Yesterday was our first "real" day in Japan, meaning we woke up there, and slept there, so we had an entire 24 hours. And I am happy to report that the "adventure" part of this trip has finally begun.
The day began innocently enough. We woke up early (I swear to you that the sun rises here at 5 a.m.), spent another hour in a loooong queue for breakfast, shoveled down a strange breakfast of soupy eggs, fish cakes and french toast in under 10 minutes and made it to the station with time to spare for our 8:10 train to Kyoto.
This was a good thing, because I hadn't had the luck of procuring a coffee yet, and was hoping to grab one at the station. But sadly, none to be found, so like the good sport I am, I shrugged it off and made my way down to the platform with the others, wondering if tossing back a couple of Excedrin might count as caffeine intake.
I needn't have worried. Thanks to fancy Japanese vending machines, I got a nice hot coffee, served conveniently in a tin can, already creamed and sugared.
See? Sophie figured out that blue drinks are cold, and orange drinks are hot, so I got a nice, hot caffe latte. Score! This is going to be super useful on this trip.
We then boarded a train for Kyoto where we spent a great day window shopping, feeding monkeys and admiring a bamboo forest. All very nice. Fine. More on that later. I want to get to the juicy part. The part where we have to get from Kyoto to our rented house, and all hell breaks loose.
First of all, you need to understand that it is verrry difficult to move 15 people as a group. Especially in a crowded, tourist-filled city. The kids run off and photobomb unsuspecting tourists.
People stop to shop (me).
Or, people just get lost. Actually, the Trump hats have been super useful, as you can spot those red hats through a sea of people. But I digress. Either way, my point is that it takes hours to move our group from Point A to Point B, and by the end of the day, we are all tired, cranky, and in bad need of Sapporos and a foot massage.
It was especially like that on our first night, since many of us were quite jet-lagged. Still, we were all really looking forward to our rented house, and we had big plans to get take out and large amounts of alcohol, and settle in for a fun night.
We knew our AirBnB was going to be hard to get to, because it was literally the last place left. Since it's high season in Japan (cherry blossoms), everything was booked up. We figured that since the house was a 15 minute walk from the train station, we'd rent a car so someone could drive with all of our luggage, and the rest of us would walk. Marco being Marco (for him, the crazier the driving, the better), he volunteered to drive. The rest of us hunkered down for the hike to the house.
Now keep in mind, we are severely jet-lagged. We've walked miles and miles all day, and we had to make do with snacks we could purchase from street vendors for lunch. The kids are cold and cranky, but we keep telling them that soon they can run around and we'll get sone awesome take out. It keeps our spirits up.
And when we finally arrive at the house, we are so excited. It's HUGE! It's a traditional ryokan style house all lit up with beautiful gardens, and parked there in the driveway is Marco, with all our luggage. This is going to be great!! We run for the door. And step inside, only to see this:
Now shoes are scattered all over the floor, because in Japan, you have to take your shoes off before stepping inside. You actually have to put on slippers, which you also take off before stepping onto the tatami mats in the bedrooms. But I digress. The point is: if we have rented this house, why are there shoes everywhere?
Because apparently, we aren't the only ones who rented it. Apparently, it's actually more of a...fancy youth hostel.
There is no common area.
No place for us to "hang out."
No kitchen for our use or dining table for take out. All we have are 3 bedrooms that look like this:
"Where are the beds?" you may ask. And I'm glad you did. Why, they're those piles of blankets on the floors. Which are futons, actually. Only I use that term loosely.
So ok! No beds either.
And how about the bathroom situation?
Those of you who spoke with me before I left might remember how obsessed I was about the bathroom situation. After all, we're a group of 15 people, and I have a tough time sharing a bathroom with one person, let alone 14 others. I'd read in the AirBnB description that this place had 4.5 bathrooms. That was going to be great for our group, but now our group had expanded to include...how many people? 2? 10? 40?
Twelve, as it turns out. My heart sank. All of a sudden we had to worry about our kids being quiet for the other guests. Had no place other than our rooms to congregate, and I was DEFINITELY going to have bathroom issues. Thank God I'd gotten that leg wax!! (a story for another time).
But, it's only Day Two and we're all being troopers, so we divide up the group, putting 2 couples in one room, 2 in another, and all the kids in the 3rd room. By this time, it's 8:00 at night, and we realize a few things.
