The Rose Hotel Yokohama rooftop pool, on a day-use booking

I booked a hotel rooftop pool on a day-use plan, to practise swimming. Not staying the night, just using the pool — that is a way of choosing a hotel too.

In at half past ten on 2 August

2 August 2025, ten thirty in the morning. I went into the Rose Hotel Yokohama, in Chinatown. Not to stay — a day-use booking for the rooftop pool.

The hotel is at 77 Yamashita-cho in Naka-ku, about five minutes on foot from Motomachi-Chukagai Station on the Minatomirai Line. It traces itself back to 1959, when it started as a single Chinese restaurant.

A pool on the roof, with the city behind it

Coming up, the city is there on the far side of the water. The surface sits at eye level with the buildings. It does not read like a resort pool by the sea; it reads like a pool inside a city.

The pool itself is a shell shape, about 12 metres at its longest and 1.2 metres deep. The season runs roughly from the start of June into September, with hours around 9:00–18:00 in June and September and 9:00–20:00 in July and August.

Parasols stand along the poolside with seats under them. The August sun is hard, but in the shade there is a through-breeze.

It was the right place to practise

The point of the day was swimming practice.

Municipal pools in the middle of the school holidays are unavoidably packed, and a crowded pool is not practice. A hotel pool has a different density of people. Same hour, same distance, and the amount you can actually get done is not the same.

I used it for about two hours, until a little after twelve.

One caveat before you plan this

Check the terms before you count on it. The hotel’s own pool page currently states that it does not accept visitor use by non-guests — access comes with staying, or with a plan that includes it. Whether a day-use plan is on sale varies by season and by booking site, so confirm the current arrangement rather than assuming mine still applies.

Day use as an option

Once you decide to stay the night, everything gets planned backwards from the packing. Day use has none of that. You go, you use it, you come home.

Nothing special happened, and yet by the time I was back at the house half a day later, the feeling of having actually gone somewhere was still there.

Notes from this visit

• Rose Hotel Yokohama, 77 Yamashita-cho, Naka-ku — inside Yokohama Chinatown, about 5 minutes from Motomachi-Chukagai Station
• The pool is on the roof: shell-shaped, about 12 m at its longest, 1.2 m deep
• Season runs roughly June to September; hours about 9:00–18:00 (June, September) and 9:00–20:00 (July, August)
• Poolside seating under parasols
• I used it on 2 August 2025, from 10:30 to just after 12:00, on a day-use booking
• Even in the school holidays it was calmer than a municipal pool
• The hotel currently states that non-guest visitor use is not accepted. Availability of day-use plans, hours and pricing change — confirm before you go

Visited August 2025. Rates and operating details are as they were at the time of the visit; the note on visitor use reflects the hotel’s published policy at the time of writing.