I had meant to take the Shinkansen.
The ticket in my hand was for the Odoriko, the limited express that runs down the coast, and I only realised it standing on the platform at Tokyo Station, with an hour to wait for the next departure.
It was the first day of a long weekend. There was no reason to hurry. I bought a canned coffee, sat down on a bench, and waited.
That is how I arrived in Numazu, a city on the sea in Shizuoka Prefecture, and the first stop on this pilgrimage outside the Kanto region.
Store Information
| Gym Name | Anytime Fitness Numazu Chuo |
|---|---|
| Address | 1F, 13-59 Sugisaki-cho, Numazu, Shizuoka 410-0033 |
| Nearest Station | JR Numazu Station |
| Access | 10-minute walk from Numazu Station |
| Monthly Fee | ¥7,480 (tax included / ¥6,800 before tax) |
| Phone | 055-957-6112 |
| Parking | Yes (large lot) |
| Equipment Brands | Life Fitness / Concept2 |
| Official Site | Anytime Fitness Numazu Chuo |
Facilities
- Water server: hydrogen water server only (no free water server)
- Private showers: yes
- Private changing rooms: yes
- Wi-Fi: yes
- Bicycle parking: yes
- Car parking: yes (large lot)
- AED: yes
- Rental lockers: yes (available at the time of the visit)
- Free for high school students: available
- Smith machines / power racks: 4
- Adjustable benches: 2
- Flat benches: 1
- Body composition analyser, personal trainers, protein server: not listed on the official site
Access
A 10-minute walk from JR Numazu Station, exactly as the official site states.
Walking it felt about the same. The route follows a main road in a straight line, so there is no need to check a map along the way. There is very little shade, however, which is worth keeping in mind in summer.
The parking lot is large. The whole building seems designed around the assumption that members arrive by car. The station is within walking distance, but this gym is oriented toward the daily rhythms of the city rather than the railway.
Inside the Gym
Photography is not permitted inside, so this section is description only.
The first thing that registers on arrival is the size of the place. It occupies a standalone building rather than a floor of a larger complex.
The interior is a clean square. Lockers, showers and toilets are to the right of the entrance, and the training floor opens up to the left. At the time of the visit, both the lockers and the showers were free, with no waiting.
The machines are mostly weight-stack models, with a few plate-loaded pieces as well. The selection is not unusually broad. What keeps the floor from feeling tight is the spacing: each machine has been given room, and moving between them is easy.
The stretching area is a reasonable size. Mats are laid out by users themselves.
There are 4 Smith machines and power racks. Each one has been given a generous footprint, wide enough that the person in the next rack stays out of your field of view. There is also enough clearance in front of and behind each rack to load and unload plates without getting in anyone’s way. It is the kind of spacing that only a large suburban location can afford.
The bench area is the exception. With 2 adjustable benches and 1 flat bench packed into a smaller corner, and an awkward path to the dumbbell rack, the free weight section feels undersized relative to the floor space around it.
One practical note: there is no free water server here. The only option is a hydrogen water server. Bring your own drink, particularly if you are walking from the station in summer.
Many of the members are visibly serious lifters, and yet the atmosphere is relaxed rather than tense.
The particular edge found in central Tokyo gyms is absent. The pace of the city seems to carry straight through the doors. It resembles the suburban locations in Saitama, and gyms of this kind are the ones I tend to prefer.
Crowd Levels
The visit fell on the first day of the Obon holiday.
Even so, it was not busy. Quiet would be the more accurate word.
The free weight area required no waiting at any point. Not once was it necessary to watch for a turn.
For anyone who prefers to work through a session at their own pace, this suits well.
The Surrounding Area
A shopping street runs straight south from the station’s south exit.
Illustrations from an anime series set in this city hang at regular intervals under the arcade, and a large one covers the wall of the station building itself. Walking through, it is clear that the city has taken the series on as its own.
Along the way I passed an enormous secondhand shop. I had no business there. I had simply never seen one on that scale, and stood looking at it for a while. Walking a city turns up things like this.
Lunch was a seafood bowl at Maguro-goya Honten. Whitebait eaten in a city this close to the water needs no further justification, and it was as good as expected.
About 20 minutes on foot from the shopping street brings you to Senbonhama Park.
There are pine trees everywhere, in numbers past counting. Under the canopy the temperature drops a degree or two, and the walk becomes a pleasure in itself.
Beyond the park, the coast opens up.
There is none of the bustle of a beach town like Chigasaki, and few people about. But walking with the sound of the waves is time well spent, and the distance from the gym is close to ideal for a post-training walk.
Leave the gym, pass through the shopping street, walk the pine grove, and arrive at the sea. That sequence alone makes a full day.
That night I stayed in Fuji, with another location to visit the following morning.
Overall
Large, quiet, and generous with space.
This is not a gym that wins on the number or variety of its machines. Its strengths are the spacing of the 4 Smith machines and racks, and the way the floor as a whole has been laid out.
The free weight area is the weak point: small for the size of the building, with an awkward path around the benches. The absence of a free water server is also worth noting if you are travelling in from elsewhere.
Even so, for anyone who wants to train quietly at their own pace, this is an easy gym to recommend.
More than anything, this location comes with its city attached. Leave the gym, walk the shopping street, cross the pine grove, and reach the sea. Not many places let you finish a training session that way.
Rating
| Category | Rating |
|---|---|
| Access | ★★★☆☆ |
| Equipment | ★★★☆☆ |
| How Uncrowded | ★★★★☆ |
| Value for Money | ★★★☆☆ |
| Would Visit Again | ★★★★☆ |
| Overall Score | 9 |
| Pilgrimage Class Rated Yes if this gym is worth making a special trip for, even if you don’t live nearby. |
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📖 Japanese Review → エニタイムフィットネス沼津中央店レビュー
The pilgrimage continues.
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