Hotel Review

At long last we get to our promised review of our accommodation's. These notes are taken from the complaints input of my fellow travelers. But they are filtered through me. So on to the data.

Fujita Hotel
city: Kyoto

Good:

Location. Right next to the river. Short walk from several major sites.
Great staff.
Best breakfast of any of the hotels we were at.
Nice rooms. Even with 3 shoehorned in.

Bad:

No internet in the rooms (I know...engineers. Still, everyone likes to check email) Computers are in the lobby - 2 - at 1000 yen for 10 minutes.
2 outlets in the room. And 1 was for the TV.
1000 yen TV cards
1 KEY per room (that's right, no cards)

Emus Business Hotel
Shin-Fuji

Good:

Price! about $50 a night. Cash only though.
Free wireless
Rooms were good for the price. Think Motel 6.
Roof access (view of Mt Fuji)

Bad:

Long walk from the station (not my complaint) and signs were in katakana.
1 Room smelled smoky (cigarettes)
Owner spoke no english (not a problem for us but...)

Takayama Best Western
Takayama

Good:

Great location
Good staff
Good Breakfast

Bad:

Spendy . Well over $100 each a night.
No exchange service (but post office nearby)
Staff spoke little/no english (Yes, I know this is Japan. Still, this is a tourist area)

Comfort Inn Hotel
Toyama

Good:

Location. Close to station.
Clean.
Staff (remembered us and our room numbers right away)

Bad:

1 card per room. With room number on it. (I mean it wasn't a disposable card)
Small rooms.
Pillows were horrible. Weird things about an inch thick...with instructions on how to use them. Still, for some unknown reason Mark liked them.
No exchange service. (in a business hotel? Come on...)

Manten Kanzawa
Kanazawa

Good:

Ummmm.....the Japanese bath on the second floor.
Good staff.

Bad:

Tiny rooms.
No exchange
Expensive breakfast...and POWDERED EGGS for gods sake.
Bit of a walk from the station

Rihga Royal
Kyoto

Good:

Best rooms. Especially at the price :)
Great Staff
Shuttle bus
Biggest tubs
Great location for travelers. (right next to the station)
Really good restaurant (Top of Kyoto) according to Jo. But expensive.

Bad:

1000 yen fee for most services (internet, pool, hot tub, etc...) I think they keep the room cost low but they do it by nickel and dimeing you for services.

So the verdicts are:

Best hotel - Rihga Royal
Best for price - Emus (really)
Stay away from - Manten

Could be better still - Fujita. And all it needs is a bit of moderizing. Like more outlets, wireless access, and keycard doorlocks. Other than that it was great.

So there you have it. That's the quick rundown on the hotels. We all liked the Rihga best. And I'd surely stay there again. If I wanted to be closer to the center of the city I'd probably use the Fujita again. But since I like to take day trips out of the station I prefer the Rihga.

Next post will be lessons learned - 2008 edition.

Home

Just a quick post to let you all know that we're home safely. I'll get the remainder up tomorrow.

Final day...almost

It's our last full day here. Today we decided to split up and go see whatever we wanted. Becky went to Himeji Ko-koen. Mark to the Philosophers walk. Jo went shopping. And I went to Arashiyama again.



I decided that I wanted to take the scenic "Romantic Train" of the Sagano Sight-seeing Tram. Why? Because it looked fun and it runs through the Hozu River gorge. So I bought a ticket and wandered around Arashiyama until train time.



So I got on the train. The seats were wood and not very comfortable. And what is it with ticketing? Half the car was empty and the other half was full. So we spread out and enjoyed the trip.



The gorge is a lot smaller that the one I'm used to. The Columbia is a bit bigger than the Hozu :)



And there are a lot fewer rapids on the Columbia as well.



So it was pretty cool to see the River boats shooting the rapids.



After that was a bit of shopping and then we all met at the station for dinner after Becky got back from Himeji.

So that will pretty much wrap up our trip. Tomorrow is mostly check out, final shopping, travel to the airport and fly home. Once we're back and have had a bit to recover I'll wrap up the trip with the Hotel review (I haven't forgotten) and a set of guidelines for those who might be traveling here in the near future.

See you all in the States :)

Bob

Final days

We're down to our final day and a half. Thank God! We're road weary, sore and are ready to come home :)

We decided to go easy today. The only places we went were to the Imperial Palace and to the Handicraft center. The Imperial Palace is a huge park that includes the Kyoto residence of the Emperor. Think of it as an upscale central park with Royalty. It was very nice and soothing.





From there we decided to get lunch. Yes we got a very late start today. The place we found is some kind of new chain. Kinda neat. Best food prices in town so far. And as an added bonus it was pretty good.



From there we decided to hit the Kyoto Handicraft center and do some last minute shopping.

Along the way we crossed over the Kano river. Guess what? The raptors are still there. I think we spent an hour watching them play along the river from the bridge.



A brief word about the Kyoto Handicraft center. They have some excellent items...and some real crap. (don't buy swords here, go across the street to Meirin or Tozando) The stuff is also a bit overpriced. Still, it's an easy way to pick up items at the last minute, and some of the stuff is pretty good. After a couple of hours there we split. Jo went to the hotel. I followed shortly thereafter. Becky and Mark went to see the Maiko dance at Shimogamo shrine. And ended up seeing part of the upcoming festival.

Funny thing was, they didn't get to see Maiko. But I did. There was one performing in the lobby when I got here. Now if my Iai was half as smooth as she was....

