hello everybody good morning welcome to
tokyo creative play i'm your host emma
and today i'm here with
sharla today we've come to koenji which
is in tsuginami city and
recently i was in tsugunami city i came
here with aki we did a lot of stuff to
do with animation and anime and it was
super cool
but today we're going to focus on more
the nature side of things a little bit
more chill yeah
some cafes restaurants we're into some
parks yeah and a public bar
yeah public bath that allows tattoos
very nice
and uh we're going to be doing a little
bit of exercise getting some rent to buy
on bicycles so koenji is really close to
shinjuku it's only two stops away by
express train so uh yeah really easy to
access and if you're feeling it's a
little bit too busy in shinjuku and
you're there a bit too much just coming
out to koenji yeah
really chill oh and there's lots of
really cool thrift shops
here yes yeah we actually did a video on
that last year so if you want to check
that out
please go up into the card okay so let's
go and enjoy a nice day in koenji but
also this video is sponsored by
tsukinami city so thank you for having
us
let's go have a good day
okay we've made it to our first stop
we're at a cafe called meunoda but we uh
we got some lassies yeah i've got a
mango yogurt lassi oh my god this is
what flavor is
guava and they make them with soy yogurt
how cool is that oh man that's really
good yeah this place does a lot of uh
vegan and vegetarian options yeah
really cool menu mm-hmm soy crumb creme
brulee tofu
tofu yeah yeah and there's like little
cornflakes on top of it we're gonna get
a little bit of energy here just before
we destroy it for breakfast
it's less sweet than usual which i love
the texture's a little different the
texture it's not like the usual creme
brulee kind of more like pudding yeah
we're just going to stay here get a
little bit of energy before we go on the
rest of our cycling journey today
so to get here we didn't actually go
that far it's actually really close to
the station
so even if you're not cycling around uh
koenji you just walk here from the
station really easily
so koenji has a surprising amount of
vegan and vegetarian cafes and what's a
really cool craft is
it fits the vibe you know it's very
artsy yeah there's heaps of options even
in this just this cafe there's like a
really big menu
and yeah the next place that we're going
to is also vegan friendly
so we just stopped at sanchi no mori
park it's so pretty
there's a little stream running through
it yeah and there's ducks and koi
it really doesn't feel like we're in
tokyo i love the sound of summer right
now though
can you hear the semi you can hear us
over there that's
the main question yeah it's a really
nice park i've never been here
before um i'm actually like i don't feel
like i'm in tokyo at all i'm really
surprised they have such a
like nice green park here so yeah
there's some really cool blossoms over
there
so we're gonna check those out okay
the little menu is so cute and they have
tofu karage
which is awesome and lots of peach
themes yeah they have a
die focus or peach in mochi with a white
bean
oatmeal cookie's made with tofu very
cool so it looks like they're doing a
peach and
mustard spinach smoothie yeah very like
green leafy
super healthy i'm so excited for the
meat
[Music]
this is the peach komatsuna smoothie
it's very
leafy the flavor is really refreshing
the peach flavor is nice
it's a little bit sweet too i like it i
like how thick it is as well oh this is
so nice
the sun just came out and it's really
hot so after we we're probably gonna
finish this before we ride so it's a bit
easier but we're gonna go to another
park and have a little picnic with our
little bentos
and the karage looks really good too i
can't wait to try everything
[Music]
i am so stoked for this tofu karage i
had tofu
i was like at a campsite in the middle
of nowhere in the countryside and they
specialized in tofu karaage and it was
so good
got high expectations for this
oh it's really good the rice is like
super healthy looking rice
it's got beans in it i'm gonna go back
to that place definitely
i usually avoid going outside in japan
in the summer just in general because
it's so hot
but there's so many shaded areas in this
park it's really nice yeah i think it's
in the shade
it's really good it's very chill as long
as you have like a cold drink or
something to keep you cool
so this park stretches all the way along
the river
yeah we were just riding along and it's
just like so much greenery so much trees
and it's just nice having the water
beside us
it's such a good place for a bike ride
it's just like perfectly designed
to ride your bike through if you do end
up renting a bicycle for the day like we
did this is a great park to
ride i think this is good like normally
i wouldn't picnic in summer too much but
sometimes they do as long as you have
like a nice cold bottle of water
keep it cool but i think this is a good
plan for summer's day and then we're
checking out a really cool hotel at the
end of the day
which i'm excited for that was cool i
actually did a video with a
norm last year where we looked at all
the nature and stuff around this area oh
really
tsuki nami yeah suganemi has a
surprising amount of nature i also think
this would be a good place to stay if
you're coming to tokyo because it's like
super close to shinjuku super close to
train lines they'll take you everywhere
else but it's just like cool and pretty
very chill area and probably going to be
cheaper than staying in shinjuku to be
honest oh yeah
definitely i've never had a momo daisy
oh it's so good so usually there's
strawberry inside i feel like that's the
most common flavor
the peach goes really well with the
white bean coffee would be mochi
yeah with sour cream yeah so whatever
it's like more jelly than mochi i think
with cream it tastes just like coffee
jelly
the texture of the what are you making
so nice kind of oh my god
it's like a combination of jello and
pudding so we have the choice between
a culture a tea pound cake or a
little cookie with tofu in it with tofu
another cookie
it's very okay i'm gonna definitely
taste the vanilla that that definitely
works well with the raisins
this one's pound cake kocha pound cake
with yamamo in it yeah mine was the
ingredient i put in my okonomiyaki
to make it like moist it's not so sweet
but
that's kind of nice so we've come to
another area in the park that's
dedicated to
teaching children the road rules and
like traffic safety
it's like a miniature version of a town
that they can ride their bicycles around
on and learn like how the traffic lights
work
and just stopping at the train tracks
it's really cool
it's super cute they also have like
everything's in hiragana as well so it's
like easy to read
and read it yeah and the lights are like
