en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/12/5/78bcba0cbae74f82a1afff30e2344978.html
The ride wasn't as long as I expected and it wasn't that crowded, save for people getting on at Yurakucho and getting off at Tokyo station. This was the first time for me to be in Kawaguchi. I only knew three things about it: 1) the Tipness Gym; 2) the recently opened Krispy Kreme shop; 3) Nishi-Kawaguchi (which is another infamous redlight zone). So I was kinda interested as I knew a few people who lived out in that direction.

Honestly, I barely stepped around the zone. It reminded me a bit of Fujisawa because when you exited the station, you landed about three levels above street level on a bridge interconnected between three large buildings. All the buildings around the station were some sort of shopping zone. I was in search of the Krispy Kreme but had no inkling of the location. However, I managed to locate the Tipness inside one of these massive structures. Before I review that, I want to discuss a few other observations.

Just as I exitted the escalator was under construction. Very annoying since the ramp up was pretty high. I swear to God the Japanese don't know a damn thing about user interfaces and architecture. Near the exit there was this girl standing, holding a sign begging for a ticket. Don't know where but it reminded me of those freeloaders you'd see in SF or Berkeley near the BART stations. I ignored her in the end.

Around the area there's quite a few tall mansion (apartment-like) structures. I did some research on the net about the cost of living out there and it's quite cheap. Not sure how much those spots are but I think they're focused on families. The positive thing though is that they're very close to the station so it would be worth living there.

The area should've been lively. It's quite a nice zone with all the shopping centralized. It kinda also reminded me of Kitasenju, although I do think the fact that only one train runs through this place implies that it's fairly crowded in the morning. Despite the niceness of the area, I saw mostly older folk around there. Maybe I came at a wrong time.

After diddling around a bit, I hit the Tipness. Inside it's quite spacious, but the equipment is not good at all. The focus is more centered around cardio so there's a very limited amount of weights. You're better off going to Shinjuku, Shibuya or Roppongi even if you're not into cardio stuff. I just did a scan of other spots outside of those gyms and noticed that the layout seems the same. My guess is that most people are interested in just doing cardio out here so the weight rooms are limited except where the foreigners are.

The place wasn't crowded at all. I could easily get any cardio machine. Most of the people inside were older folk. It sucked considering that I'm used to all the eye candy from Shibuya. I guess I better stick with Shibuya's gym if that's my priority! (Although tonight stunk because it was so crowded. Did suddenly everyone in Japan decide to emulate me and follow me to my temple????)

I didn't stay that long and hit the sauna and showers soon after. Then I took off for Shinjuku to meet a friend for dinner. I definitely want to go back to Kawaguchi. It has some promise to be a good place to live. But I also want to check some other spots out before making a decision. So far though Kawaguchi has some good plusses: Tipness, Krispy Kreme, shopping, JR station and cheap housing!]]> Wed, 05 Dec 2007 08:50:51 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2007/12/5/78bcba0cbae74f82a1afff30e2344978.html http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/22/8f99021a3bab5af6c28845007d3e17d8.html Roppongi's Tipness is by far the worst because it's small, stinky and has so little equipment. Yet the place gets tons of people and feels very claustrophobic.

I have the All Tokyo membership to Tipness along with a separate towel option. The cost goes all the way up to 14000-en, or near $130/month! That's over $100 compared to a typical US membership. In America, if you get a $30 membership, you could go twice a week and it'll be considered a deal. Here, it's kinda like a buffet: you want to get your money's worth for the amount you pay.

So the way you have to think of your membership is the number of times you're able to hit the gym per month. I think if you're frugal when it comes to the gym, you can bring a number like 14000-en/month down significantly. For example, if you want to spend 1000-en/time, you would have to hit the gym at least 14 times a month. That's a little over 3 times per week. A good number is attempting to hit the gym about 4 times a week. That allows you to get in about 16 times per month. That'll bring your cost down to less than 1000-en/time.

A stupid but frugal side benefit of hitting the gym that number of times is saving on cost for water and soap. Yeah, I'm cheap but these things come to mind, especially considering that a lot of people I speak to tend to believe that gyms are overpriced.]]> Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:27:23 -0700 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/2/22/8f99021a3bab5af6c28845007d3e17d8.html