Alright I recently took a trip to Japan and loved it. I plan on moving there in the future when my schooling is finished. However, one thing I found lacking there (besides the space ) was I saw literally no gyms there. I enjoy lifting weights for my health and strength and before my vacation I was working out 5 days a week. I saw a few sports clubs and so on, but never a real weightlifting gyms. I know the Japanese aren't big into strength training but they do have football and rugby teams so they must have some weight lifting gyms some where. Normally I'd be fine with sports clubs but I've heard tell of rumors that they limit the amount of weight they have in the gym and grunting and so on is discouraged. I saw one Gold's gym in Tokyo near Harajuku but that was it, and if Gold's is expensive in North America I can just imagine the price in Japan.

Are they just hidden from the foreigners?

I mean I saw a few big guys there but they reminded me of Yakuza (they seemed to be the only muscular guys I saw) the way they presented themselves so I didn't want to ask them where they lift, also my language skills are lacking still.

Any info would be appreciated. Thanks.

Most city gymnasiums have weight rooms.

so like community centers?
my experience with them is they probably won't have the amount of weight i'll need, especially in Japan, i've heard the majority of their weights only go up to around 50lbs for dumbbells. I need weights in the upwards of 200lbs for most things