So here are the plans for the last days. Tomorrow we all go separate ways to see things we want to. Wednesday we get until noon before we head for the airport. Then it's homeward bound for us. I'll post tomorrow night and again sometime after we get back. And I recover enough to think :)

And before I forget. Jason, I'll get you directions to the shop that I picked up a Bizen-yaki Muzusashi for a hundred bucks when I get back ;)

Uji and Nara

Today we decided to take a light day and wander over to Uji. And if we felt like it we thought we might go over to Nara and see Todaiji as well.

So we hopped a local to Uji.



The main things for us here where Byodoin, tea shops and pottery. So we scouted out the tourist lady and headed out to Byodoin under gray skies. Fortunately this time it wasn't destined to rain all over me :)



It looks like we just missed the flowers. Still It's a beautiful place. We wandered around a bit taking photos and finally got to the Museum. Since the last time (2005) they've finished a restoration of the canopy over the Buddha inside the temple. There was an exhibit of how they did the intricate inlay of mother of pearl. Neat stuff.

Once we finished wandering about we headed across the river to visit a pottery shop. We found out that the potter is a Nat'l treasure. His stuff is exquisite....with a price to match. So, we went to lunch and decided to head over to Nara and see Todaiji.

Todaiji is located in a large park. That park is populated by temple deer. The deer have become habituated to man and the things will eat just about anything. Like toilet paper, clothing, passports, etc...



It's stuff like this that get tourists in our National Parks hurt and even killed every year. Wild animals are all too east for these folk to think of as what they have back home.

After we escaped the horde of locusts, we headed through the gate.



And arrived at the temple. To give you an idea of the size of this place, the ants at the bottom of the building are people. This is the largest free standing wooden structure in the world.



Inside the temple is the wooden statue of Buddha.



The scale: The thumb is approx. 5'high.

An interesting side note is in one of the pillars. There is a hole there carved to the size of one of the Buddhas nostril holes. It's said that going through this hole cleanses you of all sins (or something to that effect). Last time Mark was here he crawled through...barely. So in a fit of ... whatever, Mark decided to do it again. Even though he's older, and bigger. Well, see for yourself.





A VERY tight fit. But he made it...this time. Becky missed this turn of events so we had to explain it to her. The final explanation was along the lines of "Mark fit through a hole the size of the Buddhas nostril". And now all she can see whenever she looks at a picture of the statue is Mark coming out of the statues nostril like...well, you get the picture :)

After this we decided to call it a day and head back. Only to see this once we hit the gate.



Yup, a whole city blocks worth of kids. With about the same amount behind us. This is common during this time of year as the kids get to go to historical places for school.

After a harrowing escape ;) we started to wander back to the station. Only to find our way to a second hand store. Since none of us are capable of passing something like this up we went in. Somehow I don't think that the owners really understood all of what they had. I found a Bizen ware Mizu-hashi for 1/6th of the normal price. And that was only one of MANY things there. Now that I know where it is I'll be going back again next trip.

That'll be it for tonight. Tomorrow we'll be staying in town.

Happy Mothers day Mom.

Another rainy day...

Today's trip was to Iseshi. Well it was supposed to be.

The day started out by going to Nagoya and switching to the JR train to Iseshi. We ended up with a 1 hour layover (that we later found could have been avoided). The trip cost an additional 490 yen because the train uses another railways line for a bit.

Boy, I was really glad we planned for cold and rain. The farther we got from Nagoya the darker the clouds got. We ended up rolling through misty, rain shrouded hills. Wisps of clouds caught in the treetops as rain dimpled the streams and pods as we passed by. Everywhere we looked there were greening fields of newly planted rice.



And unfortunately for me the camera wants to auto-focus on the rain spotted glass instead of the afore mentioned scenery :)



After about 2 1/2 hours we arrived in Iseshi. Only to find out that to see the Pearl museum (Jo's destination of choice) we needed to be in Toba. 4 stops further on. The fun thing was that while we had half an hour to kill, there was a street market just a few yards from the station. So we wandered around a bit, were accosted by the local International society, and got some lunch. Then, off to Toba.

The place we were going to was Mikimoto Pearl Island. The basic story is that he was one of the first to set things up for the cultured pearl industry. And if you like pearls you'd be in heaven here. Any question you might have about how pearls are formed, found, etc... can be answered by someone here. The sheer amount of pearls on display is mind boggling. And there are tons on display...from 60 yen to over 36,000,000 yen (that's $360,000) for one the size of a Quail egg.

The other attraction here is the Ama.



Ama are the women who dive for oysters. Those of us who are old enough will remember them from Sea World. It was really cool to see them dive again. However, It is almost finished. Pearls are now cultured on rafts and no diving is required.

So, after the show we were at a loss for something to do until our train arrived. So we went to the Toba Aquarium. I'm not sure what I expected...but this place sure wasn't it. First it was huge. Second, the number of species that where on display was phenomenal. While the Monterey Bay Aquarium is one of the best, this place holds it's own. Not as nice or animal friendly. Still it really does a nice job.

A few of the things we got to see where:

Manatees



Leafy Sea Dragons



Cones



one of these



deep water specimens



and giant dinner..ummm...lobsters



We could easily have spent most of the day just in the aquarium. Still, we had to come "home". So on the trip we decided that tomorrow will be a trip to Uji.

Hiroshima and Himeji

We leave for Ise/Toba in a few so this will be short.

Yesterday we went to Hiroshima. Becky wanted to see the Peace park. There really isn't much I can say to those who haven't been there. Just go.



This trip has been full of surprises. When we arrived in Himeji it was really busy. We didn't think much of it until we hit the castle. It looked like a holiday. We found out that the National Sweets Exposition was being held there. Big crowds. I'm glad we got there late or we wouldn't have been able to move. The only disappointing note was that all of the big crowd barriers where in place so we couldn't wander freely. Still, it was a nice change from Hiroshima and everyones spirits were lifted.