Hotel blues

 

December 3 2024

Tokyo

The drummer next door did finally finish his solo before too long. This room and the rest do not have carpeting and so any sliding or movement of furniture is heard across the whole floor.

I slept very poorly, the worst of the trip and then got a slow start for the day.

First stop of the day was intended to be a Buddhist temple. A huge Buddhist temple. So I relied on Apple Maps to get me there. Go out the door walk a block and go down the hole in the ground there. Then go further down, and then just a little more down. Go stand under #2 and get on the next thing that stops there. Count 8 stops and get off, and escalator up to sunshine. Walk a couple blocks and praise the lord you are at the temple.

I needed coffee and real food would be nice. A small cafe offered American Breakfast, egg and toast and coffee. That is exactly what I got, coffee, a hard boiled egg and toast. Not exactly what I was expecting. The coffee was hot, the toast was the fluffy bread you get here and the egg? What can you say about a hard boiled egg?

Refueled and caffeined up I headed to the temple. It was indeed a temple, with incense and statues and fancy buildings for holding all this stuff for people to bow before and toss money in boxes. I don’t understand the symbolism of the things, by now one is kind of melding into a previous one in my mind. Let me get my Goshuin and I’ll be on my way.

On my list was kitchen implements street. Not too far to walk, so down streets where many of the shops were just starting to open at 11am. The aisles in the shops are narrow, and the customers are crowded with a mix of locals and tourists, with predominantly locals.

I found a garlic, ginger grater that I liked. It was small and would not take up and room at all in my luggage. I could have spent the most of my day in the shops are narrow, but luggage is full and doesn’t need more.

My purse is a vest. A Scott-e Vest. It has a zillion zippered pockets. It is designed for travelers to just remove it for TSA at airport inspections. For me it is a purse. One pocket has passport, another US currency. Another Foreign currency, a pocket for higher value coins, and .. on and on.

Over the course it has been easier to pay with large coins and bills and because of this I have accumulated a pocket full of 1 Yen coins. I have a handful of them. I went to pay for my grater and was trying to sort out the single digit Yen so I didn’t get any more 1 Yen coins. The shopkeeper saw my handful of coins and just dumped my hand over the coin funnel and the Harry Potter, magic machine, rang up the sale and gave me change in more realistic values.

I don’t have a grater pocket in my vest, so I had to improvise.

Then to the knife store. Japanese chefs are knife snobs. This one is only for fruit, never hard vegetables. This one, is for slicing fish on the diagonal only. Those are only two of the at least 7 different knife styles, I might have missed the knife that you only use to cut BLT sandwiches corner to corner.

I spoke to a salesman at one shop and told him the I generally used my big chef’s knife for everything and what would he add as a second knife. He handed me a knife that was longer than a paring knife and substantially shorter and narrower than my Chef’s knife. I felt really nice in my hand, and then I looked at the tag for the price. It was almost a car payment, and I am not talking about a cheap car, more like a Lincoln. I used two hands to put it back on the shelf as I walked away. I did buy a similar size and shaped knife for a price that it thought more reflected my culinary skills.

Next stop a Shinto shrine. Back the way I came. Past houses and hotels with folded umbrellas in stands just sitting there. I kind of get the idea, that if you need an umbrella, grab one and bring it back, or leave it at the next stop and eventually another will come and replace the one you took.

Back to the subway, I am becoming a mole person. Now a new challenge. Get on the train, get off the train and find a different train and get on that one. Miracles it worked.. in fresh air and a short walk to the shrine. Shinto shrines are even less of a known to me, and much more spare in decoration than Buddhist temples.

The interest in this one, is because it is a temple for warriors. I think I heard the Japanese general Tojo’s ashes were interred here. I won’t say he didn’t deserve what he got by the allies at the end of the war, but he did do the right thing for his country. He took complete Responsibility for Japan’s entry into the war in the 1940’s. He said it was all his doing and the Emperor was just a figurehead. In doing that he saved the Monarchy and probably made the post war easier for the general populace to accept, because they still had the Emperor. I have to respect him for that.

Got my shrine autograph. I have to admit, I really am just collecting Goshuin at the moment.

Back under the earth and another shrine. Through a beautiful forest. This shrine was built in 1920 after the death of the Emperor and his wife. They were big into nature and conserving it. In their honor plants from all over Japan were brought to this area and planted. Now 100 years later, it has become an actual forest with it’s own eco system. Plus it had a place to get my book autographed.

The last place on my list for the day was Shibuya scramble. Anytime you see anything on Tokyo there is always a shot of this area from above as people cross the streets in any which way like insects. It was a reasonable amble from the shrine, so I walked.

I got there and tried to see it. It is supposed the busiest intersection in the world. Well I couldn’t see it, because there were too many people in the way.

Apple Maps said find a hole in the ground and ride back to your starting point. Only problem, here there are about 4 different holes in the ground, for a dozen different train lines. I had to hunt around and follow signs painted on posts to get to the correct hole in the ground. After that, it was just a magic watch beep and some crickets clacking and I was home to my don’t wanna be home.

Okay, Tokyo and mostly Japan you win. You beat me. You taught me I am not the wild tourist adventurer I once was. I quit. I just want to have a spa day and go home.

So I go to the desk and ask if I can leave a day early - here is how that went.

Me - I want to check out a day early.

Hotel - Why?

M - because the room is noisy and not what I expected

H - That is not possible, because you used booking.com

M - Just silently looking at her

H - Is there a problem ?

M - I am just counting to 10 before I make a scene.

H - You must give us 14 day prior notification before you can cancel

M - How do I know it is just a fancy hostel, before seeing the place.

H - You should have read the reviews.

I turned and walked away at that point before I did go full ‘Karen’ on her ass.

Back in the room, I wrote Booking.com, their auto-bot said they would bet back in 24 hours.

I wrote to the hotel/Hostel

I was writing a scathing review on TripAdvisor.com and had a tap at my door, maybe. Then again and it was for sure a tap. It is one of the women from the front desk saying that it was possible to cancel the last day, they needed to do some refunding and recharging, but it could be done. So that is all fixed.

Tomorrow I’ll find a hotel at the airport and a salon or a spa and get pampered, or at least a shampoo and a blow out.