1) we haven't eaten in hours
2) we walked a long way from the station and saw no stores or restaurants
3) given the situation at the house, we'll need to go out to eat
But like I said, we're actually a long way from civilization, and we only have one car, which seats 7. It's dark, it's cold...and it's late. But at least the kids need to be fed.
Our host's name is Tony, and since he's not just the owner of the house, but actually the proprietor of this...hotel?? We decide to ask him.
Tony is happy to take half of us to the local restaurant (apparently there is only one), but he'll only drop us off, not pick us up later. What to do...what to do. Well, hell. We'll figure that out when the time comes.
So we shove 8 or 9 people into our van, and another 6 or so + Tony into his sedan, and make our way to the restaurant. He drops us off and drives away, and we park and head in. Only we can't head in, because there's a line. Out. The. Door.
I want to cry.
It's now after 9. My jetlag is so bad that I feel like my head is swimming in jello. The kids look like they just want to lie down on the floor...we're all in an overall state of being plain busted. But here we are, so we write down our name and party size, trying to explain through hand gestures that we can split up our group in the name of being seated faster.
"One hour" they say.
One hour. And the place is so teeming with people that there is nowhere to sit. Luckily, this place seems to be a bit of a Japanese Cracker Barrel, so we (mostly me) amuse ourselves a bit trying to understand what the merchandise is for.
For instance, there were several items plastered with a character who appears to be a sort of yellow blob with a face, butt and legs, who may actually be an egg yolk. I actually just looked this up, and it seems to be a Hello Kitty character named Gudetama. Read more here.
Anyway, entertainment or not, our feet were killing us, we were crazy tired, and this was nearly the last straw. And I'm going to skip the rest of the restaurant fiasco except to say that we finally did get seated in 2 groups, had whatever was left in their kitchen, which for us consisted of some tempura, the last of the fries, and some dumplings. Oh and beer. That had to happen. Lots of beer.
The last straw actually came when we got back home. And how did we get back home without the trusty Tony to drive half of us? Why, by piling all 15 of us into the minivan, of course. 3 in the front, 6 in the middle, 4 in the back, and 2 in the luggage compartment. Easy.
We all found that situation quite hilarious, and we were ready to pass out on our futons for the night, when we realized: it's cold! Strange...we seem to be inside, but it feels like outside. Wait a minute...where's the heat?? Were we going to have to freeze all night too??
Luckily, rooms 1 and 3 had some devices on the walls that a remote full of only Japanese characters seemed to turn on and provide some warmth. Room 2, though, where the 7 kids were bunking, had nothing, and it was ice cold. And I'm getting exhausted just recounting this story, but suffice to say that more charades led to Tony procuring us a dangerous-looking space heater for their room. So we had some relief from the icy cold of the house...until my heater stopped working somewhere around 3 am, and I woke up to see my own breath.
So to recap:
-rented house in the middle of nowhere
-rented house not really rented for just us
-no kitchen, no beds, few showers
-hours-long wait for food
-an icy cold night
So, first day was great. First night....not so great. But this is the stuff that makes blogs fun!! I do it all for you. :)
Sayonara for now.
People stop to shop (me).
Or, people just get lost. Actually, the Trump hats have been super useful, as you can spot those red hats through a sea of people. But I digress. Either way, my point is that it takes hours to move our group from Point A to Point B, and by the end of the day, we are all tired, cranky, and in bad need of Sapporos and a foot massage.
It was especially like that on our first night, since many of us were quite jet-lagged. Still, we were all really looking forward to our rented house, and we had big plans to get take out and large amounts of alcohol, and settle in for a fun night.
We knew our AirBnB was going to be hard to get to, because it was literally the last place left. Since it's high season in Japan (cherry blossoms), everything was booked up. We figured that since the house was a 15 minute walk from the train station, we'd rent a car so someone could drive with all of our luggage, and the rest of us would walk. Marco being Marco (for him, the crazier the driving, the better), he volunteered to drive. The rest of us hunkered down for the hike to the house.
Now keep in mind, we are severely jet-lagged. We've walked miles and miles all day, and we had to make do with snacks we could purchase from street vendors for lunch. The kids are cold and cranky, but we keep telling them that soon they can run around and we'll get sone awesome take out. It keeps our spirits up.
And when we finally arrive at the house, we are so excited. It's HUGE! It's a traditional ryokan style house all lit up with beautiful gardens, and parked there in the driveway is Marco, with all our luggage. This is going to be great!! We run for the door. And step inside, only to see this:
Now shoes are scattered all over the floor, because in Japan, you have to take your shoes off before stepping inside. You actually have to put on slippers, which you also take off before stepping onto the tatami mats in the bedrooms. But I digress. The point is: if we have rented this house, why are there shoes everywhere?
