So I arrived in Kyoto almost a week ago now and to be quite frank I don't feel as though I've done a hell of a lot. I arrived last Wednesday just before 3pm and I pretty much just unpacked my stuff, got some takeout from a little shop on the corner and crashed. And even the next day I mainly spent my time in bed which, honestly, I'm not upset about. After almost 3 weeks of travelling around, exploring and not sleeping in a bed that I could call my own I was quite ready to simply recuperate.
Now though I keep thinking that I haven't done much considering I've been here for a week, that's not strictly true. I went and hired a bike (I keep saying "push-bike" but that's just confusing the locals) and went to Nijo Castle, if anyone has been following my Instagram then you probably know that I decided to start utilizing the function that my phone does of automatically creating highlight reel slideshows of photos and decided to start uploading slideshows of photos that I've taken instead of posting individual photos. I've also created a folder in my Drive account where I've been uploading all my photos from my travels. It must have damn near 300 photos now...
Anywho, I explored Nijo by myself and cycled around that part of the city, the next day I got together with Michael Moore from Chicago (whom I met at the first Airbnb meet-up) and we went first to Kinkaku-Ji (the golden pavilion) and then went to Kamigamo-ji the temple just behind my accommodation/apartment/whatever. The next day we met up and walked the bazillion stairs to get to the top of Inariyama (Mt Inari) via Fushimi Inari Taisha which was framed in a copious amount of gates, we went off the main track to admire a bamboo garden (field? forest? collection?) it was a nice walk but....stairs... so many stairs... Michael wasn't feeling too well and after the walk, I wasn't feeling that great myself when I got home so I had an early night and spent the next day in bed just to ensure that I didn't come down with anything.
I feel that the whole going out into the cold, walking around a lot/going into central heating and warming up then going back into the cold, rinse and repeat, is not wonderful for my health. I've been wearing multiple layers when going outside (mostly...) but then when I get inside I start to overheat and have to strip. Though today I was cycling around with just long pants and a t-shirt, that was comfortable until it started to drizzle.
Today I didn't do a huge amount, I cycled south to the Kitaoji Vivre department store, a relatively small department store but huge compared to anything back home. I had to go to uniqlo to get myself some new long pants, I only brought 2 pairs of pants and I must admit that I'm finding it a lot colder than originally anticipated, especially if it's snowing and windy. I went for a cycle with my jeans on but they tore, which is upsetting but they are like 8 years old so I can't really be that surprised. The shop had, as far as I could tell, a single pair of long pants that fit me (the majority of the Asian demography seem to be significantly smaller than I am) and they were a pair of jeans that have the, I think they called it, distressed look (torn....like a hobo....) so I bought a pair of faulty jeans... anywho it was necessary so I went there and then went and did some more grocery shopping. I'm to start doing actual meal prep from tomorrow onwards because I weighed myself and in the last 4 weeks I've lost 10kgs, all dem gains lost T_T so I'll start eating more and I really have to get into a working out routine.
So of the last 6 days I spent the time;
arriving,
recuperating
Nijo
Kinkaku-Ji
Fushimi Inari Taisha
Watching anime in bed
went for a cycle to the store and watched more anime.
So yea, I haven't done a huge amount but I'm enjoying my down time.
I might do a write up about the people I've met on my travels but that would take a lot more thought than this kind of recounting does so I'll leave it for another time. Now I'm going to sleep. Take care everyone.
Oh by the way, I tried to reply to a comment from Rony on one of the other posts but I never saw confirmation that my response was sent, You may end up with two responses or none idk what's going on in that regard, anywho it's cool to see you found the blog and I hope you're well.
Tuesday, 14 February 2017
Tuesday, 7 February 2017
Last day in tokyo, not a great day.
So originally I was intending to stay in Tokyo for a total of 5 days but after being invited to another Airbnb get together I decided to extend through Monday night, Tuesday and then Tuesday night and depart Tokyo that Wednesday. I am currently sitting on the shinkansen on my way to Kyoto from Tokyo since I have 2 hours to spare I decided to write this all down while it was semi-fresh in my memory.
