2am!!

Day 19

Reviews for the capsule hotel were rather unanimous: noisy and too much lighting during the night. The light wasn't much of a problem. With the blind down one can barely be bothered by the light (please take in consideration that this opinion comes from someone that is light sensitive and needs a blackout to sleep). Beds were remarkably comfortable. Noise however was pretty much a women's problem...

The boys told me they slept really well as their dorm was as quiet as a tomb. Considering they slept with the big bakpacks in their capsule, this is really a big compliment on the beds and dorm.

Women's dorm however was pretty bad! Why women insist in blowdrying their hair to exhaustion is beyond me! It was 2am when the last hairdryer stopped. Let me say this again: 2am!!! Could you not wash your hair in the morning and show some respect to the dozens of women sleeping in the floor? I could hear them really well and my capsule wasn't near the bathroom door (which was closed)!!

Luckily the dorm was also as quiet as a tomb after that.

We had booked only a night at the capsule hotel least it could be as bad as the reviews. So in the morning we headed to the accomodation for the next 2 nights to drop our bags. From Capsule Hotel to the Hilton Hotel. Big change!

Hilton Tokyo is just by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building and you can go up to the 45th floor observatory for free. Up we went behind a group of chinese tourists to the top. There is a good view of the surrounding area and you can even see as far as the Skytree.

Next stop: Shibuya. We took the train to get to the famous Shibuya crossing only to feel like it was smaller than we had imagined. Is this really the big crossing you often see on the tv? It doesn't look like it! However it was definetely a touristic spot as there were plenty of tourists photographing and filming it from below and from above (there is a nearby Starbucks on the 2nd floor of one of the building facing the crossing).

Nearby there were a great many number of shops selling a bit of everything teen fashion related. 

We walked a bit to get to Yoyogi Park, a popular park in Tokyo, specially for running and walking dogs. It is also home to a big crowd of very noisy crows. Cherry blossoms had almost all lost their petals. There was a bed with flowers, mainly tulips. Japanese love tulips! Whenever there is a bed of planted flowers, they are all tulips or main tulips. It might be because of the colours!

By the side of the park there is the Meji shrine. I wouldn't really recommend unless you were really fans of Emperor Meiji. Although big and well constructed, it was built in 1920 and it lacks the caracter of the older shrines. The most interesting thing in the shrine are the donations of the baskets of sake and of barrels of Bourgogne wine to the shrine.

Manuel wanted to see all of Tokyo's towers so we went looking for Tokyo Tower in the afternoon. It is modelled on the Tour Eiffel in Paris and it sure has a similar look at 333m high. It is pretty but not high enough to justify the price of going up (top viewing platform is at 250m  altitude). There are also many constructions around so the likelihood of the view being restricted is high. We'd rather save the money for the Skytree. 

The length of the trip is taking the toll. We are feeling tired very easily. It's also true we walk a lot and that doesn't help. In Tokyo we are making the most of our JR Japan Pass and taking the JR train lines only and walking from then on, which is doable as there seems to be a JR station in the major touristic spots.

We went back to the Hilton to check out the room as we were curious. When I was booking the accomodations, I managed to convince the boys to stay in the Hilton as I kept the overall accomodation budget below expected and hence asked for a bit of luxury in Tokyo. Also, I really wanted to have a room with a view of skyscrapers. So I was hopefull!

The room wasn't spectacular, it was good, but the view did not disappoint. We were happy!

Manuel decided to stay in the room and have his beloved pot noodles, me and Jorge followed an englishman's advice to have dinner at Kagaya restaurant, in Shimbashi.

Kagaya is in a basement, managed completely by one man. This is a one-man show and he is known for being the frogman. He provides food and entertainment. 

Let's just start by saying that the food menu is fun but the food itself is awful. Consisting mainly on boiled/steamed vegetables, the worst quality tofu we had so far in Japan and smoked fish. I forced myself to swallow dinner. Food is definetely not a strong!

There was a table with french tourists and a couple of tables of locals and before we left another 2 groups of locals arrived. They all seemed to be very entertained and laughter was easy.

Warm hand towels were delivered by a big Anpanman. Laughter. We had to order our menu singing. Embarrassment and laughter. We chose a country from a list and the drinks were delivered with an impersonation of a native of that country. We chose China and got a complete chinese man with a long tress and kung-fu moves. Weird. I ordered plum liquor which was delivered by a pot in the shape of a pissing boy to the sounds of the frogman having an orgasm. Laughter. I had to rub the boy's penis. Embarrassment and laughter.

This routine was repeated everytime there were new clients arriving. There was a request for France twice and I was expecting different routines. My expectations were too high! Both times a french painter was depicted and a face sketch of the ladies of the party was delivered. The one below is mine. He has basic skills, they all looked similar.

The check was also presented by a toy, usually of an obscene nature. Ours was a   bull with an erected penis!

It felt like he spoke a lot more with the locals and the jokes didn't seem of a sexual nature all the time. It might be that language is a barrier and he is limited to sexual themes. It could also be that he thinks foreigners are all perverts!

It would be expected that in a 4 weeks trip some bad experiences are to be had. I left the restaurant sick and would not recommend anyone to go there. It is expensive and not worth the money.

On the way home we saw a (young) drunk man being helped into a cab. He had pissed his pants and the taxi driver didn't look happy!