Booking Hotels in Japan February 13, 2008

We booked our hotels last night. I’d say all-in-all, we spent 5-6 hours researching hotels and locations before we could pick. We decided, though, that even before we had figured out what we wanted to see in Japan, we needed to book hotels. Because apparently hotels for April book up very quickly. It’s not just that the weather in April is supposed to be fantastic, but starting 29 April is “Golden Week” where everyone in Japan is on vacation for a week (this happens again in October under a different guise). But just like everywhere else, when you get a week off of work for free, why not take a week of vacation time and make it two weeks off! Or a month! So, anyway, April is part of vacation month, and the crowds abound!

The schedule is that we will arrive at Narita around 4pm and we will have to stay one night in Shinagawa at the Prince Hotel (it doesn’t make sense to go to Kyoto that night). Shinagawa is a Shinkensen stop, so we will take the train to Kyoto early the next morning and stay three nights at a hotel in the center of everything. The morning of Kyoto-departure (probably) we will see Nara and catch the train back to Tokyo where we will stay 4 nights in the Shinjuku district.

We really like to save money, but we’re also realistic about what it costs to stay in hotels overseas, especially given that we wanted to stay places central to the subway and action. (my first choice hotel is the one from “Lost in Translation”, but it worked out to about $650/night… Holy Crap!) Most of the time that we spent “researching hotels” was really spent figuring out what district or area to stay in. Wikitravel.org and tripadvisor.com were both helpful in the quest. In Tokyo, it turned out that there are three fun districts (maybe more) where we would have considered staying: The Ginza district (but it seemed like a place business people being wooed and wooing clients stay), the Shibuya district (seemed to have fewer hotels, and better to visit than stay in), and Shinjuku (like the Times Square of Tokyo). Kyoto is small enough that we felt comfortable picking a hotel right smack in the middle of town (on a subway stop, so we don’t have to carry bags far). It’s about a mile from all of the attractions in either direction. But the bus system there is supposed to be great, so it all works out, anyway. So we picked “Good” locations and “mid-range” hotels.

After comparing and recomparing prices of the hotels we liked best, we booked two of the hotels on travelocity and the third on its own website, where their price was better.  Funnily enough, we got a huge discount for staying long-term (3 nights is apparently long-term) in Kyoto.

With the hotels booked, we can move on to the sight-seeing agenda! I was reminded yesterday that while thinking about temples and shrines, do not forget about just walking around experiencing this culture that is so foreign to me. Stopping in stores to wander around and look at stuff and stopping in restaurants to pick up a foreign snack. And certainly do not forget to pick up kitschy Japanese souvenirs! Oh, I certainly will not forget to do THAT!

Learning Japanese Tradition February 8, 2008

I’ve learned a lot in the past four days about Japan and its customs and traditions. These traditions are in place to make society a better place to live, and for the most part I agree with them, though I am certainly not used to them. I will go through some of the ones I find more interesting here, granted they’re only interesting to me because of the strange culture in which *I* live — the US!

Shoes. Of course we all have heard that you do not wear your shoes in a Japanese house or restaurant (or perhaps any establishment?). But what I didn’t know is that they provide communal slippers in many places, restaurants especially, so that you aren’t wandering around sock footed. Part of the reason for not wearing shoes indoors is because if you’re sitting on the floor, you wouldn’t want to sit in a muddy/grassy/wet/dirty footprint, right? So there are communal slippers. And you put them on at the door and leave your shoes. If you do end up sitting on the floor, like in a restaurant, you take off the slippers and place them beside you. Put them back on when you get up! And if you go to the restroom (the toilet!) you will be putting on special toilet slippers, leaving the room slippers outside. Do not wear the toilet slippers out of the toilet. This is a major faux pas, almost as bad as…

Nose blowing in public. Is a no-no. A major no-no. Sniff all you want, but God help the person who blows his nose in public! I actually like this because there are too many people who are just not polite when they blow their nose.

Bath. The toilet is not located in the same room with the bath tub because this would be gross. I can get on board with this; it’s even appearing in more and more American homes. Cool. Taking a bath, however, is very different than I am used to. You sit on the side of the tub, on a chair, perhaps, and soap yourself down and wash all of the soap off. You’re clean (although I don’t see how you’re clean, really, without a full, long shower). Now that you’re clean and have rinsed all the soap, you can get into the warm tub water and soak. It is soothing. You get out and dry off. The next person (usually a family member) will do the same, using the same bath water once he is clean, too. I think this is originally to save money on heat or water, but you were clean when you got into the tub, so it is presumably still clean water. Maybe not quite as warm any more.

Ryokan. A ryokan is like a hotel, except that it’s more like a B&B, and to get into the nicer ones (which aren’t necessarily more expensive) you need an invitation or introduction by a Japanese person familiar with the establishment. When you arrive, the hostess serves you tea. In the morning you are awoken (around 8, I believe) by the hostess, who serves you breakfast. In the evening, after dinner, the hostess rolls out your futon for sleeping. It’s very traditional. And unless you stay in a ryokan with a private bath, your hostess will schedule your bath time (keeping in mind the toilet is separate from the bath). But keeping in mind what I have said about the bath, above, you will be sharing the bath water with other guests (who you do not know and who may not be Japanese or understand Japanese tradition as well as you do). You should rinse all soap before entering the tub, but to me, you’re still sharing bath water with strangers. There’s something weird about that to me, no matter the “cleanliness” of the person preceeding you. It’s like a pool, except it’s not chlorinated, and what if the person failed to get clean… you can construe all sorts of other issues to go along with this, too!

I have learned so many other Japanese facts, a lot of how-to’s, in the past few days, and I will share more soon. They include things like: how to use the train, (re)filling your companion’s drink, eating at a sushi bar, attending sumo and kabuki, seeing Harajuku, buying electronics,… Look forward to these!

Couch Surfing September 20, 2007

Maybe I’ve just had some bad experiences with strangers in the past, but it’s not clear that I would welcome a complete and total stranger to stay on my couch. A stranger is one thing. I don’t mind strangers in limited quantity. Sooner or later they’re not strangers anymore and are friends instead, but that’s often “later” rather than “sooner” and sometimes for good reason. A known-quantity houseguest is another matter. You can plan ahead that they’re coming, know their habits, and never invite them in the first place if you have the foresight that it just won’t work out. Combining the notions of strangers and houseguests just seems like a bad idea.

Staying on strangers’ couches, “couch surfing”, is the premise of a website (as well as an NYT article) that must be meant for a younger generation than I. Being a part of this couch-surfing community means accepting some rules: not staying out until all hours, being a gracious guest, enjoying rather than taking advantage of your host’s company. Even with these rules in place, I know that I would end up with at least one guest who pushed the boundaries of what I feel is acceptable behavior for a houseguest, especially a houseguest/stranger.  But I think in this case one bad egg ruins the experience.

I also know that if I were to stay on a complete stranger’s couch and be expected to join them in their planned-fun-activities, something would go wrong. I don’t know what, but something.  Again, it only takes one bad experience to spoil the whole thing, and it just seems too likely to me that I would get that.  I guess my overly cautious persona means that I won’t get to see or do some set of things in life, but I’ll learn to accept that, and I’ll do other things in their place.