Hitting the Pool
Friday, July 3. 2009

A reader asked me to look into the topic of pools, and just by coincidence I had been planning to anyway. It's been done before on the X-Pat Files, but now that it's summer it seems a good time to revisit the topic. Since I wrote about pools in some length a couple of years ago, it seems that another internet-savvy person has been cataloging all the pools in the Nagoya and in the Aichi area. His coverage of the topic seems very thorough, he includes information on pool depth and length for every facility!
My favourite one of these pools and an extremely popular one amongst expats is Komaki Pool, which has a wave pool, a walking pool, a kids pool, a lap pool, and several water slides. The complex is fully enclosed in winter - in summer they open an outside area as well.
There are things to remember when using a Japanese public pool, and I list the rules from Komaki Pool here, as rules tend to be similar whichever pool you go to.
1. To use the lap pool you need to have a cap (other pool complexes insist on a cap in all pools, but here in Komaki you only need one for the lap pool). You can buy or rent caps, or use your own.
2. Babies who need to wear a diaper may not enter the pool complex - swim diapers are a definite no-no.
3. You may not bring the following things within the pool area: watches, jewelry, food or drink, swim rings above 90cm, beach balls, swim toys, clothes, bags, shampoo and soap. Some other pools have a rule about sunscreen (they don't like it to wash off in the water) but I couldn't find this rule at Komaki.
4. For ten minutes every hour there is a "rest time" when everyone is required to get out of the pool. At the end of rest time the pool attendants lead warm-up and stretching exercises (called Radio Taiso, they can be seen here) - some people go along with this and others do not. However, the strict rule is that you may not be near the water during this rest time, also, you may not sit on the rocks surrounding the pool during this time. This is because the life guards are also having a rest, and so safety cannot be guaranteed.
Wherever you decide to bathe this summer, respect the rules and have a lot of fun!




Anyone who has spent more than a week in Japan has probably been surprised at the lack of regard that cyclists here often show both for their own safety and for the safety of others. It is not uncommon to see housewives cycling with one child on a seat in front and one behind, or salarymen riding one-handed in order to hold an umbrella(even on windy days!), or even high school students steering with one hand while sending text messages on their mobile phones with the other. Unsurprisingly this type of irresponsible behaviour has led to a dramatic increase in the number of accidents involving bicycles, with the result that the National Police Agency has, on paper at least, begun to clamp down on dangerous cyclists. New laws governing cyclists have been passed that will come into full effect from the 16th of June, 2008. According to the new laws:
Day Care (Hoikuen)