My Tuesday in Tokyo had some of the best aspects of my trip thus far and also some of the worst aspects in recent memory.... I decided to take the train (which I'm getting rather good at despite what happens later) into Yoyogi and check out Yoyogi park since I failed to see it on Sunday as I originally intended. As it turns out Yoyogi Park was a bit of a disappointment for me, the shrine was lovely but I went there specifically for the "Park" aspect, which to be completely frank I found incredibly lacking. The vast majority of it was blocked off to the public and the one part that looked as though it might find interesting was closed for some reason. Though I understand it is winter it was simply not as impressive a sight as I had been hoping for, honestly it wasn't even close to Hundred Acres back home.
After that I went for a walk through the busy area in Shibuya, I got a hot chocolate from Max Brenner's that didn't hold a candle to the ones I'm now accustomed to due to Deb's Seriously Chocolate (if someone could pass on that comment it would be much appreciated) and continued along the street, checked out some cool looking shops and just had a general peruse of the area. I explored a Church and was then promptly asked to leave which I found a little confusing. Disregarding that, I continued on my way towards what google declared was a "Park", bought some grapes to eat there and eventually arrived at the "Park"... It was a concrete area outside of a hotel with a handful of shrubs planted in dirt patches.
The thought that some people actually regard such locations as a "park" depresses me to no end. Whilst there I realised that I no longer had my rings on. I realised that I had left them at the church when I washed my hands and tried to relocate the area. I had been walking aimlessly through side alleys and back streets so it was a bit of a mission but because I had been paying attention to my surroundings (aataren orn) I was able to recall if I had or had not seen something previously.
When I arrived at the Church it was still locked and after going next door and talking to a gentleman in the french restaurant I was informed that the church was not open today and that I would have to come back tomorrow. Instead, I went to the 7-11 that was on the corner and bought a pen and notebook, I slipped a note explaining everything (primarily in English with some sentences in Japanese) asking that if he found some rings if he could email me or give them to the Police. I then decided that I really needed somewhere peaceful and went north into the National Garden. This was the first shining light of the day. This Park was glorious, it had pictures of the different flora that could be found in the park, large open spaces as well as lovely clusters of trees and a beautiful little lake with one of their shrines right in the middle.
While admiring the little Lake I received an email from the man at the church and he explained that he spoke no English and that he had used google translate to construct the email. He had found the rings and had dropped them to the police box on the main corner in Shibuya near the train that I would be using to get to the party. I departed from the garden with a coffee and a box of cookies and caught a Train back to Omote-Sando (I think?) station, filled out the paperwork and collected my rings (which I haven't worn a week later from fear of losing them).
From here I made my way to the meeting place for the little party. Sadly when I put in the address that was on the hyperlink into google maps it sent me somewhere else, the same street, the same number (for the most part -_-') but totally different place. After significantly longer than I'm going to admit I googled the cafe and used the address on their website, I was 1 street away, maybe 30 meters.
I had a ball at the Rhythm Cafe, shout out to Yumi and Elizabeth for hosting yet another magnificent Airbnb get together. If you are traveling around I'd suggest going to these gathering if you have the choice or do as Lily does and join the "Airbnb Experiences" she is off to a "Samurai Swordplay Airbnb experience"..... there are words for people that tell me about samurai related things as I'm going to the station.... anywho after about 2-3 hours there I rustled up some people to go to a Karaoke Bar. Lily, Angela, Tristan (birthday boys 21st to boot), Andy, Hatsches, Brendon and myself belted out some tunes for 2 hours after which I departed so as to catch the last train to my accommodation.
Whilst lost in thought I boarded the wrong train and found myself very far west of Tokyo. At the speeds that their normal trains go it doesn't take long to get very far from your desired location. I explained my predicament to some of the guards and they told me to turn around and catch a different train back to Nakano. From there I was only 13kms from my accommodation at 1.30am. I attempted to walk some of it but decided screw it I'll grab a taxi, all train and buses are shut down between about 1-5am. After promising my first born and a nation's treasury to the taxi driver I managed to get home at about 2am. This has been a very education albeit costly experience.
The karaoke was amazing, the company grand and the park beautiful. Other than that I hope to never think of this day again.
I will hopefully never zone out when boarding trains in Japan ever again, but life is all about experiences, both good and bad. Honestly, if that's the worst thing that happens to me in the next 6-12 months in Japan then how could I possibly complain.
