It is less fun watching other people do travel things, especially if there is a chance of them ruining surprises for your own travels.

Think this is probably the first time that I’m adopting such a slack approach to planning what seems to be an itinerary. One has to be planned, because accommodations are blood-suckers when not reserved in advance; and lastly, a great part of the joy one derives from a holiday is the anticipation of it. The itinerary helps, since it directs wanderlust into possible “action plans”. And since I (and by effect, we) am hopeless at following instruction of any sort, even when drafted by yours truly, I don’t usually need to worry about yadda yadda how restrictive an itinerary would be. Good intentions often end up in the next town. Or the less expensive museum. Or a familiar bus (but let’s see, it isn’t hmm stopping hmmm).

Plan. Tokyo – Aomori – Hakodate – Biei/Asahikawa – Wakkanai – Sapporo – Tokyo – Narita.

It all looks so simple. Well, except Hokkaido is a damn big slice of the country.

今日本語で書きます。でも、面白い話しもうないから、やめます。

ああ、秋になってしまいました。

Come November, we will be making our way to Japan again. Here’s to hoping that our tourist dollars go some way to aiding recovery. たのしみにしてる!

19 January 2011: I can’t believe I still have eight more hotels/lodgings to write about.

Weekly Center, Shinjuku, Tokyo
This place seems to have scaled back its operations. The site currently only lists lodgings in Akihabara and Ochanomizu for the Tokyo area.

My first lodging for this trip. Stayed here for two nights with Abula in a semi double single room, and frankly, that’s all the room can take. Two skinny girls with a pink suitcase, a backpack and a medium travel bag. Anything more than that will require acrobatic skills in getting to the bed. It is a small room, but it also comes with a small kitchenette (a portable hotplate, utensils, a sink, a microwave and a small fridge) and toilet/bath facilities. Geared more towards long-term dwellers, I guess, but the hotplate comes in handy for organising impromptu nabe dinners. True, your guests have to sit on the bed and eat around a chair pretending to be a table, but it can make for a good experience if you have the right company.

No Internet connection (both wifi and wired) in the room, but you can stay somewhat connected to the world through the tv or a brief walk to the Lawsons and 7-11 convenience stores.

• Single room rates start from ¥4,300
• A 3-minute walk from JR Shinjuku’s New South Exit
• Three floors, no elevator
• Coin laundry available
• Vending machines in the lobby
• Accepts credit cards

Kangaroo Hotel, Minami-Senju, Tokyo
My friend and I moved here after Design Festa, and stayed for three nights before moving on to Hakone. We loved it. It was impeccably clean, adequately spacious (coming from our previous lodgings, it is easy to impress us) and very comfortable. When we ran out of space, we simply rolled up the futon mattresses and made ourselves a nice sitting area. A small table and a fridge are also provided, so supper can be conducted properly.

There are sinks on the second and third floors for washing up, as well as hairdryers. The microwave is on the ground floor, near the coin laundry area.

A 10-minute walk from the Minami-Senju station, three stations from JR Ueno on the Hibiya subway line or two stops from JR Nippori station on the JR Joban line. It can be challenging to find, but walk from the south exit of the station, up and across the overhead bridge and then walk straight after descending until you see a Kinokuniya Hotel opposite the road. Turn right until the first turn, then turn left. The hotel is that modern building; you can’t really miss it. We didn’t, even in the dark.

• Single rooms are ¥3,200 and twin rooms are ¥4,500 per room. There is also a 4-bed room
• All shared shower and bath facilities. There are 2 shower rooms and one shower/bath room (it is big) on the ground floor. Shampoo, conditioner and body soap are available in all
• Toilets (ladies and gents) are available on the 2nd and 3rd floors
• Three floors, no elevator
• Free Internet access (sadly, no wifi) in the lobby. Two Apple iMacs, though one is rather tempermental. Magazines and other reading materials also available in the lobby
• Cash only
• Reception open from 930 am till midnight

I stayed here again for the last week of my trip. All observations still stand. I had a single room (western), and while it could hardly hold all my luggage (you tend to accumulate a lot of shopping in Japan; and I had winter clothes by then, thankfully), it was a very enjoyable stay. By then, I was also adequately versed in the art of hoisting luggage up narrow flights of stairs.

B&B Pension, Hakone
Please, please, please take the shuttle bus. Attempting to walk to the pension with a backpack and a daypack is inhumane. It is a 15-minute walk, most of it uphill. Going uphill on foot doesn’t sit well with most people. Do assume that you are most people, unless you’ve been working out in a gym eight times a week, three hours at a stretch each time.

