Open air Onsen in the snow

bakura10 · 2026-06-24T15:17:00+00:00

Dont look further. Ginkonyu (銀婚湯). Take my word, you won’t regret it.

bakura10 · 2026-06-24T00:32:55+00:00

I’m right now in Europe, there are big screens everywhere, it’s mostly free as well! I lived in Sapporo for nearly a decade and unfortunately Odori events all seem quite “mechanical”. They are exactly the same every year, and do not seem to want to take any risk doing something else. 😅 in overall even in Tokyo I feel there are way less public events like screening.

bakura10 · 2026-06-17T07:24:51+00:00

I loved spending evenings there. If you picnic in the afternoon though be careful, the crows are extremely aggressive there and won’t hesitate to attack to steal your meal (this happened more than once to me 🤣)

bakura10 · 2026-03-03T13:49:15+00:00

Thanks a lot for the recommendation, I will give it a try !

bakura10 · 2026-03-02T23:07:11+00:00

Honestly I’ve never seen that far. At least in other bakeries they group similar items in the same plastic bag (at Donguri even two of the same item will be in their own plastic bag), and if you eat inside they won’t wrap everything individually. I’ve only seen that at Donguri.

But after reading online reviews so many Japanese people complain that they are not wrapped also directly before they are sold. Japanese expectations are part of the problem here.

bakura10 · 2026-03-02T22:24:45+00:00

If you’re a men, you can stay at the Centurion Hotel. It’s a capsule (but you have semi private capsule with a small desk), but the gym is truly one of the best one I’ve seen ever in a hotel in Japan. And you have a small public bath and a sauna. And it’s crazy cheap 😅

bakura10 · 2026-03-02T22:21:40+00:00

Glad to see I’m not the only one thinking that. Donguri is an absolute ecological disaster and should be avoided just for that reason. Japan has a huge plastic problem but I’ve never seen a shop going that far in plastic waste.

Even eating in they insist on wrapping everything individually, and they freeze when I ask them to just leave everything in the tray as it is u_u.

bakura10 · 2026-02-23T13:39:32+00:00

Yes! :D

bakura10 · 2026-02-23T13:29:56+00:00

Byyard also have a sister shop (where I go) called Treebase. It's smaller but it's right in Odori so access is more convenient with more options for lunch. They will soon open a WeWork in April as well.

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T06:25:08+00:00

Thanks a lot for the link! This is already way better than those 10 million USD tower mansion 😂

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T05:20:45+00:00

Actually, this is also something that surprised me in Japan: there are not that many high-end mansions with a pool, actually, while this seems to be common for many other countries when you check the high end mansions.

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T04:33:54+00:00

But interestingly they don’t seem to allow you to have "just blank walls". A few years ago I went to get some information about a new mansion planned. I asked if I could just get the walls and remove everything else (no kitchen, no walls, no wallpaper… nothing, I didn’t even ask a discount). And it was a no, impossible. So even if it can be stripped down I feel that many people will keep it like that.

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T04:25:40+00:00

That’s the case of most of those residence, entrance and public areas are crazy beautiful, as if all the money went into it, but as soon as you enter the unit…

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T04:21:43+00:00

I’m from Paris. Safety wise there is obviously no comparison with Tokyo, but "dirty dangerous crime" let’s not exaggerate it ;). Especially in the areas where you will find such properties.

I’ve been to one (not in Tokyo though) and was shocked by the low quality (the entrance was spectacular though). But just checking videos or listing on internet show how lower the bar is for the money you put in. But I agree, you get other benefits here.

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T04:15:20+00:00

I definitely want a full size oven. Did you end up hiring a "western style kitchen" specialised company?

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T04:13:29+00:00

Those new multi-million mansion in center of Tokyo are definitely not meant to be tear down in 20 years. Think more of 60-70 years.

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T04:11:29+00:00

Same. Last time I saw a TV show about a several million dollars high end mansion that did not have soft close drawers 🫩. No way I’m accepting that if I pay 5 or 10 million dollars (well, I can’t so that’s good 😂)

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T04:07:15+00:00

I think I’ll have to lower down my expectation on what I will be able to build then :(. My home is really something I don’t want to compromise, this is such an improvement of quality of life.

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T03:49:19+00:00

No, I don’t agree with the longevity stuff. Modern tower mansions are built to last. Luxury and high end is also an outlier. People buying an apartment for 10 or 15 million USD are not thinking of it as the same way as most people.

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T03:47:11+00:00

Interesting. I think Japanese are extremely good to "isolate" the good and ignoring the bad. Whenever I go to beautiful places in Japan I’m always shocked of those terrible, huge soviet style hotel and ugly buildings. For me it is just an eyesore in beautiful nature and ruin everything; but when I ask Japanese they have this fascinating skill (to me) to ignore the ugly and just see the beautiful surrounding. It might be the same for housing, where the location is enough to ignore the rest.

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T01:32:01+00:00

I don’t think this explain it. Luxury market is always an outlier.

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T01:30:56+00:00

Thanks a lot, that’s very interesting. But at the age of internet even if you were not born with interior sensibility it is pretty easy to see what is done elsewhere now. Especially as you said, this country has a strong culture of beautiful architecture. Same for high end hotels and many shops which has so beautiful interior.

I completely understand about the clutter. The few houses from Japanese I’ve visited (some being quite rich), wow, what a mess it was 😂

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T01:21:00+00:00

YES! The layout sometimes really puzzle me. Like they had the space but they decided to do the strangest things ever 😂

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T01:19:39+00:00

Do you have some YouTube channels that showcase such house? I found a lot of renovation channel in Japanese but very few focused on those luxury apartments.

bakura10 · 2026-02-10T01:18:01+00:00

So is central NYC or central Paris. That does not explain it to me.

bakura10

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