Now I wrote all of that a week ago when on the Shinkansen but after stopping to admire the sight of Mt Fuji I stopped writing and fell asleep. So that is a very delayed recount of my last day in Tokyo. In retrospect I actually thoroughly enjoyed Tokyo even though I am definitely not a fan of the crowds in the long run I must admit that staying in Tokyo for a short time was an experience I would do again, especially if you have the cash and time to kill while running around. Having other people with you would also make it a lot more entertaining.
Sunday, 5 February 2017
My first week in tokyo
I'll be writing all of this down several days after the fact. I had full intentions of doing this every day or two but I'm in Tokyo and keep getting distracted.
So my first day in Tokyo started off quite normally, with me having absolutely no idea what I was doing. I decided to go for a stroll, as such I figured the smart thing to do would be to check my phone, find the nearest Park and go check it out. I walked north along the main road in the area. As I was strolling along admiring the sight, disdaining the smells and probably staring way too much at the people I came across a little side alley from the main road heading north, it appeared to be full of shops, I could hardly Not go and check out this little wonder. As it turns out this little alley is called Happy Minowa (Minowa is the area) and it has little food stores, some flower shops, a fish vendor, clothing stores etc. I walked into a store purely by chance to see if they had any gloves, It wasn't a big need but I figured I should have some for when it gets really cold. At this point, I was in compression longs, exercise shorts and a T-shirt. The lovely gentleman looked at me, laughed and goes "gloves dame!" (gloves are no good) and said I needed a jacket, at which point he promptly starts sorting through his stock. I honestly didn't expect him to find anything because most of the things in the shops here are designed for midgets, he did eventually find a windbreaker and got me to try it on. I ended up buying it, which I'm actually quite glad for. (This is taking a lot longer than I figured it would, anywho)
I explained to the gentleman where I was going and he said that the park I was heading towards was not worth seeing. He decided that I was to turn around to go and see Senso-ji in Asakusa. I had no idea what that was but he was quite adamant, though he did eventually mention that it was a temple. I went back the way I had come and started walking towards Senso-Ji. I stumbled into the temple from the Northern side. it seemed like a pretty nice little temple. Little did I realise that I was actually looking at one of the side shrines, this side shrine was of a size that I assumed it was the main article. It was impressive, colourful and well maintained. Akin in size to a small house or a large cottage I figured that this was infact the view that the oji-san had recommended. The building coming off the side of the shrine was a lovely yet humble bit of architecture and the shrine itself was brightly coloured, surrounded by some lovely statues and had people praying at it. after I figured I had seen enough I decided to depart via a different entrance, I followed one of the paths into what appeared to be a parking area. I then looked left. and up. and up. and up. right next to the Shrine that I had been admiring was another building... this was the main temple... it had been hidden behind some trees. I followed the path around the temple and made my way inside. From the front of the temple looking down at the ACTUAL ENTRANCE you see nothing but people and shop stalls. I started exploring the shops finding; katanas, clothes, katanas, food, katanas, trinkets and katanas. It was a truly fascinating area.
Friday I decided that I must go back to the store and thank th gentleman for telling me to go to the temple. I thought this would be a simple task and so set off at about 8.30am. I did not take into account that I had completely forgotten which road I had been wandering down on my way to the park. I just knew that I had gotten no closer than 2kms to the park. I went for a walk down the road I figured I had taken until I was significantly closer to th epark than I had been the previous day, I turned around and tried to retrace my steps. I eventually found the shopping alley at about 9.40am I purchased some flowers for the mans wife and set off down the alley to try and find the shop. I was unaware that the vast majority of stores did not open until 10am.... I explained that I was looking for a shop owner and it was explained to me that he would be there within 10 minutes. When he arrived I sat down and spoken to him and later his wife once again, they asked where I was going (Shinjuku) and he said that the best thing to do would be to catch the minowa train down to Waseda. from Waseda is would take about 30 minutes to walk o Shinjuku. The train he was speaking of would cost 180yen which is about $2. He escorted me out of the shop and started walking down an offshooting alley, after 10 metres we exited this tiny alley and was looking directly at a small train track and tiny 1 carriage train with "Waseda" on the LED. I caught the train at its starting point and stayed on the same train for about 30minutes until its final destination, Waseda. from here I promptly lost myself once again until I stumbled upon the Waseda University. I walked all around the Uni and a walk that should have takne me 30minutes from Waseda to Shinjuku ended up taking me about 2-3 hours. I was perfectly fine with this because to be quite honest the peace and quiet Waseda impressed me significantly more than the bustle and loosely organised chaos that was Shinjuku. I wandered around Shinjuku for a time, checked out the cinema (though I didnt watch a movie. it was about 2pm at this point and I figured if i finished a movie at 5pm when I was supposed to be somewhere at 6pm I would end up not going) I decided to walk around a bit more, pace myself and then walk from Shinjuku to the area near the bar that was the location for a get together (through AirBNB)