That being said, I liked the rooms here. All rooms are single, so we got a room each. No attached toilet/shower/bath; but shower rooms (clean) and a hot spring bath are available on the ground floor. Shared toilets are on every floor.

A persistent dripping sound throughout the night killed my night’s sleep though. Just keep thinking: it is ¥3,000 for a single room. ¥3,000 elsewhere might not even get you a hostel bed. The room tariff includes free breakfast – a yummy selection of pastries.

Costa del Sol Guest House, Kyoto
We reached Kyoto after some, some travelling. After leaving Hakone the afternoon before, we headed back to Shinjuku to take a midnight bus to arrive (very) early in Kobe where we ate four glazed Krispy Kreme donuts between us for breakfast and then half-heartedly did a short tour. We went to the science museum, IKEA – which provided a shuttle bus to and fro, had lunch in the shotengai/shopping arcade and then ruled by our sleepy selves, proceeded to truncate our ambitions and took an earlier than planned train to Kyoto. Decently refreshed from our nap on the train, we set off to find the hostel. It was all lovely blue skies and breezy out, and the evening light was hitting this temple, that lamp post, those flowers in all the right places. We were happy.

The hostel, we found after some difficulty. Follow the chatter of school children. We reserved a twin room and were given one on the second floor in the annex building. And yes, there will be three changes of footwear from getting into the hostel to the room. Once when you enter, twice when you exit the main building, and the final change when you get into your building. This is less fun when you have heavy backpacks. Also not fun when it rains.

The room itself was spacious for two: we had two futons and a decent amount of space to walk around in. No television set (we had books), two hooks for each to hang up whatever that needed hanging, instructions not to do any laundry, an invitation to use the kitchen if we so wished to, and then shower timings. Unfortunately for us, hot water was only available during certain periods of the day. Which also meant that despite having not showered for close to two days, we were going to have to continue dealing with it until 8 p.m.

• ¥5,500 for two people in a twin room with attached shower/toilet (now ¥5,800)
• Reception was generally friendly and helpful
• Internet access available at the reception area (limited to 15 minutes per person)
• No Wi-fi
• Pictures of the hostel look a lot better online

We later changed our minds about heading to Amanohashidate (budgetary concerns) and stayed on for another night in Costa.

Hotel Mikado, Osaka
We had to seek directions from a omawari-san (police). Initially quite happy that there is a police station so close to the hotel, we later realised that the location of the police post was more strategic rather than coincidental. Hotel Mikado is one of many, many budget hotels in the area. If you like to travel in style, don’t stay here. Of my eight days there, there was only once when I felt nervous about my safety, but I would imagine fussier travelers might feel differently.

We both took single rooms on the ladies-only floor, because double rooms were/are actually more expensive. ¥1,980 for a Japanese-style single, and ¥4,360 for a double. Rooms are tiny, and furnished with a refrigerator, a small low table, a TV and video tape player (video tapes are available from the library on the lobby floor). AND THERE IS WIRELESS INTERNET. That sealed the deal. PCs in the lobby too.

Toilets on each floor; a public bath (with different timings for the ladies and men) and a separate shower room available on the ground floor. There is only one shower room though. Not exactly the cleanest, but it did the job. Washing machines/dryers also available, and washing powder can be bought at the reception for ¥100 a packet. A round of washing/drying usually costs ¥400-500.

• ¥1,980 for a Japanese-style single; discounted rates for a week’s or longer stay
• Ladies only floor
• TV, video player, refrigerator in each room
• Shower room (one) on first floor, shared toilets on every floor
• Bath
• Wireless internet in every room; PCs on ground floor
• Coin laundry available

Hotel Resh, Tottori
Quite easily one of the most comfortable and nicest hotels I stayed in for the entire trip. Maybe because it was/is actually a real hotel. I was joined by a certain Ms. M for this leg of the journey and while our two.5 days in Tottori were tormented by rains and wind, we had a wonderful time on the sand dunes, marveling at the expanse of the damn sea, hiding from the weather in a dilapidated bus shelter and taking the opportunity to photograph the hell of it, wandering around the small city centre, and having a hot hot hot bowl of ramen.

Room was comfortable and spacious. Beds! Shower! Room slippers! Fridge! TV! Dressing table! PILLOWS! Heating! Sturdy door! ELEVATORS! Windows! Elevators are so full of win.

