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| Japanese house party |
We have just had
probably the best 48 hours of our whole trip and to round it off I am
typing this sat in my little capsule in our wonderful capsule hostel
in Tokyo.
The fun started on
Saturday night, when, after a long day travelling back to Tokyo from
the Alps, we were met at the train station by our lovely friend
Yoshie whom we met in New Zealand. She came to collect us to take us
back to her sister's flat in Yokohama (just outside of Tokyo), where
we were to spend the night. We got to the flat and were met at the
door by a group of young, welcoming Japanese people (Yoshie's friends
and family) who were all smiling and eager to meet us. As we walked
through the door and took our shoes off, they were all taking photos
of us and each one shook our hand in turn and said hello in English.
Most of don't speak English, so practising with us that night was a
big deal for them. We went into the lounge, where they had prepared a
feast for us, with a low table and mats on the floor to sit on. It
was really cute. Everything we had told Yoshie in NZ, she had
remembered and they had tailored the meal exactly to our tastes. They
had made pasta bake with two little flags in it (Japan and UK), a
ginger pork dish, a cold pasta dish, and sushi (with no raw fish,
because Yoshie had remembered that we weren't keen on 'law fish').
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| Pasta bake |
It
was overwhelming. They kept the alcohol flowing all night (champagne,
wine and beer) and they were the friendliest people I have ever met.
We brought them a little present (as we were advised this is the
custom in Japan). We gave them some cherry blossom sweets from Kyoto
and they gave me a box of chocolates (Yoshie had remembered that I am
chocolate mad) and they gave Jemma (or German, as they thought her
name was) a Japanese fan. They were all so friendly and eager to
practise their English. We felt really at ease because everybody was
so laid back and friendly. I think Jemma had built it up a little in
her head and was worried she might commit some cultural faux pas, but
they were all so young and easy going, we really had nothing to worry
about. We chatted and laughed the whole night, with new dishes and
drinks being brought out all the time and at one point, they even
brought out the ingredients for making sushi and let us have a go at
making our own. It was a really brilliant night and we were stuffed
by the end of it. At the end of the night, Yoshie's sister ran me an
onsen, and I committed the only cultural error of the night (as far
as we know), by having a bath in it and washing my hair, when it was
actually meant to be shared by the whole house. We all laughed about
it in the end, but I can just remember starting to wash my hair with
shampoo in the bath and then remembering something I had read in the
lonely planet about Japanese families having onsens and that you
should never pull the plug. What I should have done was had a shower
first and then got in the onsen, and then everyone else would have
done the same. I think this is the biggest cultural difference
between the UK and Japan! Jemma and I slept with Yoshie in the spare
room on a traditional Tatami Japanese floor and some of the other
friends also stayed the night.
The next day, we got
up, had some hot chocolate/ tea and then they took us out to see
Yokohama and to have sushi for brunch. They took us to the best sushi
bar I have ever been to – it was so cheap and the conveyor belt was
huge! I tried all kinds of sushi, including raw squid, which nearly
made me sick, but I eventually managed to swallow it. Jemma was not
so successful.
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| Yokohama harbour |
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| At the sushi restaurant |
After brunch, we took a
sightseeing boat across Yokohama harbour and Yoshie's brother-in-law
kindly paid. We walked all around the harbour, looking at the big
cruise ships that were docked there and watching the entertainment.
It was like a much bigger version of Cardiff bay! We then stopped at
a little park for coffee and took the train back to Yoshie's sister's
flat, where we said our farewells, before heading back to Tokyo to
meet our friends from Kyoto for a night out.