After walking a ways from Shinjuku in the direction that I was supposed to be going I realised that to walk the complete distance would infact be the end of me. I went into the Shinjuku visitors information centre and asked one of the ladies there how I would go about getting from my current location to the address of the bar. She did her magic and then wrote down in a rather concise way the exact trains I would need to take and how much the trip would cost me. From there it took me a solid 15-20minutes to figure out how to get a ticket from the stupid ticket machine and I made my way onto the train. I was supposed to get off at shinagawa and transfer to the ginza line to ______. I overshot the Shinagawa stop though luckily realised it when they said we were stopping at Ebisu (one stop past where I was to have changed lines) I got off the train and walked from Ebisu to the desired location. It was 4pm and I was 2 hours early. I killed time around the shops until 5.30 when I decided I was hungry and would sit down and have some dinner at the bar/restaurant before the other people arrived.
I swiftly ate my food because some people had arrived just after I ordered. I sat down scoffed my food and began my first bit of mingling in God knows how long (seriously how often do I go out partying.....) over the course of 4 and a half hours I met all 40 people that had come to the bar for the evening as well as the 2 Hosts. Now..... this is 48 hours later but I simply must try and make a list. Lily and I had a competition to see who could remember the most people... here goes.
Idol AirBNB guests;
So my first day in Tokyo started off quite normally, with me having absolutely no idea what I was doing. I decided to go for a stroll, as such I figured the smart thing to do would be to check my phone, find the nearest Park and go check it out. I walked north along the main road in the area. As I was strolling along admiring the sight, disdaining the smells and probably staring way too much at the people I came across a little side alley from the main road heading north, it appeared to be full of shops, I could hardly Not go and check out this little wonder. As it turns out this little alley is called Happy Minowa (Minowa is the area) and it has little food stores, some flower shops, a fish vendor, clothing stores etc. I walked into a store purely by chance to see if they had any gloves, It wasn't a big need but I figured I should have some for when it gets really cold. At this point, I was in compression longs, exercise shorts and a T-shirt. The lovely gentleman looked at me, laughed and goes "gloves dame!" (gloves are no good) and said I needed a jacket, at which point he promptly starts sorting through his stock. I honestly didn't expect him to find anything because most of the things in the shops here are designed for midgets, he did eventually find a windbreaker and got me to try it on. I ended up buying it, which I'm actually quite glad for. (This is taking a lot longer than I figured it would, anywho)
I explained to the gentleman where I was going and he said that the park I was heading towards was not worth seeing. He decided that I was to turn around to go and see Senso-ji in Asakusa. I had no idea what that was but he was quite adamant, though he did eventually mention that it was a temple. I went back the way I had come and started walking towards Senso-Ji. I stumbled into the temple from the Northern side. it seemed like a pretty nice little temple. Little did I realise that I was actually looking at one of the side shrines, this side shrine was of a size that I assumed it was the main article. It was impressive, colourful and well maintained. Akin in size to a small house or a large cottage I figured that this was infact the view that the oji-san had recommended. The building coming off the side of the shrine was a lovely yet humble bit of architecture and the shrine itself was brightly coloured, surrounded by some lovely statues and had people praying at it. after I figured I had seen enough I decided to depart via a different entrance, I followed one of the paths into what appeared to be a parking area. I then looked left. and up. and up. and up. right next to the Shrine that I had been admiring was another building... this was the main temple... it had been hidden behind some trees. I followed the path around the temple and made my way inside. From the front of the temple looking down at the ACTUAL ENTRANCE you see nothing but people and shop stalls. I started exploring the shops finding; katanas, clothes, katanas, food, katanas, trinkets and katanas. It was a truly fascinating area.
