Manyo Club (Minato Mirai) — Restaurant in Yokohama

BEWARE:||IF You pay your spa/onsen bill with a credit card they will AUTOMATICALLY calculate the bill in your home currency "for your ease" and THEIR benefit-- the exchange rate they give you is MUCH LOWER than my credit card company was providing me. TELL THEM "NO"-- provide bill in YEN (then you get the exchange rate from your credit company-- much better deal for you, not for them)||||As for the Onsen itself-- Fair to Average--PRICEY (I downgraded it to POOR due to the billing issue). (I guess they also have a Hotel attached to this property). ||This review is for the ONSEN SPA.||||I went to this "in town" Onsen (mineral bath spa house) after my "Cup Noodle" Museum visit — for this onsen, in the middle of a major city without natural access to a hot water spring— they truck in the water. ||||It was a good ONE-TIME experience— but as I’ve been to MANY spas in China, ALL that put this one to shame I wouldn't go back to this one…But go and be aware. I went solo and speak no Japanese...so was flying by the seat of my pants, except I wasn't wearing any pants in the spa.||||So in essence you go into same-sex only areas: 1) clean/wash/shampoo yourself VERY WELL sitting on short stools in a little 1/2 sectioned off cubicle in a row of 15 other such cubicles…then and only then, you have the option of dipping in the indoor pool 1.5 ft. deep, or the outside shallow pool/in a natural setting, or outside in a cedar tub in same natural setting overlooking the bay-- very nice of a sort….all on the 7th floor of this building. I didn't go to the top floor--where I hear you can view the huge ferris wheel and soak your feet in hot water (that area is co-ed so everyone is wearing their spa clothes)||||If too hot—options: sit 1/2 out of water, get out of hot water, or go to the COLD water plunge. In addition, there are dry sauna, steam sauna, steam herbal sauna, and full-body scrubbing room done by little Asian women. ||||Then the next option is to put on a spa-provided outfit and wander bare foot into a restaurant area…there is a one with menus (photos, no English) and a buffet with food sold by weight (nothing marked in English, no instructions that is the way it is sold—) all a crap shoot…my six item 28usd meal with one beer, had only two items I should have bought—I am learning! ||||Supposedly there is a room where you can lounge in huge lounge chair and watch your own individual TV— never found it. ||||By the end of two hours I was cooked “well done”. And knew the bus I needed (comes only once an hour) was soon arriving…so I checked out— two hours, several very nice relaxing soaks (2500yen for entry), two great dim sum shumai (didn’t like the other items), and a nice very cold glass of Kirin beer—the whole learning experience a pricey 55usd (65% of that was the...

Interesting place. Onsen (hot spring)

You enter and proceed to the counter for locker assignment.

Upon reaching the shoe-off area, place your shoes in the provided bag and immediately step onto the clean floor.

Next, choose your PJs or kimono-looking sleepwear (for use only in the facility) and head to the locker/dressing room. Note that women's & men's lockers & bath areas are segregated.

At the locker room, all clothes off and head to the seated shower area where shampoo, conditioner, body wash, towels, and body scrub cloths are supplied. On the way to the shower area, cold drinking water, pre-pasted toothbrushes, razors, and shower caps are provided.

Following your shower, you head over to the hot springs. There were a few pools, one jetted, one without, four one-person barrel hot tubs, several smaller ones, etc. There were also two herbal steam rooms and one salt scrub room where you scoop salt by your hand from a huge salt block placed in the middle of the room.

After you rinse and shower, you wear your PJs or kimono. You can meet up with your male group and head over to the restaurants- floor seating or regular seating. Food is not included in the entrance fee.

You may choose to head over and get a massage, also for an additional fee, where different companies offer different kinds of massages.

There's a foot soak on the top floor. It is outdoors so they had a thick jacket provided for use. It had a great view of the lighted Ferris wheel next door.

There's a little arcade on the same floor.

And then lastly, lay-flat one-person recliners are available for everyone who would like to stay overnight til 9 am the next day. Similar to the business class recliners in the plane. There were huge rooms with about 50 recliners, some for women only, men only, combined men & women, and additional fees for private rooms.

Have a...

Manyo club has been a favourite of mine for a very long time. If you've been to Tokyo and visited Ueno Onsen in Odaiba, then you will understand what it is like to be here. Ueno Onsen is very fun and there is so much to do. Basically Manyo club is the same as Ueno Onsen but on sterioids and with less tourists. For a start, Manyo club has 6 or 7 floors all of which serve a specific purpose.

Once you've waited in-line to get a wristband you take off your shoes and put them in a bag. Then you go and pick a yukata (kind of kimono dress thing) and take it into the lockers rooms.

Take off all your clothes and pack them and the yukata into the locker. Take a towel and rinse your body in the showers. Then just go around and enjoy all the baths and saunas. Every hour in the hot sauna the staff will invite you inside. You should take a seat and enjoy the show because 2 staff will pour essential oils onto the heater and the steam will create a really nice aroma. Then the staff will wave a large fan so that it hits your skins and goes deep into your pores. This lasts for around 20 minutes but feel free to leave if it get's too hot.

As with every onsen, there is an option to get a deep cleansing body scrub usually from a middle-aged woman, which is slightly wierd because you are naked at this point. Anyway, just take it as it comes and you can pay using your wristband. All toiletries are free so take a shave and brush your teeth before drying and getting into your yukata.

Now you have 6 or 7 floors to discover. Go to the arcade, visit the rooftop for a perfect view of Yokohama, get a foot massage, take a nap in the napping corner, watch t.v, eat, drink......you get the point.

This is my favorite thing to when slumbering around the busy city all week. So if you want to get a real cultural/traditional/city experience, this place...