Japanese gym

I've been to the Kawasaki LaZona Konami gym a couple of times, so thought I'd describe a Japanese gym. (Obviously, different gyms will differ in their facilities.)

Wrist tag

When you go in, you are given a wrist tag. This is a waterproof electronic tag that you wear around your wrist. You use it to open and lock the lockers, activate various exercise machines, and make purchases. (I bought a swimsuit top from the front desk and had to pay via machine.)

Most of the machines have electronic interfaces that you can touch your tag to. Then it will record how much exercise you're doing, how much weight you lifted, etc. If you are a regular gym member, I believe you use the same tag every time, so you can see how you're doing over time.

The locker rooms

You take off your shoes before you enter the locker rooms! Welcome to Japan!

Your wrist tag will unlock a locker. The locker rooms have adjoining showers, and it's Japanese communal-style. That is, a huge room with lots of stalls (without doors), and big hot baths like a hot spring. So if you are shy about public nudity, you might not want to shower there, haha.

There's also an 'instant dry' machine where you can put your swimsuit, hit the button, and in ten seconds it'll be dry! (Sorry if this is run-of-the-mill gym technology but I've never seen such a thing and I'm easily impressed. ^_^)

Machine room

There are a variety of machines - various weights and resistance machines that target different muscles, and aerobic exercise machines. There's also a floor with mats where you can do stretches, benches for doing sit-ups, etc.

The cross trainers, exercise bikes and treadmills have screens on which you can do a quiz, watch TV, play a game, etc, while you exercise. My favourite option is where you choose a city of Japan. You then complete a walking or cycling 'tour' of the city - as you exercise, your character moves the appropriate number of metres along the map, and you walk past various monuments. Yesterday I did a walking tour of Sapporo and a cycling tour of Kyoto.

I also like this machine - I don't know what it's called, but you stand with both feet on the machine, and swing back and forth with your hips. You can do a 'dance' mode on the screen, where it gives you different instructions, and a final score (mine is always woeful, but at least it makes it easy to improve, hahaha).

The weights/resistance machines give you a running tally of how many times you lift/push the weights, and the total amount of weight lifted/pushed.

The pool

There's quite a large pool with different lanes for different speeds etc. You have to remove earrings and wear a swimming cap. (I'd never worn a swimming cap in my life. It's to stop hair getting in the water.)

There's also a couple of saunas, jacuzzis, and tanning rooms.

Cost

It's expensive!! But, the facilities are good (depending on your requirements). I don't have a membership; my friend said that a one-off visit can cost around ￥2500! But it's possible to buy special tickets with discounts. My friend found one that allowed us in for ￥1000 yen.

Miscellaneous

There are quite a few different exercise classes held, but I haven't tried any.

They have machines all over the place where you can check your blood pressure etc. There's also a cafe.

I've never been there at a busy time but I can imagine it being quite crowded.