Places and Clubs of Interest in Odawara

小田原　Odawara Living 小田原
"Finally found a place that I might like to live. Went to Odawara today. I've been torn because I have wanted to live near the Pacific Ocean and the mountains and have easy access to Tokyo. Odawara has all three and is so close to Hakone, Atami and Izu. Also, there are so many trains passing through Odawara....easy to connect to various cities."--Neil Stalnaker General Information About Living in Odawara

Places of Interest in Odawara

The Odawara International Lounge:
0465-24-7760, 15-19, 1 Chome Sakaecho,Odawara. Sakaecho Parking Lot, third floor. Located next to the Odawara Post Office. It is in the nicest parkade you will ever find, built to look like an old Japanese building. In this very comfortable lounge, you will find magazines and newspapers in English. Any foreigner can come and use the facilities here for free. The aim of the lounge is to provide useful information to foreign residents and for supporting activities of international volunteer groups and international exchange activities. It really deserves more use and publicity. A nice place to relax. Japanese lessons every Monday from 10:30AM, cost ￥100!

The Odawara Christian Centre:
0465-34-2438(English), 34-2796 (Japanese) Tues-Fri. 9AM-5PM). They hold church services in English and Japanese. They also offer free Japanese classes for foreigners. Community Counseling in English is offered in Yokohama, for inquiries call Scott Smith at 03-3968-4084. Free confidential telephone counseling at 03-3968-4099.

John Festa's: Which may have a new name now.
A bar/restaurant located near Odawara Station. Just ask anyone in the area near the station they will point you in the right direction. Foreigners and Japanese gather here for food and drink. It is modeled on a couple of Vancouver eateries.　Go past the Bank of Yokohama then asksomeone. It is on the second floor of a pachinko parlor down one of the sidestreets. ****************************************************************************************Odawara International Friendship Association:
0465-33-1707, Japanese class: 24-5649. A great website with a lot of information about the city. Maybe the best! It even has a clickable map of the downtown area.