So since the last blog and the very sad parting from our Tokyo Ryokan home we went to a hotel. We had decided to stay at a small hotel in between the gap adventure and our stay at ryokans. Our gap adventure begins today.
First thoughts on the hotel. Finding it was a little bit of a challenge like everything is when we get out in a new place in Japan. Each place can be very different just like anywhere in the world and Toronto. I think the changes here seem a little more drastic though the City stays like the city for the most part. So we arrived at Kyabacho station and a really nice business man with a GPS in his phone helped us find where the hotel was. We walked to the intersection, started walking down the street and saw our hotel. HOTEL UNIVERSE. Interesting to try and find as the colours they have on their website don't remotely match their actual sign and the daytime sign has the same colour type cut out letters as it's backdrop. Later at night we found it much easier as it has a a neon sign about 20 stories up and it's in Japanese and English. Yeup.
Anyway, we checked in, smelled the familiar smell of hotel and airplane and travel bus that we smell back at home and already weren't super happy to be there. It was a roof to sleep in for the night though. The room was small but we did have an LCD tv. We were restricted to about 12 channels without fun japanesey crazy shows we were hoping for and about 6 channels of adult entertainment. Word to the wise, read the remote before operating!!
The bathroom in the place was really wicked! Ev said it was so world house! I agree. The tub was about 3 feet long at max maybe more like 2.5 feet and the sink hung over part of the tub and the sink was connected to the toilet. Then sitting on the toilet you have the towels kinda hanging over you. If you were to lean forward too far, you might end up hitting your head.
One interesting about the toilets here, lots of them have heated seats and auto washing features for your parts. Just press a button and well.. things happen. haha. After using a facility, there are sanitation machines that you use to spray a piece of toilet paper and wipe down the seat. It's kind of a nice thing to see especially in public places because you don't have to make the paper *bleep* gasket as Stevie would say.
Enough about the hotel! Getting the luggage there with the people in subways and the many stairs wasn't so fun but we're getting used to travelling and walking continuosly and it's been great minus some back soreness at the end of the day. The tatami mats cured most of the back problems quickly for me. Joanie says her hips have been sore though. I have no hips so well.. yeah they're not sore haha.
Right, we left Hotel Universe and headed off to Kangetsu Ryokan where we will be after our Gap adventure. We thought we would go and drop off one suitcase there so we have less to carry on our Gap. Fusako-san told us to ship it there but we were interested to see where it was so we just went. The trip was about 40 minutes I'm guessing out to the burbs almost of Tokyo. This was around the Tokyo Ikegami line. There were small buildings and streets were only large enough for one car. It was a fair difference from Tokyo. I like the area and am excited to photograph the area and find some nice food but just being there I missed the city like crazy. Joanie did too. She's not a city person but I think she really likes Japan. I love it! After our nice journey we found the place. It's amazing, I'll write more about it when we are there cause there's too much but everyone will be amazed! Unfortunately, the lady we spoke to at the front counter said we couldn't leave the bag there. We found out later it was a misunderstanding when we got an e-mail back from the place saying it was okay. Joanie ... not impressed.
So this morning in true Japanese traveller style, we shipped it to the hotel. 10 bucks about for a whole suitcase!
Anyway yesterday after dropping the back off again at Hotel Universe (which we don't have any photos of really) we headed to Yoyogi park! They have wicked stuff there. Harajuku boys and girls dress up goth and like comic book characters and other Japanese greasers dance to Japanese Rockabilly in full leather attire. Then just down the street along the beautiful park there were 3 wicked bands playing. At the same time!!! Steve, kev, kyle! You gotta love this! I'll post up the video links from Joanies blog with my photos. I loved it!
After the crazy long day of going from place to place and getting no where Yoyogi park made it way worth it. It made a nice evening to a pretty tiring day. After watching the signs, having some very expensive outdoor noodles, we decided to walk the Harajuku strip and find some food. We couldn't find any noodles which we were feeling so we had the next best thing. Japanese Italian fusion! I think the place was called Goemon and it was delicious! I had some crab and noodles in cream sauce. Perfect noodles!
After that we did a little bit of shopping and went into the Volcom store. Very wicked place. They even have a mini ramp all caged in.
After that.. lets just say it was the end of the night and we went back to Hotel Universe and stopped at the AMPM (basic convenience store like 7 eleven here) and got some Haagen dazs. The flavours here are amazing. i had a Mont Blanc. Couldn't figure out what it was for the life of me but it was damn good. The portions are perfect as well. Maybe a 1/3 or 1/4 of our regular Haagen Dazs containers. Perfect for one person.
Without wicked Japanese tv we watched some of steamboy and went to bed.
In the morning, we definitely needed some more sleep but had paid for continental breakfast. We ate some food stuffs and got on the road. We arrived at our hotel meeting place for the night. It's in Shinagawa in the area where Rhiana was going to live. It's nice here. A little different also. I'll take pictures of it while we're out and about today so I'll add them to the blog later on.
So the hotel we're in.. it's crazy fancy. We're really hoping our Gap adventure isn't all pimped out like this cause it's way too fancy and not enough cultural immersion. I think it's just the start though so it's all good. the lobby is huge, everything on the main floor is marble and glass. There is an epson Aquatic park attached to the hotel as well as a bowling alley, a shopping mall, a swimming pool, a movie theatre with semi-current movies dubbed in japanese, maybe some in English too. I haven't paid too much attention to it. Maybe we'll check out some Japanime right in theatre while we're here.
We got to the hotel room and it's really nice, wide screen hi def tv and cable, a nice view, two twin beds, and room to move around. The bathroom is even upgraded from the airplane style cramped-ness. We think this place is nice but we still are comparing everything to that wicked little room we occupied and called home.
We've received our itinerary for our Gap adventure so get the pen and papers ready (mom and dad I mean):
Monday - Tokyo
Tuesday - Takayama
Thursday - Hiroshima
Saturday - Nagasaki
Monday - Kyoto
Thursday - Kawaguchiko
Saturday - Tokyo
From the itinerary, I don't think we'll have internet for most of the gap. Saturday when we're back in Tokyo we will have internet again so stay tuned for a way long blog yeah?
Anyway, I'm gonna post a bunch of photos now and then we're gonna go shopping in ginza before meeting up with the group for 6pm.
Love you all!
Justin from Japan
ps - just out of curiosity, what might you all think if I wanted to move here?