it's all miniature versions of things
it's super super cute
and even if they're not learning how to
to ride bikes or ride they have ghost
hearts as well but
yeah they go yeah but even if they're
not learning you can still just walk
around the area there's like wings and
like things to climb
even that little town hall like you can
go up into it so cute
oh oh train's coming down the train's
coming
gotta wait for the train to cross should
i be the train
[Music]
okay
oh is that the car that's the car ah
okay so we're about to cross the road
but uh when we cross the road we got to
put our hand up that's what kids do yeah
what kids do it makes themselves easier
to see
so when you press put your hand up also
one other thing about lights and traffic
the
green light in japanese is called ao not
miri
just to really piss off people that are
studying japanese
it's green but they call it blue blue oh
do we have to press the button
we're like waiting for it okay it's
green there we go
i'm not a giant i swear so many i love
it
so we just returned our bicycles that
was a really nice ride
yeah definitely i love going through the
side streets here it was really quiet we
didn't really interact with many cars or
pedestrians or anyone really it was
really chill
yeah and now we're at kosugiyu it's a
sento
here in the city what's the difference
between an
onsen and the sento emma so onsens use
onsen water which i guess is like a
natural
spring
normal water tap water both of them are
really relaxing especially if you can't
get it onsen near you centos are
definitely
excellent as well it's just a nice place
to go have a nice public bath
get hot very hot feel fresh you know all
that good stuff but yeah this place
looks really nice i love the little
koi it's got a very like old style feel
i think it's 86 years old
oh yeah and it's one of 500 sento
in tokyo you wouldn't think there were
so many public baths in a big city but
they're everywhere they're really common
yeah so yeah let's hop in and we're
going to teach you guys a little bit
about the rules for entering sento and
how it works
okay so we're not actually taking a
cento today or taking a sentence we're
not going into the center today uh but
we are going to tell you the rules yeah
and you guys are comfy with it when you
come to japan
first of all we're going to take our
shoes off before we go in yep we're
going to stick them in these lockers
here retro
63. oh this little cactus
isn't super cute that's really cute
[Music]
so nice there's no one here today it's
empty so we could film
but you guys can get a look at what the
central bath looks like
this place is so beautiful so a really
common feature of sento is to have a
really nice
piece of artwork above the bath so you
can sit and relax
and enjoy the view of the beautiful
artwork the dark the ducks are so cute
oh cool they have english instructions
here yeah so this place they actually
also speak english
and yeah it's tattoo friendly so if you
come here this is a really safe place to
go first of all
what are we gonna do we're not gonna do
it but we're gonna get fully naked fully
naked that's what you gonna do
no bathing suit no underwear no towels
let it all out you can't bring anything
with you
into the bath after we get naked you
wash ourselves yeah
so you'll pick up one of these stools
here and bring it over to
a shower area and you'll sit here and
rinse off your body
before going into the bath if you have
long hair like mine you should tie it up
in a little bun
so that your hair doesn't get into the
bath water so it's actually really
common to have lots of different kinds
of bads in centos there's usually going
to be a cold one sometimes they go back
and forth
if they get too hot they dip in the cold
one and then back to the hot one but
then this kind of special ones
sometimes they'll add like powders and
stuff to them every cento is different
they're really personalized to the owner
so as you can see here they have all
these natural ingredients that they put
on the bath which changes on a daily
basis
and it's really great because it's
actually really eco-friendly so here we
have
used ground coffee beans that they put
in and then here we have some
sake whenever you make the sake
uh there's the extra remains yeah you
mean and it has good nutrients
yes super nutrients interesting
my favorite are these they're little
like massage
areas it's so cool you stand in there
and it's like a
360 massage experience i like i like the
chair
when you just like get it on your back
it's like good nice i love it i love it
[Music]
this place is open from 3 30 p.m in the
afternoon until 1 45 a.m in the morning
so if you ever feel like a midnight like
bath trip this is the place
sunny yeah and also call indy and the
cinema has so many things
cool places to hang out especially
middle of the night
but it's very cool so please check it
out
[Music]
so we've just come to our final stop
which is bna hotel in koenji they also
have other
locations in akihabara and kyoto
and they are going to have a new one in
nihombashi yeah i've actually been here
before
yeah they have really cool um art
exhibitions down on the first floor and
they have like some
parties and dj booth and everything but
the uh the hotel rooms are really cool
it's a really neat concept though so
they have artists that design their
rooms the artists get a portion of the
money from the people that stay at the
hotel the owner just really wanted to
support local artists and this is the
concept
he came up with yeah let's go check out
the room
[Music]
that was awesome but that was our last
spot yeah we're done for the day we're
done
yeah i really like quinji i had a lot of
fun exploring it i hadn't been here
before i actually used to live really
close by and i was dumb and never
came out here well now if you guys ever
come to tokyo if you're in the area
definitely come and check out koenji
yeah be smarter than shaw it's really
cool
honestly there's so much nature yeah so
many cool little cafes and shops
and it's just a different vibe today in
tokyo it's so different if you come you
can stay at bna hotel go and see some
parks have a great time but uh yeah
thanks for coming on the journey with us
thanks for checking out koenji
and thank you again to suginami for uh
helping us out with this video
thank you also if you guys haven't seen
the video that i did last time with aki
and sugi nami please check it out
right there let us know in the comments
down below if you've been to koenji
before and also
if you have any little spots that we
might have missed because there's so
much to see here i
just have no idea yeah yeah yeah but
thank you so much for watching guys and
we'll see you in the next video
bye bye is this weird isn't it oh my god
oh no
no no no i got it it's the first time
[Music]
why she didn't see him on this day