Friday I decided that I must go back to the store and thank th gentleman for telling me to go to the temple. I thought this would be a simple task and so set off at about 8.30am. I did not take into account that I had completely forgotten which road I had been wandering down on my way to the park. I just knew that I had gotten no closer than 2kms to the park. I went for a walk down the road I figured I had taken until I was significantly closer to th epark than I had been the previous day, I turned around and tried to retrace my steps. I eventually found the shopping alley at about 9.40am I purchased some flowers for the mans wife and set off down the alley to try and find the shop. I was unaware that the vast majority of stores did not open until 10am.... I explained that I was looking for a shop owner and it was explained to me that he would be there within 10 minutes. When he arrived I sat down and spoken to him and later his wife once again, they asked where I was going (Shinjuku) and he said that the best thing to do would be to catch the minowa train down to Waseda. from Waseda is would take about 30 minutes to walk o Shinjuku. The train he was speaking of would cost 180yen which is about $2. He escorted me out of the shop and started walking down an offshooting alley, after 10 metres we exited this tiny alley and was looking directly at a small train track and tiny 1 carriage train with "Waseda" on the LED. I caught the train at its starting point and stayed on the same train for about 30minutes until its final destination, Waseda. from here I promptly lost myself once again until I stumbled upon the Waseda University. I walked all around the Uni and a walk that should have takne me 30minutes from Waseda to Shinjuku ended up taking me about 2-3 hours. I was perfectly fine with this because to be quite honest the peace and quiet Waseda impressed me significantly more than the bustle and loosely organised chaos that was Shinjuku. I wandered around Shinjuku for a time, checked out the cinema (though I didnt watch a movie. it was about 2pm at this point and I figured if i finished a movie at 5pm when I was supposed to be somewhere at 6pm I would end up not going) I decided to walk around a bit more, pace myself and then walk from Shinjuku to the area near the bar that was the location for a get together (through AirBNB)
After walking a ways from Shinjuku in the direction that I was supposed to be going I realised that to walk the complete distance would infact be the end of me. I went into the Shinjuku visitors information centre and asked one of the ladies there how I would go about getting from my current location to the address of the bar. She did her magic and then wrote down in a rather concise way the exact trains I would need to take and how much the trip would cost me. From there it took me a solid 15-20minutes to figure out how to get a ticket from the stupid ticket machine and I made my way onto the train. I was supposed to get off at shinagawa and transfer to the ginza line to ______. I overshot the Shinagawa stop though luckily realised it when they said we were stopping at Ebisu (one stop past where I was to have changed lines) I got off the train and walked from Ebisu to the desired location. It was 4pm and I was 2 hours early. I killed time around the shops until 5.30 when I decided I was hungry and would sit down and have some dinner at the bar/restaurant before the other people arrived.
I swiftly ate my food because some people had arrived just after I ordered. I sat down scoffed my food and began my first bit of mingling in God knows how long (seriously how often do I go out partying.....) over the course of 4 and a half hours I met all 40 people that had come to the bar for the evening as well as the 2 Hosts. Now..... this is 48 hours later but I simply must try and make a list. Lily and I had a competition to see who could remember the most people... here goes.
Idol AirBNB guests;
- Lily, Taiwan
- Tom Toivonen, Finland
- Michael, USA, Chicago,
- Yuri, Italy
- Eric
- Sia
- Rick, USA
- Nick, USA
- Brent, USA, Chicago
- Jason, USA, Detroit (?)
- Jay, USA (has another name, forgotten it)
- Nathan, Aus, Adelaide
- Chris, Aus, Adelaide
- Jason, Aus, Adelaide
- Misha, Aus, Goldy
- Louis Aus, Goldy
- Chantelle (?), Aus, Melbourne
- Laura (?), Aus, Melbourne
- Mark, Aus, Perth
- Brie, Canada
- Erin, Canada (Awesome Pokeball earing)
- Jessica, Canada
- Corey, Canada
- Florence, New Zealand
- Florences BF, New Zealand
- Gaz, from UK based in HK
- Gregory, France
- Clemens, France
- Julian, Aus, Sydney
- Jaimie, Aus, Sydney
- Oh, Duane, Norfolk Island.
- _____, Taiwan
- Yuri, Southern Japan (Host)
- Victoria, Yep (Host)
- Lauren (?), (?)
