Ōban Kaikan Ueno

The warning signs are annoyingly loud. They threaten to ban you from the premises at the slightest provocation. It comes across as arrogant and arrogant, which is irritating. The vending machines, food, and alcohol are priced like tourist prices, so it seems like not many customers use them. The bathroom mirror is so dirty you can't see anything unless it's polished or replaced. I don't use it anymore.

The place has a 2 hot tubs, 1 cold tub, sauna, steam rooms.. And they include amenities like towel, soap. However it is ridiculously expensive... The admission price is 3300 yen at 9pm and bump up to 3900 yen at 11pm for 12 hours usage.. Unless you plan to stay for the entire 12 hours duration for overnight stay, i dont think its worth it..

Please note that this place caters to older, chubby men and their admirers so if you are not into these types then this place is not for you. With that aside, I had an amazing time here. You need a 10 yen coin to place your shoes in the shoe locker. I speak zero Japanese but the kind staff guided me on the entrance payment. After payment at the counter, you are given a large and small towel, as well as a robe. There are 8 floors if I remember correctly. 3F is where the lockers are, as well as a small canteen to purchase beer and hot foods. 4F is where the onsen/saunas/showering area is. 5F-6F is where there are multiple room with mats where anyone can have fun and enjoy themselves openly. 7F onwards are private rooms for those staying overnight. I am not sure why people are giving this place a bad review. Although the locals do not speak much english, you can communicate via hand signals or gestures, which is good enough to show your interest or disinterest. Be polite and not pushy, and you will be fine. I had fun with 2 locals and a German expat, and it was worth every yen spent here. Would definitely visit this outlet if I ever were in Tokyo again.

The staff were very friendly. It's best to make an appointment for the weekend, but weekdays are fine. I came on the weekend and the place was full.

It's the same in Shinjuku, but even with the price increase, they don't seem to care about the customers at all. Honestly, it makes me not want to go. Isn't the temperature of the cold plunge pool on the rooftop way too high? They should change the water every few hours! 💢

Good sauna. Big wet area and lots of different rooms. Mostly bear type men. Relaxed atmosphere.

For me, it's the best gay spot in Tokyo. I'm German. The men here are somewhat more masculine, or rather, hairier and stronger than the average Japanese man.

Is it tattoo friendly?

Let's get one thing out of the door (or, out of the closet) : this is a place mostly for bears/chubs (generally beefier guys, but not necessarily muscle) and their admirers. If you're not one of those, don't come here as you will probably not have a good time. All floors are accessible via two elevators in addition to the staircase. I visited this place on a rainy Friday afternoon during the Golden Week. I was here with my partner, we're an European chaser/chub couple. I wouldn't say it was packed, but there were more than enough people walking around. After you enter (floor 2), you take off your shoes and put them in a 10-yen-coin-operated locker. You then take the shoe locker key to the receptionist, pay, and get back a robe, two towels (large and small), all packed in a bag. Lockers for changing are located on floor 3. We later left the robes in our lockers as people didn't seem to use those on the higher floors where we spent most of our time. Floor 4 is the "bathing floor", there's a few standing showers (mostly single-person cabins but there's also an area with three showers next to each other) and a number of Japanese traditional sit-down style washing stations. There are three baths in total of varying temperatures, one of them shoots bubbles too. There's a dry sauna, a steam room, and a "mist sauna" which is something I've never seen before, basically it's a room that has sprinklers (like the ones used for fire prevention) on the ceiling that just run continuously so you're wet all the time. The dry sauna is the smallest, followed by the "mist" one, and the steam room was the largest and could easily accommodate 20-ish guys. Floors 5-7 contain communal sleeping areas (bunk beds) and some relaxation areas for lying down, some provide video screens too. Upper floors are all private rooms so we didn't go there. The guys in here were mostly Asian and we saw at most three non-Asian guys. It seemed like some of them avoided us, as more than once somebody would come in to one of the 4th floor saunas, see us, and walk out. Whether that was due to us being non-Asians, I'll obviously never know. Guys were mostly on the shy side and generally will not approach you or let you know they're interested in something themselves, so it's much easier to just be upfront with what you want. Once the guys get over their shyness or anxiety, there's no stopping them. I'm going to say that if you can't handle rejection (or not showing signs of interest), you might have a hard time here. As opposed to most European places like this, most action here happens in the common rooms on floors 5 to 7. The mist and steam rooms had some of it too but I'd recommend hanging around 5-7 if you're short on time. We spent around 3 hours here and I'd generally recommend allocating more time than this. Coming around 2-3pm and staying until late would probably be best. The place does show signs of age in some places (some paint might be coming off somewhere, or things might be rusty) - hence the 4 stars - but I wouldn't say it's as bad as the other comments say, for example I did not notice any mould. I'll gladly visit this place again if I'm ever in Tokyo.

"If you ever question whether you're gay, a visit to the 24 Kiaken Hotel might just be the ultimate deterrent."

First visit, not bad, not as scary as I imagined. Plenty of food, the steam room was very interesting, I would like to visit again!

Facilities are comparable to their Shinjuku branch. Had a nice transaction at the front desk and had a nice meal at their canteen.

The staff's customer service was good. The cleaning was thorough and meticulous, and the room was clean, and the mirror was long and beautiful, but there were several of those things lying around in the sauna in the bathhouse area, which made me feel uneasy. Also, I was lying down and relaxing on the second floor of the double bed when a stranger, an older man (with white hair), suddenly came up to me, grabbed me by the neck, and said, "I like being squeezed, so I want you to die." I seriously couldn't breathe. I was rescued by someone with a scorpion tattoo on his back. I'm never going there again!! I almost died.

I previously gave it three stars, but now it has really improved and the service has become better, so I'm changing it to five stars.

If you’re not into bears and old people, don’t come here. I was shocked when a young guy rejected me for a grandpa (like very old). But this is not the reason why I’m giving this a 3 star. This is for the old receptionist. I think he can still do better. Their branch is Shinjuku is better.