The Museum of Narratives has an oasis for your feet.
They say there’s no such thing as a free lunch, but it turns out there is a free foot bath in Tokyo. It’s not some rinky-dink little tub in some obscure spot on the outskirts of the capital, either, but right in the middle of downtown, near Takanawa Gateway Station on the Yamanote train line that encircles the city center.
Takanawa Gateway is the newest station on the line, and is connected to a shopping, entertainment, and cultural development called Takanawa Gateway City, part of which is MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives.
The museum, which opened in March, hosts rotating artistic and cultural events, but on our visit, we didn’t need to purchase a ticket, because we weren’t heading inside the main exhibition areas. Instead, our destination was someplace on the sixth-floor, an exterior area that many people aren’t aware of called the Ashiyu Terrace. Ashiyu is the Japanese word for “footbath,” and that’s exactly what you’ll find here!
This outdoor urban oasis has an outer ring of greenery, and beyond that offers impressively open views of the surrounding cityscape, of a kind that’s not easy to come by this deep in downtown without going to a skyscraper’s upper floors.
This is thanks to the terrace’s position adjacent to the train tracks, plus Takanawa Gateway’s proximity to the next station to the south, Shinagawa. Shinagawa is one of Japan’s densest rail hubs, and the seven different lines that converge there each need their own amount of space as they approach the station, creating a rare broad, low patch in downtown Tokyo’s urban topography that creates wide lines of sight.
▼ This also makes the MoN Takanawa footbath a great place for trainspotting rail fans.
Because the foot bath is open-air, it’s probably not the most pleasant place to spend a blisteringly hot summer day or a frigidly cold winter evening. Right now, though, on a fall afternoon, the weather is perfect for this sort of thing, especially since in addition to a cozy-warm hot water area…
…the Ashiyu Terrace also has a cold water area.
This means you can start off in the warm section until you’re feeling nice and toasty, and once you get a little too hot, you can mosey on over to the other end of the bath and cool down. Then, if you’re anything like us, you’ll eventually migrate back to the warm section, and repeat the process a couple more times before you’re ready to leave this ankle-deep aquatic paradise.
If you’re looking for more ways to enjoy traditional Japanese culture on the free-to-access museum grounds, there’s a little Shinto shrine on the rooftop…
…and a tatami reed-floor relaxation room on the fourth floor with digital art displays, which is also free to access.
▼ The tatami mats are new enough that they still have a very noticeable relaxing earthy fragrance.
Really, the only possibly negative thing we could say about the Ashiyu Terrace is that no towels are provided, but we’re happy to bring our own handkerchief to dry off with when the rest of this experience is this awesome.
Location information
MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives
Adress: Tokyo-to, Minato-ku, Mita 3-16-6
Open 10 a.m.-9 p.m.
Website
Photos ©SoraNews24
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