And that's all I remember. I know I missed at least 5 people. probably more. Anywho after we left the bar at 10 pm Tom, Lily and I went in search of sustenance. After a swing and a miss at 4 food joints (1 closing, 3 already full) we got lucky with number 5. The meal was fantastic the company a pure Joy (Lily and Tom were alright as well I guess) and the conversational topics both broad and fascinating. I ate 3 foods I would not have had otherwise, a White Radish cake, Liver and Chinese Greens (which were just these stringy greens, not leafy so I have no idea what they were) and some pork and some dumpling. all up it was a thoroughly enjoyable night.
I took the train home with Tom, for he lives close by, it was packed despite the chill in the air and the time and made my way into my sarcophagus of an accommodation at about 1.20am, asleep by 2 am.
My god, this whole recounting thing is more longwinded than anticipated....
Saturday I walked south into Ueno Park continued on my way and hired a push-bike. From there I pedalled until I was lost. It was glorious. The roads are smooth, the drivers considerate and the pedestrians completely lacking any spatial awareness (yes that is annoying) I eventually made my way south to Chiyoda Castle, the Edo era Castle. In there I ran into none other than Tom Toivonen my Finnish Friend, he was out for a jog and had been for what must have been 2 hours. He does endurance jogging and would thoroughly kick my ass in any long distance competition, though admittedly that is not a particularly high benchmark.
I got him to escort me back towards my accommodation simply because it cut the travel time from 3-4 hours to roughly 40-50minutes max, by the time we parted ways he had been on the move for over 3 hours straight. This made it abundantly clear that I need more practice traversing cities and that I should do more cardio.
Today, Sunday, I went for another ride through Ueno park, I went to Akihabara and explored the shops. pedalled back up north and visited the lovely shop owner whose name I have since learned is Saburo Agira, I sat and spoke with him, his wife and two of their friends/regulars for well over an hour (my Japanese improved more in that time than it has in the other 3 days of exploring the city) until I explained that I had to go drop the hired bicycles back. Saburo-San gifted me a chain bracelet that he made (Jewellery has been his business for 46 years now) and despite my many objections, I am overjoyed with yet another display of kindness from Saburo-san and his wife. Anytime in the future that I find myself in Tokyo I look forward to sitting down and having a coffee (Boss coffee from one of the many vending machines around) and hopefully having a full conversation with them both in Japanese. She informed me that given 3 months my Japanese will be acceptable, now how could I not do my very best to improve it after such reassuring words.
I am now going to go find some dinner, Good job if you managed to read all of this. I havent even proof read it so I hope you had fun with that.
Until next time,
Duane
Thursday, 2 February 2017
My arrival into Tokyo
So this will be a full recount of my travelling to Tokyo from the Gold Coast. It will be boring but this way the family will be kept up to date.
The original flight plan was 1030 departure for an approx 1830 arrival. With the need to be there 3 hours prior to the departure time Tzarn dropped me to the airport just after 0700. Everything changed whenThe Fire Nation attacked the plane was delayed by 2 hours so we actually left Aussie at 1230 now factoring in the 9-hour flight and the -1 hour time difference we were expected to touch down at 2030. Sadly, upon arrival we found out that another plane (The Bastards) was docked at the only place we had authority to dock onto, after another 30 mins of waiting we were able to disembark at approx 2115.
From there we made our way through customs and immigration which, thankfully, didn't take nearly as long as it could have, we wouldn't have taken any longer than 60-70mins. We arrived just before another large plane docked so looking back down the line was quite a sight. I go my residency card without a hitch and made my way through the rest of terminal 3.
After catching a free shuttle bus to terminal 2 I got my ticket for the train to Nippori Station, the train ride took 36 minutes, exactly as the giant signs said it would. I made my way out of Nippori Station and across to the waiting area for the bus. This would have been perfect if I had arrived 2 hours earlier because funnily enough there were no more buses coming past at 2315.
I jumped into one of the many cabs there and explained where I wanted to go. That failed miserably because the address I had for the hotel was not one that could be entered into his Navman. After looking at the picture of the map that I had he dropped me to the bus stop that was closest to the hotel, I followed the insanely clear instructions for getting from aforementioned bus stop to the capsule hotel (props to the hotel for the instructions that were included with my reservation. They were a godsend).
