After a big night at the Jamaican festival on Sunday, we were a little worse for wear come Monday morning and decided to take it easy for the day. What does one do when taking it easy in Tokyo, we hear you ask?? Go look at electronics and Manga porn of course! Luckily, we were staying quite close to Akihabara, a district of Toyko that specialises in both electronics AND manga porn! Sweet!
Seriously who gets off on cartoons?It was in Akihabara that we met someone... someone who has become very dear to us and accompanies us everywhere.
Mum, Dad, meet Phil.
Hey TherePhil jumped out at us in a variety shop and we knew instantly that Phil was our perfect travel companion. Small, squishy and with a dashing 'tash to boot, we couldn't leave the store without him (although after purchasing our little man, we did see some rather unsavoury posters on the back wall of the shop, of girls who may not have been quite old enough to be posing in such a way... if you get our drift - yuck.)
On Tuesday we spent the day watching fat men in g-strings slapping and pushing each other. Fact.
On Tuesday we spent the day watching fat men in g-strings slapping and pushing each other. Fact.
Fat men in g-stringsIf you haven't cottoned on yet, we spent the day at a Sumo tournament... which was pretty cool... and wobbly.
That night we caught the night bus to Kyoto... wow. The midnight express complete with a 30 minute bed-time story from the bus driver... seriously. Although we have no idea what he was actually saying over the PA system, we imagined it to be a detailed history of his life as there is no bus-related information that could possibly take that long to convey to the passengers! Aside from the driver with verbal diarrhoea, the journey was fairly painless and we arrived in Kyoto early Wednesday morning.
Tired and in need of a good shower, we made our way to our hostel.... it was crap.
We have 5 suggestions for improvement for the crappiest hostel in Kyoto...
1) In order to qualify as a hostel, it helps if you have actual guests and staff who are at least sometimes in the building.
2) Locks on doors are good things...but there were none of these to be seen- including the front door. Coupled with the issue raised in the previous point AND the absence of lockers, you may find theft an issue in the future.
3) Showers should not have bugs in them.
4) While it is honourable that you have an English school attached to your 'hostel', if you want it to be successful, we recommend you refrain from using advertising phrases such as "Let's study English with us!" We also suggest you get a few students.
5) You shouldn't advertise for things you do not possess. For example, "New Building" would imply a structure built post 1973. "Internet access" would imply you have the internet and that guests would have access to it. "Laundry service" does not mean guests should have to wash their undies in the shower or walk 20 minutes to the nearest laundromat. "Bicycle rental" would suggest you actually have a bike to rent... but what does that matter?? There was never anyone at reception to deal with any of this anyway!
Sadly we'd booked at this hostel for 2 nights online, so to avoid loosing a lot of money, we needed to endure the bugs and the creepiness of the cemetery across the road for a few nights. Fear not though - we got ours back.... we penned a strongly worded post-it note that sure showed them! If anyone ever came to reception that is.
That night we caught the night bus to Kyoto... wow. The midnight express complete with a 30 minute bed-time story from the bus driver... seriously. Although we have no idea what he was actually saying over the PA system, we imagined it to be a detailed history of his life as there is no bus-related information that could possibly take that long to convey to the passengers! Aside from the driver with verbal diarrhoea, the journey was fairly painless and we arrived in Kyoto early Wednesday morning.
Tired and in need of a good shower, we made our way to our hostel.... it was crap.
We have 5 suggestions for improvement for the crappiest hostel in Kyoto...
1) In order to qualify as a hostel, it helps if you have actual guests and staff who are at least sometimes in the building.
2) Locks on doors are good things...but there were none of these to be seen- including the front door. Coupled with the issue raised in the previous point AND the absence of lockers, you may find theft an issue in the future.
3) Showers should not have bugs in them.
4) While it is honourable that you have an English school attached to your 'hostel', if you want it to be successful, we recommend you refrain from using advertising phrases such as "Let's study English with us!" We also suggest you get a few students.
5) You shouldn't advertise for things you do not possess. For example, "New Building" would imply a structure built post 1973. "Internet access" would imply you have the internet and that guests would have access to it. "Laundry service" does not mean guests should have to wash their undies in the shower or walk 20 minutes to the nearest laundromat. "Bicycle rental" would suggest you actually have a bike to rent... but what does that matter?? There was never anyone at reception to deal with any of this anyway!
Sadly we'd booked at this hostel for 2 nights online, so to avoid loosing a lot of money, we needed to endure the bugs and the creepiness of the cemetery across the road for a few nights. Fear not though - we got ours back.... we penned a strongly worded post-it note that sure showed them! If anyone ever came to reception that is.
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