Nohara by Mizuno is an innovative sports and wellness facility that aims to provide customers with a variety of services to support a healthy, active lifestyle. Based on the concept of a “Sports Living Room,” Nohara is a sports shop, running station, cafe and fitness studio combined under one stylish roof.
The idea of Nohara is to promote exercise as lifestyle. By creating an accessible, relaxed space much like a living room where people can come and enjoy being active together. It was created by the sports brand Mizuno as a way to encourage healthy living in a crowded city where many people are simply too busy to think about their well being. I headed to Nohara to experience a one-on-one personal training session in their brand new fitness studio.
Nohara’s fitness studio is bright and airy, with large windows looking out over busy Ometesando Avenue below. The studio is used for a variety of classes in the mornings and evenings but is reserved for personal training sessions from 11.30 till 17:30 p.m. Classes vary from yoga and shape-up to pomba and Tahitian dance. Nohara also run regular fitness events including nutrition workshops and the upcoming singles night running event in July.
The sessions follow the Nohara concept of accessible, stress-free exercise by providing tailor-made workouts that can be done in the studio and at home. One of the best things about Nohara’s studio is that you don’t need to pay an expensive monthly membership. Reservations can be made beforehand over the phone or you can simply drop-in to a class you like the sound of. Classes are in Japanese but the qualified, friendly experts give clear instructions and can explain anything you don't understand.
While not all trainers can speak English, my trainer, Kikuchi-san, could. He began the session by asking what part of the body I wanted to work on specifically. After showing me some simple exercises to workout my core, he was able to recognize almost immediately that I had injured my ankle in an over-enthusiastic game of tennis 3 years ago. From there, we switched to building strength in my leg to support the injury and he gave me some great advice on things I could do by myself to prevent problems in later life.
The studio is located right next to the Cafe and Kitchen which serves nutritious post-workout food and drinks. There are showers in the clean and spacious changing rooms, equipped with free lockers and toiletries. You can use each of the facilities separately or combined, and simply pay as you go.
“We wanted it to be like your friend’s house,” Nohara director Hideto Mizuno said. “In the same way that you would borrow clothes from the closet, go grab a coke from the fridge and then workout together.” Friendly and informative, I came away from the session feeling inspired to get fit and healthy. If you’re looking for health advice, need a quick fitness boost or want to achieve long-term goals then jog on over (or take the train) to Harajuku to check it out!