It took us about an
hour to get across Tokyo to the hostel that we had booked on
hostelworld. We booked it because it was surprisingly cheap for
Tokyo, and I can now confirm, that you definitely get what you paid
for. As soon as we saw it, I was doubtful. Not only was it a hefty
train ride from the centre of Tokyo, but it also looked like a little
shack from the outside. We were in such a rush to dump our bags and
check-in before meeting our friends Emily and Sandra, that luckily I
didn't have time to take it all in properly. The bedroom was the
biggest disgrace of a bedroom I have ever seen in my life. It has to
be seen to be believed! I would not put my dog in there! Luckily we
had only booked for one night and I had visions of us coming in,
numbed enough by alcohol not to be bothered by it, but my god, it was
not fit for human living. I am sure there must be a law against
squashing that many people into such a small space. The bunks were
pushed so close together, you had to turn sideways to walk between
them. There was no space for bags, and if you were unlucky enough to
be on the 3rd tier, you had to climb over 2 peoples heads
(no ladders to get in). It was pure squalor and I am horrified that
it has such high ratings on hostelworld. I think the owner must have
dodgy dealings going on somewhere because there is not one single bad
review on hostelworld! Suspiciously, it is also not listed on Trip
advisor, which should cause some alarm bells to ring, but as we were
literally just dropping our bags then racing out to see our friends,
I didn't have time to think too much about it.
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| Worst hostel ever |
We dropped our bags in
the 'luggage room' (cupboard) and raced out to meet Emily and Sandra
at an agreed place. The four of us then went to the best restaurant I
have ever been to! An all you-can-drink Izakaya! The deal is, you sit
at the table, and have a little computer screen, where you can order
an unlimited number of drinks (any drink you want – alcohol, soft
drink, milk shakes... you name it). You have the table for 3 hours
and during this time, everyone also has to order and least two items
of food off the menu. For this, you pay about £20! Incredible value!
If this existed in the UK, it would go out of business on opening
night, but as the Japanese can't drink much, these fantastic
establishments exist all over Tokyo. We ordered a load of dishes to
share: pizza, chips. Yakitori (chicken on skewers) etc. And we drank
till we were merry. As Jemma put it, she drank a whiskey drink, she
drank a lager drink, she drank a cider drink, she drank a vodka
drink. I think she also drank every other drink on the menu,
including to tropical Japanese varieties. I just stuck to wine and
cocktails.
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| At the Izakaya |
By the end, we were very merry, and left the restaurant to
go into the games arcade next door, where we played on Table Flip. A
computer game, where the only aim is to flip a table in a restaurant
so that the drinks go all over everybody! We then played some
drumming games, and had our photos taken in one of those booths that
Japanese girls love where you can add fake eyelashes and glasses etc
to yourself. It was the most amazing fun ever. By this point, Jemma
and Emily were very drunk and were keen on catching the last train
back to the student area where Emily and Sandra live, to spend a
couple more hours in a karaoke booth, and then we could crash for a
few hours at theirs before catching an early train back to our hostel
to check out. We found the karaoke booth, and again, it was pay a sum
(~£22) and drink all you like for 2 hours whilst singing karaoke in
the booth. It was one of the best nights out I have ever had in my
life and I am so glad we got to experience a real Japanese karaoke
booth. It really is a fun way to spend a night. After two hours of
singing (or squawking), I wanted to carry on, but they were all
tired, so we stumbled back to the student halls, where I slept on a
mat on Sandra's floor and Jemma slept on Emily's floor. It was about
3am by the time we went to sleep.
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| Photobooth fun |
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| Karaoke |
At 8am, we had to leave to catch a
number of different trains back to our hostel. This was not the
easiest of tasks on a hangover, in fact, if you knew what the Tokyo
subway was like, you would probably find it like something out of a
comedy sketch. 2 hours later(!) we finally got to the horrible
hostel, where we scooped up our bags from where we had left them,
used the toilet facilities, and then made a sharp exit. Another 2
hours later, we were at our new hostel, where we were told that
check-in was not until 4pm. So we went to Burger king and then slept
in the lounge, before checking into our cosy little, clean capsule
dorm (same company as the excellent hostel we stayed in in Kyoto).
What a fantastic 48 hours.
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| New cool capsule hostel in Tokyo |
Photos: Best 48 hours ever
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