Random Musings from Hiroshima

 Food, Japan, Travel  Comments Off on Random Musings from Hiroshima
Oct 302007
 

I managed to snatch dinner before they could snatch it back out of my hands. Department stores just up and close at the drop of a hat. And they have confusing hours. For example, the food stores in the basement close at 8 p.m. The main stores close at 8 p.m. The book store closes at 9 p.m. The restaurants close at 11 p.m., but stop taking orders at 10 p.m.

Make sure you read the hours before you go in. Great advice I should probably take myself.

I managed to find a soft sandwich and some pastry at 7:59:59 p.m., and then didn’t have time to find anything but water to drink with it.

I came back to the hotel to do laundry… to find out it’s too late to finish it all. A vast faceless conspiracy moves against me! Apparently laundry hours stop at 10 p.m., when they unplug the machines. Fair enough. If my room was next to the laundry, I’d want that service as well.

My dentist e-mailed me back. He said to go buy an emery board and file down the annoying bits until he could fix it properly, but not to file off too much. Ah, the joys of travel.

It is pretty cool that he replied to my e-mail that quickly. Right now I’m 7,000 miles away from his very comfortable dentist’s chair. (Dr. Saib has great chairs, and knows how to take care of a patient!)

I’m going to go to Fukuoka/Hakata next for a day and check things out. I found a cheap Comfort Inn there. 5,400 yen with my AAA discount. I saved 600 yen off of their regular rack rate.

Too bad I can’t use Comfort Inn when I’m in Tokyo. They have a pretty nice chain of hotels with very reasonable rates, and I can use the English website in the US to set everything up. That’s really handy.

From Nara to Hiroshima

 Japan, Photos, Travel  Comments Off on From Nara to Hiroshima
Oct 302007
 

Chipped Teeth on Rye.

I made it to Hiroshima just now. And I somehow managed to chip one of my teeth on a sandwich.

A sandwich.

A soft, chewy, delicious sandwich.

Dammit.

Now I’ve got this rough spot on my teeth that I can’t stop rubbing with my tongue. So now my tongue is sore. The tooth doesn’t hurt at all.

Getting from Nara to Hiroshima

The travel details are probably dull, but I’ll go over them anyway. I left Nara at about 11:30, got to Kyoto at 12:30, chipped my tooth at Isetan in Kyoto at 1:00, hopped on the shinkansen to Okayama at 1:21, changed trains to the RailStar at Okayama at 2:45, and arrived in Hiroshima at 3:36.

The Railstar trains are nice. It’s 2×2 seating, just like the Green Cars on the Tokaido shinkansen. I haven’t ridden in any Green Cars at all. (Green Cars are the first class section of the shinkansen.) I got the regular JR Pass to save $200, and I can reserve seats just fine. Also, the seats are pretty roomy and comfortable in the regular reserved cars.

When I got to Hiroshima, I wandered around the area a bit trying to get to my hotel.

And here’s a travel tip for those of you thinking about going to Japan– if the brochure says it takes X minutes from M Station, then take X and multiply it by the two times the number of bags you’re carrying. I’ve got 3 bags, technically, so it took me 6 minutes to find the hotel 1 minute away from the station. If it’s not near the station, I strongly recommend a cab if you have heavy bags. This place is right by the station, so no cab was needed. But in other places, it’s worth it to spend 1,000-1,500 yen on a cab to save your precious time and sanity.

Big View from a Small Room

I have a wonderful view here– I’m about 10 stories up, right by the river in front of JR Hiroshima Station. But I’m in the tiniest room ever. It does have some nice amenities but it’s tiny as all get-out. Hotel Kawashima, 6,300 yen a night, and the rooms have everything you need, except space. And it smells a little bit like men’s hair care products.

Photos!

This is probably the smallest hotel room yet for me (pardon the mess):

The Hotels Keep Getting Smaller...

But the view is pretty cool. Just don’t fall out of the window!

View from my hotel window

Tomorrow I’ll try to see the Peace Park and visit Miyajima in one day because that’s all the time I have here. I’m going to scope out some places on the Internet and see if I can find a comfy room for Thursday Night that will help me forget my tooth for a while.

Speaking of which, does anyone know how to say Dental Wax in Japanese?

At least my dentist has e-mail. Maybe he’ll get back to me sometime tonight or early tomorrow with some ideas.

I’m a little woozy, too. Probably another migraine, or something like that.

Oh, and chocolate coronets are fun to eat. Something  else I learned at Isetan.

Tonight, I’m just going to relax in my room and get some food at the department store. I’m sure I can find one.

I hope I don’t break any more teeth.

Rub-a-dub

 Japan, Travel  Comments Off on Rub-a-dub
Oct 302007
 

I figured I would mention this while I could still remember it. I just went down to the baths in the basement of the hotel. Okay, you know how you always hear, “Be careful, the baths in Japan are really hot!” you may be tempted to think, “Yeah, right.” At least I did.

Until now.

Man, those baths are hot. I started off by sitting on a little stool and washing myself with soap and water, because I’m probably dirty and I probably stink. And even if I don’t, that other guy probably does, and I don’t want to share water with him.

So I washed.

Then I went into the first pool. It’s plain scalding hot water that just kind of boils me alive.

After a minute or two, if you don’t die from shock, you’ll start to relax and it feels really good.

Then before I could see the Tunnel of Light, I got out and moved to the next bath. This one is slightly less scalding than the first one, but it’s still really hot. But this bath is better, because it has bubbles in it. And by bubbles, I mean lots and lots of bubbles. It feels really good, sort of like being in a soft drink someone left sitting in the car in the middle of summer. And now since I’m used to being scalded, it’s not so bad.

The next pool is a little evil, but it was awesome in its own right. It’s a small pool full of ice cold water.

Here’s where I commit my major bath faux pas.

I plunged in like a dork. Then I jumped right out when I realized that apparently you’re only supposed to scoop the water out over you, not dive in. Oops. I felt kind of bad about that. Oh well, making mistakes is part of being human.

Embarrassment aside, the cold water felt good, because this hotel also doesn’t have its A/C running anymore.

The last pool is actually sort of like a pool. It’s deep enough where you can walk around in it, and the water comes up to mid-chest on a tall guy. This one isn’t so cold, but it just feels good.

Then into the sauna! Freaking insanely HOT sauna. What’s that smoke you’re smelling? That’s probably you. You might want to do something about that. You’re starting to render. The Japanese guy who was showing me the ropes just laughed at me. I lasted 3 minutes tops in there. I went back to the various pools for a while, then got out.

And don’t forget to bring change, because the machine outside sells cold drinks. (I forgot.) Then again, where would I put it in my yukata? (Yukatas are nice, too. Very comfortable. Sort of a plain cotton bathrobe thing.)

I could also tell you about the lady coming out of the baths that I held the elevator door open for. When she saw a big goofy foreigner, I think it really threw her off. She thanked me for holding the door open, then promptly went to her corner of the elevator to stare at the … well … corner.

Being a foreigner here is fun sometimes, but I can see how that might get old after a while.

After this, I don’t see the need to go to Beppu. They only have pools of really scalding hot water, and I’ve already done that. It’s nice, but not travel-for-3-hours-each-way nice. I’ll either add another night in Hiroshima or Osaka.

Anyway, I’m done with Nara for now, so it’s on to Hiroshima.

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