There's 24hour service at the front desk here so I simply walked in, signed the paperwork confirming that I had arrived and that I wouldn't be a nuisance to everyone and made my way upstair to my little coffin. It is significantly more comfortable than I anticipated (to the point that I'm actually writing all of this from there as we speak) there is a whole corridor of private showers on floor 8 (not communal as expected) and there are toilets on ever floor. The capsule is large enough that I can lay down no issues, if laying on my back I can extend my legs and rest them flat foot on the top without my legs having to bend (perfect for some hamstring stretches) and just near the entrance is a small wardrobe (which they called a locker) that I can either stand in to change or splay all of my belongings throughout.
Within the capsule is; a light, a little shelf, a blanket, several sheets and a tiny pillow. Since I have an awesome sleeping bag that I use as a blanket I've rolled theirs up and am using their blanket as a really nice and soft pillow. I slept like a baby which makes sense since I left the house at 7 am and arrived just before midnight, plus I took a Phenergan so there was probably a mass exodus due to my snoring.
Tomorrow I might jump on the train and check out the castle in the middle of Tokyo and I have a get together to go to morla night which was arranged through Airbnb (I booked these 5 nights here through their app) so I'll be doing another like hour train ride a bit further south-west. I'm currently in the Taito-ku area in Tokyo which is a bit north-east of the centre. I'll be going to the park on Sunday cause apparently that's when all the freaks (otaku and the like) come out to play and other than that I have very few plans for the area. I'll take more photos and even a couple of vids so hopefully anyone that is curious can keep up to date with what's going on.
Have a good one and flick us an email or feel free to comment.
The original flight plan was 1030 departure for an approx 1830 arrival. With the need to be there 3 hours prior to the departure time Tzarn dropped me to the airport just after 0700. Everything changed when
From there we made our way through customs and immigration which, thankfully, didn't take nearly as long as it could have, we wouldn't have taken any longer than 60-70mins. We arrived just before another large plane docked so looking back down the line was quite a sight. I go my residency card without a hitch and made my way through the rest of terminal 3.
After catching a free shuttle bus to terminal 2 I got my ticket for the train to Nippori Station, the train ride took 36 minutes, exactly as the giant signs said it would. I made my way out of Nippori Station and across to the waiting area for the bus. This would have been perfect if I had arrived 2 hours earlier because funnily enough there were no more buses coming past at 2315.
I jumped into one of the many cabs there and explained where I wanted to go. That failed miserably because the address I had for the hotel was not one that could be entered into his Navman. After looking at the picture of the map that I had he dropped me to the bus stop that was closest to the hotel, I followed the insanely clear instructions for getting from aforementioned bus stop to the capsule hotel (props to the hotel for the instructions that were included with my reservation. They were a godsend).
There's 24hour service at the front desk here so I simply walked in, signed the paperwork confirming that I had arrived and that I wouldn't be a nuisance to everyone and made my way upstair to my little coffin. It is significantly more comfortable than I anticipated (to the point that I'm actually writing all of this from there as we speak) there is a whole corridor of private showers on floor 8 (not communal as expected) and there are toilets on ever floor. The capsule is large enough that I can lay down no issues, if laying on my back I can extend my legs and rest them flat foot on the top without my legs having to bend (perfect for some hamstring stretches) and just near the entrance is a small wardrobe (which they called a locker) that I can either stand in to change or splay all of my belongings throughout.
Within the capsule is; a light, a little shelf, a blanket, several sheets and a tiny pillow. Since I have an awesome sleeping bag that I use as a blanket I've rolled theirs up and am using their blanket as a really nice and soft pillow. I slept like a baby which makes sense since I left the house at 7 am and arrived just before midnight, plus I took a Phenergan so there was probably a mass exodus due to my snoring.
Tomorrow I might jump on the train and check out the castle in the middle of Tokyo and I have a get together to go to morla night which was arranged through Airbnb (I booked these 5 nights here through their app) so I'll be doing another like hour train ride a bit further south-west. I'm currently in the Taito-ku area in Tokyo which is a bit north-east of the centre. I'll be going to the park on Sunday cause apparently that's when all the freaks (otaku and the like) come out to play and other than that I have very few plans for the area. I'll take more photos and even a couple of vids so hopefully anyone that is curious can keep up to date with what's going on.
Have a good one and flick us an email or feel free to comment.
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