Because apparently, we aren't the only ones who rented it. Apparently, it's actually more of a...fancy youth hostel.
There is no common area.
No place for us to "hang out."
No kitchen for our use or dining table for take out. All we have are 3 bedrooms that look like this:
"Where are the beds?" you may ask. And I'm glad you did. Why, they're those piles of blankets on the floors. Which are futons, actually. Only I use that term loosely.
So ok! No beds either.
And how about the bathroom situation?
Those of you who spoke with me before I left might remember how obsessed I was about the bathroom situation. After all, we're a group of 15 people, and I have a tough time sharing a bathroom with one person, let alone 14 others. I'd read in the AirBnB description that this place had 4.5 bathrooms. That was going to be great for our group, but now our group had expanded to include...how many people? 2? 10? 40?
Twelve, as it turns out. My heart sank. All of a sudden we had to worry about our kids being quiet for the other guests. Had no place other than our rooms to congregate, and I was DEFINITELY going to have bathroom issues. Thank God I'd gotten that leg wax!! (a story for another time).
But, it's only Day Two and we're all being troopers, so we divide up the group, putting 2 couples in one room, 2 in another, and all the kids in the 3rd room. By this time, it's 8:00 at night, and we realize a few things.
1) we haven't eaten in hours
2) we walked a long way from the station and saw no stores or restaurants
3) given the situation at the house, we'll need to go out to eat
But like I said, we're actually a long way from civilization, and we only have one car, which seats 7. It's dark, it's cold...and it's late. But at least the kids need to be fed.
Our host's name is Tony, and since he's not just the owner of the house, but actually the proprietor of this...hotel?? We decide to ask him.
Tony is happy to take half of us to the local restaurant (apparently there is only one), but he'll only drop us off, not pick us up later. What to do...what to do. Well, hell. We'll figure that out when the time comes.
So we shove 8 or 9 people into our van, and another 6 or so + Tony into his sedan, and make our way to the restaurant. He drops us off and drives away, and we park and head in. Only we can't head in, because there's a line. Out. The. Door.
I want to cry.
It's now after 9. My jetlag is so bad that I feel like my head is swimming in jello. The kids look like they just want to lie down on the floor...we're all in an overall state of being plain busted. But here we are, so we write down our name and party size, trying to explain through hand gestures that we can split up our group in the name of being seated faster.
"One hour" they say.
One hour. And the place is so teeming with people that there is nowhere to sit. Luckily, this place seems to be a bit of a Japanese Cracker Barrel, so we (mostly me) amuse ourselves a bit trying to understand what the merchandise is for.
For instance, there were several items plastered with a character who appears to be a sort of yellow blob with a face, butt and legs, who may actually be an egg yolk. I actually just looked this up, and it seems to be a Hello Kitty character named Gudetama. Read more here.
Anyway, entertainment or not, our feet were killing us, we were crazy tired, and this was nearly the last straw. And I'm going to skip the rest of the restaurant fiasco except to say that we finally did get seated in 2 groups, had whatever was left in their kitchen, which for us consisted of some tempura, the last of the fries, and some dumplings. Oh and beer. That had to happen. Lots of beer.
The last straw actually came when we got back home. And how did we get back home without the trusty Tony to drive half of us? Why, by piling all 15 of us into the minivan, of course. 3 in the front, 6 in the middle, 4 in the back, and 2 in the luggage compartment. Easy.
We all found that situation quite hilarious, and we were ready to pass out on our futons for the night, when we realized: it's cold! Strange...we seem to be inside, but it feels like outside. Wait a minute...where's the heat?? Were we going to have to freeze all night too??
Luckily, rooms 1 and 3 had some devices on the walls that a remote full of only Japanese characters seemed to turn on and provide some warmth. Room 2, though, where the 7 kids were bunking, had nothing, and it was ice cold. And I'm getting exhausted just recounting this story, but suffice to say that more charades led to Tony procuring us a dangerous-looking space heater for their room. So we had some relief from the icy cold of the house...until my heater stopped working somewhere around 3 am, and I woke up to see my own breath.
So to recap:
-rented house in the middle of nowhere
-rented house not really rented for just us
-no kitchen, no beds, few showers
-hours-long wait for food
-an icy cold night
So, first day was great. First night....not so great. But this is the stuff that makes blogs fun!! I do it all for you. :)
Sayonara for now.
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