machine languages are Japanese and English but staff will help if they see you are still having trouble. Efficient and welcoming to osen first timers, had a...

If you are looking for a homely and local onsen, this is the best recommendation I can give for Tokyo! You might need to travel a bit out of the way from central Tokyo, but it's honestly not too far - 40 mins give and take to the Shimura-Sakaue subway station on the Mita Line, and then about 10 minutes walk using Google Maps to find your way (located opposite a massive Aeon department store so you can't miss it). It is a massive one-floor building with so many facilities - a big parking space, a restaurant serving delicious soba, a mixed-gender relaxing spot, a few others which I forgot, and finally the actual onsen itself. Typical to a local onsen, there's a changing room separated (obviously) according to gender, and a traditional Japanese washing area where you will sit on stools and cleanse yourself before heading into the onsen.

There is an indoor and outdoor portion, where the indoor ones have multiple pools of varying temperature and sizes. Outside, there's a small number of chairs for patrons to sit on and just bask in the night/day light. There are two decent-sized pools, 3 wooden tubs for you to just sit inside privately, and a rectangular shallow area for you to lie down and close your eyes (not so sure about ACTUAL sleeping here but I didn't see anyone actually sleeping and snoring). At the back, there seem to be a dry sauna but I didn't go in. I easily spent about 2 hours here just relaxing my muscles and mind. I went at the end of spring so the night temperature was still cool so it was a nice time to visit the onsen. There was actually quite a number of visitors, mostly local, and quite surprisingly with the majority of them being younger locals.

If you're shy and this is the first time visiting an onsen, honestly don't be afraid because literally no one cares. Everyone is naked and just relaxing so go about your business! Don't let that intrusive thought deter from having your best time here. Highly recommended to anyone and everyone!

P.S. Obviously I can't take any pictures of the onsen itself, but I did for the food, the entrance, and the path from the station to the onsen. Hopefully that helps...

This was my first onsen and massage experience, and it was great! This is about a 10-minute walk from the Shimura-Sakae Station on the Mita Line.

If you want to use the private bath (¥2,100 per hour) you have to fill out the form on their website. They will email you back to confirm their available times.

Note: Mixed genders cannot go inside the private bath together. Children under 7 can go in with either adult. Children over 7 must be same gender as adults going in. Weird and very conservative, but it is how it is.

If it’s your first time, this is how their system works:

Take off your shoes at the entrance and get a shoe locker. Keep the shoe locker bracelet on you at all times. When you order or buy something (like a massage or a beer) they will scan the barcode on the bracelet. Get a rental towel and robe if you need it from the reception. Go to the changing room and put on your robe. Leave your stuff in the locker and keep the clothing lock bracelet, too. Go take a bath, a massage, etc. The baths are separated by gender. Before you get into the bath, you must shower or at least rinse yourself off with hot water. Yes, you must bathe naked. When you’re done, shower, get changed, and pay at the self serve kiosks by the front. Scan the barcode on your shoe locker bracelet and pay.

For the massage, I recommend making a reservation just in case. I had the 1-hour massage and it was pretty good. The style focuses more on pressure points versus a kneading technique like a Thai massage. It is a fully clothed massage and they put towels on you. It was painful at times, but overall good.

The massage room is not closed off, so you’ll hear every sound in the onsen in case that bothers you. We could hear a kid crying for five minutes straight at one point, haha.

Staff speaks little English, but they are very helpful and they have English menus.

Food was good! There’s a view into the garden from the tatami seating part.

I would come...