• Accessible; covered tunnel and walkway to the hotel from the train/bus station
• ¥9,450 for a twin room; rates for other room types available on website
• Wi-fi available free of charge in lobby area, as were coffee, tea, and hot chocolate
• Coin laundry available; washing powder provided

Young Inn ヤングイン, Matsue
Coming from Hotel Resh, this place was a tad depressing though thoroughly livable. It was quite a walk from the Matsue station, so try to travel light or be strong. I was lost within five minutes of leaving the company of Ms. M (who was putting up somewhere else) and would had remained so if not for the assistance rendered to me by a kind ryokan owner. He showed me the directions and extended an invitation to tea.

He was the only other person I remembered seeing from my walk to the hotel.

The hostel/hotel/inn was closed when I reached but there was a sign to leave bags at the “neighbour’s”. Headed back in the direction of the station to look for Ms. M so we could visit the castle and find some much-needed food. There seemed to be nothing quite exciting in Matsue after dusk so we returned to our respective hotels early and armed with supper.

I would call the rooms shady, but I wouldn’t not recommend the place. I quite liked it for the vibe it gave; the poorly-lit room, the cheap tired decor, the television set that crackled mostly static, the bathed-in-orange-light shower rooms with their mosaic tiled walls, the toilets. It felt like an abandoned building, but with utilities and some people. I did at more than one point felt like a character in a Haruki Murakami novel. Hehe.

• ¥2,400 for a single room; rates for other room types on website
• Shared shower rooms and toilets; shower rooms on ground floor, toilets on room floor
• TV set, wash basin in room
• Bar on ground floor; good if you need a drink at night

Hana Hostel, Hiroshima
Hiroshima! The last time I was here, it was a day-trip after a lovely day spent in Miyajima. Ms. J and I essentially had a few hours before having to catch a long ride back into Tokyo, and we did a Amazing-Race-esque to the main sights. This time, I had the luxury of time.

Take the South exit of the Hiroshima station. You will pass an onigiri store, and upon crossing the road from the station, you will see a bookstore on the left. On the right, a dorayaki stall and several arcades stand; a market is further up. Walk along the street where the bookstore is, and you will see the railway track. Walk further along that, and take a right turn.

The Hana Hostel is a nice friendly (and clean) place, with an elevator (ha). I had a bed in a 4-bed ladies-only dormitory room with an ensuite. I was the only one in the room when I checked in, and I was harbouring hopes of it staying that way for a night, at least. Nah, I wasn’t that lucky, and after I came back from getting food and a walk through the city, I had dorm mates. Who headed out for some serious partying and didn’t return until the a.m. The beds in the dorm had curtains that you could draw around them, so at least I had some privacy and shade from the room lights that I left on. Two nights later, I had two old ladies, who seemed decent dorm mates until they started snoring really, really, really loudly. They were apologetic though, the next morning. I had an early start for my journey to Hagi.

I also had the unfortunate experience of watching a Tom Cruise-samurai movie in the TV room. The room was comfortable; the movie wasn’t.

• ¥2,500 for a bed in a 4-bed ladies-only; attached shower and toilet
• Linen provided
• Kitchen; label your food with name and checkout date
• Wi-Fi available; PCs available for use at ¥100 per half hour

My phone also did the unimaginable here: it died on me. Which wasn’t a pleasant experience, which had me spending ¥1,000 on a calling card that allowed me a generous seven (7) minutes of talktime, which had me stuck in a phone booth trying to remember a phone number, which eventually had me heading back to the hostel in the middle of my day to google for a solution (I was a iPhone novice then, and didn’t know the fine, delicate, esoteric art of resetting).

Hotel Orange, Hagi
Take the bus, if you are arriving at the Hagi Bus Center. It is just a few stops, but your shoulders will be grateful. Especially if you have a poor sense of direction. More so if the weather is cold and you are underdressed. If you are arriving at the JR Higashi Hagi station though, cross the Hagi bridge and head straight. The hotel is on the left.

I reserved a single room, but the kind old man gave me a twin room instead. Happy desu. The TV worked. The attached bathroom was clean. I had two beds, one of which was promptly turned into a please-use-me-as-a-table.

The hotel was a few minutes’ walk from a good udon place (delicious. Awesomely umai on a cold, rainy day) and a supermarket. The town itself was pretty quiet, and the most activity I saw during my two days there was at the udon restaurant.

If you need wi-fi (like I did), the hotel near the train station has an open network. Just loiter around in the arcade in the same building. If you need lunch with your wi-fi, try the restaurant next to the arcade. Pick a seat near the entrance and you will get intermittent access, ha! The tonkatsu set lunch was yummy and cheap.

