I realize that I didn't really describe the hotel when we first got to Kyoto, so I guess I'll do it now. They advertised themselves as a "Capsule Ryokan." A ryokan is a traditional Japanese accomodation, much like the one we stayed at in Takayama. A capsule hotel... well, you literally stay in a coffin-sized room that is big enough for your bed and a tv mounted on the wall. I think they called it a capsule ryokan because the capsules had tatami floors... which I don't think counts a ryokan, but so be it... in any case, we didn't stay in the capsules - we stayed in the small full rooms that they had. They had a some pretty clever space saving technics: the whole room was pretty much consumed by the double bed, so like a ryokan, the mattresses could be folded up, so that you could have a place to sit/do other things if you wanted to:
However, unlike a ryokan they didn't actually fold it up/unfold it for you. In fact, they didn't do any room cleaning at all... even though we were there for almost a week... icky. Under the bed part was extra storage
The shower was pretty cool - which was actually the motivation for going with this place in the first place
There were three different settings for the water: "Rain" (Which comes from above), regular (which comes from the little hose), and from the side. There were also blue LEDs inside, so you could really feel like you were in a high tech shower.
And finally....the possessed toilet!
In any case, the train ride to Osaka was a short one, so we spent a while just exploring the area. For the record, if I were to live in Japan, I would definitely live in Osaka. It is a big city, but much more laid back than Tokyo. We stayed in the Namba area, which was a pretty bustling place. There were lots of covered shopping streets (like those in Kyoto), tons of arcades, restaurants, and Tower records!
Also, when you go down the backstreets... well I'm not sure how to describe this, but you actually feel like you're in a foreign country. Though Tokyo had a bunch of high tech stuff and Kyoto had a lot of really old Japanese culture, they are really quite international cities. Most people speak at least some English, signs are in both English and Japanese, and they are all very clean and modern. While Osaka has a lot of modern entertainment/shops, when you go down the back streets, there's actually some DIRT and places where no one speaks English! I wish I had gotten some pictures of it...
In any case, Osaka is also famous for its food (particularly takoyaki and okonomiyaki), so after we checked into the hotel, we went out near the waterfront to a food amusement park. There was a really awesome food amusement park quite close to our hotel in the dotombori area (the center of Osaka's food culture), but it was closed, so we were just looking for any place where we could sample Osakan cuisine. The place we settled on was almost entirely empty, and I'm not super sure how it differed from any mall food court except for the decor... but we did try some pretty neat foods.
This one is a rice ball wrapped in some heavily marinated, seemingly spit-roasted, thinly sliced meat. It was amazing.
We also had curry-pan, which is a fried bread filled with curry (the Japanese put a lot of things in bread that we wouldn't even think of... like noodles...??). The curry pan was also pretty good. Failures were: takoyaki (which is sad because they are the ultimate Osaka food), and omurice - or as Erik calls it an "egg burrito." Omurice is rice mixed with catsup and stir fried, then wrapped in a thin omelet-like thing of egg. Different places I saw in Japan put different things on it - everything from more catsup to various curries. I wasn't a big fan because of the catsup... and Erik, who doesn't like egg OR catsup, thought the dish had no redeeming qualities. Oh well...
Afterward we rode a really big ferris wheel that overlooked the bay...
It was very windy and our car rocked alot and made loud noises, so I was scared... fortunately there was a giant Pooh in our cabin:
Erik was mostly interested in getting some cool views of the city:
Admittedly, the view (and pictures) would have been better if it had been daytime, but it was cool to see all the sparkly lights.
That storage bed in the capsule ryokan is so cool XD And I laughed so much at the possessed toilet. I like how the plastic sakura flowers are raining on Erik and his food. Also, thank goodness you had that gigantic Pooh in your ferris wheel cabin!
ReplyDelete