Capsule Hotel

Day 18

We slept very well. I felt refreshed. Food, hot bath and a good night sleep was exactly what the doctor ordered.

Another onsen bath in the morning, shared with a big group of very talkative chinese women. Still no view to Mount Fuji. Still raining. It is ironic that there was no view from the two hotels I booked so that we could have priviledged views to Mount Sakurajima and Mount Fuji. This is not going well. I fear we might actually leave Japan without seeing the great Fuji...

Back to the ropeway, we continued the route to Togendai, on the shore of Lake Ashi (still too cloudy to see the surrounding mountains). There we got the sightseeing boat to the other side of the lake, Hakone-machi, which takes 40min.

There are two main atractions on this boat cruise: the boat itself and the view to Mount Fuji. The boat is a pirate-type boat so it is a good reason to take some extra photographs. The lake is alleged to have views to Mount Fuji and to have it's inverted reflexion on it's waters. The plan seemed good, obviously nothing could be seen. It was an enjoyable trip nevertheless.

From Hakone-machi we walked to Moto-Hakone. On the way we stoped at Hakone Sekisho, a reconstitution of an old checkpoint used during the Shogunate to inspect travellers on the road between Kyoto and Edo (actual Tokyo). The reconstitution is good but the  associated museum has no information in english.

A section of this ancient road between Kyoto and Edo can still be walked, being flanked by huge cedar trees believed to be 350 years old.

About an hour after we left the boat we arrived at Moto-Hakone, with sore legs and feet from carrying our heavy backpacks all the way. How funny does Manuel look in his poncho?

We hoped straight ino the bus that would take us to Odawara. We were lucky to get the bus within 5min of getting to Moto-Hakone. It is an hourly bus and it leaves on time. There were some tourists running for the bus but the driver didn't wait and they were left at the bus stop.

The trip to Odawara was supposed to take 40min but we think it took a lot less. There weren't many clients to get in and out of the bus, the route was downhill and the driver was enjoying the speed.

At Odawara station we found a big supermarket with the biggest variety of food we've seen so far. It had a counter for sushi, one for yakitori, one for fried nibbles, rice, fresh vegetables and fruit, meat, fish, sweets, bread... You name it, they had it. What a wonderfull place! Obviously that's where we bought lunch. One of the foods we found is a type of donut filled with bean paste (bola de berlim recheada com pasta de feijão), it is very good but the dough of the portuguese equivalent is better.

I was in bad need of a coffee so I bought a good latte with the thickest milk froth I have ever seen! Coffee lovers, I found a new temple: Excelsior Café.

We boarded our friend again: shinkansen Hikari. We are always travelling on the same train! Thirty minutrs later we arrived in Tokyo.

What a difference Tokyo is to other cities. Bigger, noisier, busier, people rushing and bumping into each other, rubbish in the floor. It sounds strange but it is true: there is barely NO rubbish in the streets of Japan. It's unbelievable! It's even more unbelievable when you realise there aren't any rubbish bins either!! If you ever come to Japan, make sure to carry an empty plastic bag with you to carry your own rubbish. You will probably walk miles before you find a rubbish bin! Most likely you will find none and you will have to leave your rubbish at the hotel.

Whilst looking for our accomodation I was left a bit behind by the boys. I didn't felt like walking faster. I could see them and that was enough not to get lost. I was approached by a nice lady who asked me the usual (where was I from, how long I was in Japan for, where was I staying in Tokyo, etc). As usual I was just thinking on how lovely the japanese are. That was until she said 'if you have time please come to my church'. What the hell!! Why am I always approached by religious people?!? Do I look like an heretic in need of redemption? The church of Our Lord the Saviour this time... With an 'I'm afraid I am not religious', I left the conversation quickly and speeded up to join the boys. It might be safer to stick with them.

A capsule hotel was our accomodation for the night. We had stayed in a capsule hostel in Fukuoka but this one was bigger. It took a while to find it as the main entrance was out of the main road, almost conceiled by a restaurant entrance.

The hotel has 6 floors: reception, lounge, 3 floors for men and only one floor for women. When I was planning the trip and looking for capsule hotels in Tokyo I realise how difficult it was to find one that accepted women. The majority are for men only and the ones that have facilities for women are booked up quite quickly. In Fukuoka the hostel had mixed dorms, in Tokyo they are segregated.

There are many differences between the male and female dorms however. Male dorms have capsules almost from the exit of the lift. I met at Jorge's floor shortly after midnight to pick up the water bottle I had forgotten in his bag and got scared to see the inside of the nearby capsules so well. I quickly jumped into the lift! Women's have a combination lock door after the lift for extra security. It gives us more peace of mind but it is not fair that the men aren't treated the same way.

Women have plenty of shelves in the floor to leave the bags. Men were told to leave their bags in a huge and messy pile of bags at Reception. I would be amazed if anyone could find their own bag and even more amazed if at least one bag a day wouldn't go walkabout. The boys were going to sleep with their bags!

Women's have a room on the floor with small lockers where you can keep your valuables. Men's had theirs on the floor where the baths were, not on the floor they slept.

Women's have toilets and showers in the same floor. Men's have toilets on the same floor but the communal baths are in one of the floors only. It is a commun sight to see a procession of men wearing (very short) blue pijamas up and down the lift. Women's also have what they call a powder room next to the shower and toilet area. It has the lavatories but also plenty of mirrors, hair dryers, cotton pads, cottonettes and other toiletries. Apparentely men only have basic toiletries.

The capsules however are exactly the same. They are less spacious than the ones in Fukuoka and Manuel barely fitted in it. So be advised if you are more than 1.80m heigh: you will not fit in the capsule! It has a blind instead of a door (it was a curtain in Fukuoka), a socket, a tv where I hit my head many a times, a radio that made some static whilst I charged my phone and a light. Pijama, towels and slipers provided.

     CAPSULE HOSTEL IN FUKUOKA

        CAPSULE HOTEL IN TOKYO

The lounge is on a separate floor and has plenty of tables and chairs, sofas, tv, vending mahines with drinks, food and tabaco, washing machine and phone chargers. There is also a space for 'day capsules'. We assume they might be for clients to sleep during the day, however there was no door so some level of noise can be expected. 

After exploring the hotel we started exploring Tokyo... in the rain... this was bound not to last long...

We decided to stay close to our accomodation, which is in Shinjuku. Actually, it is in Kabukicho, a part of Shinjuku known for being the Red Light District. Clubs, game arcades, busy streets, even with so much rain. 

We got into one of the games arcades to see how it was and it covers the whole building, each floor with a different type of game. There were old and new playing and it was very busy at that time of the night. It also had a floor to take cute photos with friends that you can costumize and are very popular in Japan, specially with girls: purikura.

Photos were not allowed inside, I managed to take a snicky one of this very informative sign. What do you make of it?

We found Shinjuku's electric street, full of shops with electrical stuff and lots of neons. 

We found these machines outside the shops where you can print your pictures from every device on the face of the planet. 

We got into one of these shops and, as in Hiroshima, it was the whole building with different appliances in each floor. I decided to pop into the beauty area to see what's new and found this below. Weird or not?!?

We walked a bit more but we were more soaked then dry so we decided to have dinner and call it a night. We found a pub and decided to have japanese tapas. 

On our way out we saw a completely drunk (middle aged) man being dragged out of the pub by his friend. Well, I say friend but it was the drunk paying the bill...