Yokohama Living

When you hear of “Yokohama,” many of you may immediately think of the port area, the modern buildings with a peaceful ocean-view in the background, lively Chinatown, or neighboring areas with many shops and restaurants. However, there are actually other interesting places in the suburbs, away from the water.By visiting those places, you will get a full picture of what Yokohama has to offer.

One that I am going to introduce is a public park & facility called Kamigo Mori-no Ie in Sakae Ward in the southern part of Yokohama City. The main building houses accommodation, a bath house, meeting rooms, a music hall with 150 seats, and two restaurants. The bath house can be described as a simply designed spa. It is not very large but natural light coming in from the big windows and green of the trees outside creates very relaxing atmosphere. In the center, there is a round bath which can be used for water-walking exercise, and they also have a few more different types of baths and a sauna. One of the baths is filled with water filtered through “Togoal warm-tite,” a mineral-rich conglomerate. This special water enhances your metabolism and sooth your body. For getting in, you are required to wear a bathing suit, which means that men and women are not separated like they usually are in sento or onsens. Drop-in aqua exercise classes are held in the morning a few times a week at only 200 yen per time. Great deal!

Since I haven’t had a chance to stay overnight here, I don’t know what the accommodations are like. According to their brochure, the guest rooms look just the same as those in Japanese ryokan. They have 18 tatami rooms and two twin-bedded rooms. The whole place is clean and well-maintained, so I am sure that you can expect reasonably good services and comfortable stay. Depending on the season and the number of guests sharing the room, the rate ranges from 6,300 to 10,000, per person, including two meals. If you are a tax payer living in Yokohama city, you’d better make use of these public facilities.

There are also picnic and BBQ areas and a workshop where some craft making classes are offered. For those who are interested in nature walks, it offers easy trails for enjoying variety of trees, plants, flowers and birds. These trails extend further to the adjoining dense forest, also preserved as a nature interpretation park by the city. When I visited there early May, I could see lots of tadpoles in the small patch of swamp along the way.

You could easily spend a day there with your family or alone and return home all refreshed and energized.

Website: http://www.kamigou-morinoie.org/index.html (Japanese only)
Address & Tel / Access by Public Transportation

1499-1 Kamigo-cho, Sakae-ku, Yokohama-shi 247-0013

045-895-5151

Take Kana-chu bus from Ofuna Station on JR line or Kanazawa-Hakkei Station on Keikyu Line, and get off at Mori-no-Ie-mae. Park entrance is approx. 3 minute walk from the bus stop. Bus Route No. 24, 25, 26, 28, or 08

PARKING SPACE: 71 lots @ 500 yen per day

THE BATH HOUSE

Open hours : 10 AM – 21 PM

Admission : Adult - 500 yen

Elementary school children - 200 yen

Pre-school children - free