• Credit cards accepted
• No wi-fi; wired access available
• Free breakfast! Toast is good. Free drinks are good. Don’t try the clam chowder from the vending machine, no matter how tempted you are.
• Microwave and/or vending machines on every floor

Prince Hotel, Shimonoseki

Khaosan Hostel, Fukuoka
This place and I, we started off decent enough. I reached early that day, and instead of making me wait till it was check-in time (like most places), I was allowed to check in and put my backpack down (you try walking 15 minutes with a heavy pack, all the time with only directions like “Turn right at the fifth light, turn left after this”).

No lift, so take your shoes off and start climbing the stairs. Four beds to a dorm room, with shared shower/bathroom and toilet in the common living area. Sadly though, cleanliness in the shower leaves much to be desired.

• PCs available with internet and Wi-fi
• Towels for rent (good)

Fukuoka Youth Hostel

Green Hotel, Kumamoto

Akari Hostel, Nagasaki

Park Hotel, Okayama

DK House, Sapporo

Sun Hotel, Asahiyama

Apologies to people who have met up with me so far and have not been impressed by my account of the trip, haha. Cue conversations that go What happened on your trip? Pause Erm, nothing much. There was a lot of snow. I am terribly inarticulate when it comes to stuff like that, and recalling singular trip-changing events is not exactly my specialty. I can remember having done stupid things rather well though. Like forgetting shoes, falling/sliding on a snow slope no et al (only two; two only).

Still in the midst of sorting out photos, but the sorted ones are here.

It is odd; I pride myself on having a decent memory when it comes to recalling holidays and photos, but while looking through the photos on my digital camera an hour ago, I find myself surprised by more than a few images and their recorded memories. Once I looked, I immediately remembered where and when I took them, but it was a little alarming that if I had not gone through the photos, some places and people would had been forgotten and wasted.

Tokyo
Design Festa; nabe in Ms Peh’s hotel room, with the hot pot on a chair and the rest of us around it, overeating and watching television that we didn’t understand; cuttlefish snacks; eating potato chips and stoning while watching the DF crowds go by; grumbling with Abula; the Octopus man with his guitar, later accompanied by his Starfish friend; they had cool amplifiers; weird guy with singalong groupies, complete with dance moves; cold winds and rain; Nikko in the rain; fried red bean fritter; buying umbrellas; Kawagoe; kaiten sushi lunch; walking down to Candy Street; senbei crackers; free roasted chestnut; Hakone; climbing up the most horrible slope to get to our hotel; cold winds on the boat; a 90% obscured Mt. Fuji; black tamago (eggs) that should add 7 years to your lifespan; volcano; oden; slightly scary toilet + shower stall; great breakfast, with damn delicious apple pie thingies and butter pastries; AtoZ cafe; Krispy Kreme donuts; night bus to Kobe before heading back to Kyoto; washing up in a public toilet; night bus rest stop in the middle of the night, in the middle of nowhere.

Kobe
Early; alighted somewhere where we shouldn’t have alighted; walked, asked, found way to the train station; ate our last donuts before deciding to visit the Science Museum; portrait-drawing robots that sing; a pair of girl and boy robots; a nice exhibition of classic cameras; scary doll; IKEA; no meatballs; shuttle bus; lunch; slept on the train to Kyoto; afternoon light was gorgeous.

Kyoto
Hostel was far, bags were heavy; good buffet dinner; the hot showers don’t start until 8 pm; temples; temples; shrines; the mini 88-temples pilgrimage on a hill that took forever to climb; old man as guide, who showed us the shortcut down; Nijo Castle; wonderful ume crackers; Arashiyama; terrible winds, but pretty sights; overrated tofu that we threw away after forcing down half a box; looked for what was reputed to have the best dorayaki, but it sold out when we got there; rain.

Nara
Deer; green mochi (the best mochi ever); KFC; soft serve; temples, big and bigger; candles; deer shit; long long queues; kani udon; deer munching on paper; deer chasing people; beautiful park (prettier when we went)

Himeji
McDonalds for brunch; Himeji castle; koko-en; people up on ladders; heron flying; koi feeding; carnival; handicraft stalls; candy floss boy; mochi people; leather stall.

Osaka

Tottori
Quiet town; walking; a random 100 yen store; the woman in the dunes; a dinner restaurant that only had us as customers that night; sand dunes; the uselessness of umbrellas; winds; boots; raincoats; silliness; waiting for buses at a bus shelter that provided quite a few photo opportunities; magazine on table; pretty chairs; most-wanted criminals poster on the wall; ramen for lunch; round #2 of the sand dunes; free boots rental; weather that cleared for our benefit, even if only for an hour or so; sand, sand, sand; camels and donkeys; circus girl balancing; group of elderly that fell victim to stealth photography; Judy and the Dream of Horses.

