All posts labelled as ‘The Lost Blogs” consists of draft original content from my travels over the past ten years or so, which for one reason or another (read: I never finished it), never made it to final publication. They are rough, clunky and unfinished, but the words were mine and they were (more or less) fresh from the experience. It’s the only way I think of to actually honour those memories, and bring them to the light of day. Of course if I really wanted to go them justice I should have finished them to begin with – let them be a constant reminder of my laziness, leading sadly to a glut of lost memories and a missed nostalgic memory. I’m also really annoyed at seeing them light up my ‘draft posts’ column every time I login.
So.
Last year, In 2012, I went to Japan, and let’s be very clear about this, IT WERE BRILLIANT. In fact it was one of the single best trips I had ever taken. Firstly, Japan is awesome. It’s vibrant and full of good food, it’s beautiful, the people are astonishingly polite, and there is so much care and thought put into everything. From the art of Washi (paper wrapping), to heated toilet seats, presentation and consideration is everything. Secondly, I happened to have one of the most kindest and selfless Japanese hosts I could ever have hoped to have. I mean, they’re meant to be super polite but she just went out of her way to help me. As a result, everything was a breeze and I got to eat and drink beautiful things I would never have done, or had the nerve to do, had she not accompanied me.
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| Thank you Mayumi! |
Since that trip, I have been back to Japan a couple times. Not once in all that time had I successfully completed a Japan blog post, despite the fact it’s one my favourite travel destinations just GENERALLY. As such, I’ve effectively forgone the minute memories of each individual trip (f-ck my lack of discipline in almost everything I attempt to start), but I can at least pay homage to a wonderful country and stitch together a patchwork of my experiences there through this clunky blog post.
My 2012 trip took the following itinerary. Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto, Osaka, Miyajima and Hiroshima. If I had more time, I would perhaps go north to Niigata and Nagoya, and south to Okinawa, but to be honest while vacaying for just over a week, the pace of the trip was perfect. The Japan Rail Pass, is also God’s gift to tourists. If you travel to more than two cities, it makes no sense NOT to get a rail pass, if not for the savings than for the sheer convenience of absent-mindedly just flashing a pass at someone, to get almost anywhere in Japan.
These pockets of recollection begin with the Capital, Tokyo. I flew in from Singapore on a horribly late flight, which gave me an excuse to bunk in the capsule hotel at Haneda Airport (First Cabin).
For the uninitiated, capsule hotels are basically space and cost saving inventions where you will rent out a small ‘room’ (a mattress in a gap, if we’re being honest), which will be huddled or packed together, occasionally stacked on top of each other. Think of it like a morgue, only warmer. The one at Haneda airport wasn’t quite so morbid – it sort of resembled an airplane cabin (huh, i guess that’s why it was called the ‘Cabin’), except where the seats would usually be, there were boxey storage unit like ‘rooms’ , with a pull down garage door-esque cover and no lock. Oh.
Given that there was a small lockable cabinet inside the unit (and I held onto my essential travel belongings for dear life during sleep), this was more amusing and novel than problematic. Everyone had perched their luggage outside their unit, simply because there was no space inside unless they wanted to hug it to sleep. Investing in the trust of the young, solo travellers like myself, I did likewise. The only thing I hadn’t counted on was how incredibly difficult it was to sleep when you’ve got people scuffling and banging about with their luggage throughout the wee hours of the morning, in what was essentially a gigantic room with flimsy pull-down covers to drown out the noise, which might I add only extended 2/3 of the way down. Usually I’d consider myself a deep sleeper, but this was akin to sleeping in an airport terminal minus the tannoy announcements.
So as novel as that experience was, I wouldn’t recommend it unless you absolutely had to, which shouldn’t be for more than one night (or more accurately, a few sleepless hours) since it’s purely for late night airport arrivees/early morning departees.
The next morning, grumpy and sleep deprived, I high-tailed it outta there and took the airport bus into town, where I could dump my luggage at the 9H Capsule hotel.
Before going into downtown Tokyo – let’s stop for a moment, and look at toilets. Seriously, observe the amazing considerations that go into the Japanese art, of toilets.
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| Japan’s a crowded place. Why waste space with a sink, when you can install a tap on top of the toilet? (Originally I was worried that this was toilet water seeing as the tap starts up immediately after you flush). |
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| When life overwhelms you, this is a simple philosophy to abide by. |
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| Typical toilet controls. Note the blue button – yes that a jet stream aimed at a pair of buttocks. And *overshare alert* it’s awesome. |
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| It’s probably not as high tech as it looks, but this disabled toilet resembles a bathroom from the future. In outer space. |
Now, on the theme of futuristic intergalactic time travel or whatever, I was very much looking forward to checking into the 9H hotel. 9H stands for, predictably, 9 hours, which is composed of 1hr to shower, 7hrs to sleep and 1hr to faff about. Looking again at the hotel website, it has this to say:
Light conception with base of sleep from staying
9h starts watching the sleep of travel.
Rest the body and mind comfortably, and to the sleeping hub
9h proposes new time.
I don’t know this means. Possibly, it is a new age haiku, or perhaps it is trying to tell travellers that they’re thinking of changing it to 10 hours.
Since this helped not so much, I would best describe staying at 9H as an extended scene from the movie Gattaca, with the main feature being a capsule bed/morgue cell/washing machine. And that made it kinda f**king awesome. Though admittedly, not really a space you’d want to spend more than a few nights in, lest you’re open to the idea the night terrors.
Your Designated sleepz for the night is installed in a large high wall, where there are perhaps fifteen other such holes in the wall, ready to entrap the tired, withered bodies of naive travellers. Cold, white lighting line the edges, and a short ladder is installed against the wall so that you may climb and shimmy to your designated hole. A cloth curtain which you can hook into place from the inside of the hole protects your privacy – the entire decor can be described as minimalist, sterile, and possibly aboard the Starship Enterprise.
There are buttons and plugs and wotsits in the ceiling of the hole, to recharge your various devices and if I recall correctly, even lightly play the radio for you. Ingeniously there is also a built in alarm clock functionality which will wake you up via the gentle brightening of the cabin, so as to not disturb the other vampires. I got better sleep in this hole then I did at the Haneda Cabin, despite it being infinitely smaller (tinyness has its advantages).
KJK 