Matsue
Train ride to Matsue; slept; cloudy; a long walk to the hotel, made easier with the directions from a ryokan owner; Matsue Castle; castles; walking for a dinner place; curry udon at the station restaurant; hotel has a funky shower room and the room has a sink; the television screens static and I eat crackers to pass the time; woke to noisy neighbours; walked with bags to Ms. Mar’s hotel; caught the boat ride; legs tucked under a kotatsu; polite agreement to not-sure-what; girl on boat kept staring; didn’t like her; 11 am bus; with a plain bun and off to Hiroshima.

Hiroshima
Hana Hostel; snoring roommates; roommates who don’t sleep; Nakau; hunger; miyajima; deer; oysters over rice; fried red bean fritter;
peace museum; kindergarten carnival; iphone death; google rocks; hot cocoa; roaming + Lotteria fake cola;

Hagi
Rain; thought of cycling; cold; fucking cold; random Uniqlo store; small Daimaru store; udon at the bus terminal; Orange Hotel; funky credit card swipe thing; good breakfast with strawberry jam and toast; nasty vending machine soup; tonkatsu; Hagi Castle ruins; Hagi bus; 100 yen; arcade centre with wi-fi from hotel above it; rain; sad bus shelter; bridge with woman on bicycle; sculptures; lonely train station with not a lot of trains; getting lost; missing directions, despite map; big fucking big spiders; walking; hot udon is good for cold evenings; supermarket with not-nice melon buns.

Shimonoseki

Fukuoka
Long walk to the hostel; thank goodness for a map and detailed directions; first sighting of Hotto-Motto; checking in early; Khaosan Fukuoka; heading to Tenjin for a do-nothing, window-shopping day; found Wi-fi at Seattle’s Best Coffee; Ringer Hut; bookstores are good for window-reading; yatai stalls; walking down to the Canal City shopping city; huge Meiji neon signs that reflect on water; city loop bus (100 yen); the bathroom mat looks very dirty, but ok, dirty feet are sometimes better than freezing feet; no body foam in the hostel shower room; dorm mate who sleeps at ten, okay here we go again; Daizaifu; didn’t cycle; some plum red bean snack; so many students; Marinoa outlet shopping; two ferris wheels; Ohori Park; art museum; another Yayoi Kusama’s pumpki; Fukuoka bus centre; Kinokuniya;

Kumamoto
Hello good morning; Kumamoto Green Hotel took forever to find; not fun looking for places with a very heavy backpack and no directions/map; the hotel receptionist looks like someone in Singapore who doesn’t like me; this woman doesn’t like me too; wonderful weather; walked the Ginza strip; this city has quaint little shops; tired; Yayoi-ken’s tonkatsu is wonderful; Mount Aso; thank you weather for being this overwhelmingly gloomy and cloudy; train to Aso; early; corn potage; bus to Aso; Aso is a strange and wonderful place, especially when you can’t see beyond a few metres; love and dislike; back to Kumamoto by early afternoon; okay, let’s eat another tonkatsu meal; Mos Burger for dinner; we’re watching tv tonight.

Nagasaki

Okayama

Sapporo

Otaru
Designated trash days are a bit troublesome, to be honest; walking to Sapporo station takes longer than imagined;

Asahikawa
Christmas Eve; the phone alarm went off exceedingly soft; no one heard except the ants, but okay, up by seven a.m.; rushed like a nut to get ready and to throw trash out; hazardous walk to the street car stop; to Sapporo bus station to take the bus to Asahikawa; amazing scenery on the way to the coldest city in the nation; raven; so much snow; how can there be so much snow; transferred to bus for the zoo; zoo blanketed under snow; how can there be so much snow; harbinger – falling imminent; penguins; polar bear; monkeys; chimpanzees; orang utan; orang utans are scary; brown bear; tiger; black panther; fall #1 – near the monkeys; fall/slide #2 – on the way to the polar bear; sliding is easier; chicken karaage for lunch; march of the penguins!; so cute; let’s try not to fall; let’s try not to slip; bus ride back to the city; roaming is depressing on Christmas day; roast chicken leg + McDonalds + coke + pudding makes a decent Christmas dinner; tv specials; now now that was a big stingray.

Tokyo