Mr. & Mrs. HT Go to China and Japan 2007
Apr 14th, 2007, 07:27 PM
#21
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JAPAN
April 1
UA flight #890 HKG to NRT left 10 minutes late and arrived in NRT 22 minutes early. I never thought I would say this but we were so happy to fly United again after our debacle with Air China. No mention of overweight luggage or anything just a smooth normal check in and a thank you for flying United. I had never really appreciated that statement more so than today.
The 777’s were really nice and it seemed that they had upgraded the Business class seats on this particular aircraft as they went just about horizontal.
Max altitude 39000 feet and top speed of 650 mph.
We spent less than 5 minutes in line at immigrations and customs in Narita as we were the only flight to arrive at that time. We had arrived in Japan!
We have really fallen in love with Japan!
I bought two tickets at the Limousine bus service desk direct to our hotel the Century Hyatt in Shinjuku for 3100 yen as they are having a special where you can get a ticket for the bus ride and a ticket for 1 day of metro rides. The regular price for the bus ride is 3000 yen so you are getting the one day metro for basically only 100 yen. The ride to the hotel took 95 minutes as traffic was pretty bad in Tokyo city as it seemed everyone was having their hanami in all of Tokyo’s parks as the cherry blossoms were in full bloom.
The Sakura was in peak bloom we first noticed leaving Narita and then all of the way to Shinjuku. It was a Sunday afternoon and everywhere the Japanese people were having their hanami together in the parks and all the trees were in peak bloom. It was beautiful and tingling to witness.
We checked into our hotel at the 9th floor Regency club level desk as we were in the club level rooms. The room I had reserved was the Deluxe King Club room at a large 50 meters square. The charge was 40,000 yen per night as I had ordered it six months in advance. The club level includes a private room that serves breakfast every morning from 6 to 10 am. From 10 am to 6 pm they serve tea, coffee, soft drinks and cookies. Then from 6 till 8 pm it’s heavy hors d’oeuvres with a self service open bar which includes wine, champagne, hard liquor, beer and of course sake. Then from 8 to 10 pm it’s tea and coffee again.
The open bar with all the wine (French red and whites) and sake pays for itself as we (well maybe me) drank our fill.
A bottle of decent French wine in Tokyo can cost 70 to 400 US or more or so dollars a bottle so we got our moneys worth. Free high speed internet access is also available in your room with free privileges in their gym on the 28th floor. There is also a free shuttle to and from Shinjuku station every twenty minutes.
After a speedy check in we went across the street to the park in back of the hotel. There Linda and I enjoyed our first hanami with all the locals in the park. It was an experience that we’ll never forget.
Everyone had tarps or mats down all over the park with hibachis or gas stoves to cook their food with of course coolers full of their favorite beverages. At one point just before sunset a big gust of wind blew a lot of the blossoms in the air and all over everyone there.
The whole park oooooed and awwwwwed as this happened and I wondered if they considered this happening good luck, anyone living in Japan know?
Their were various vendors in the park selling beer, sake, and soft drinks while others were cooking and selling all types of Japanese comfort food. We took so many pictures, ate, drank and basically had a blast. We then went up to the club floor for wine and some food then off to bed early as it had been a long day.
Note: This was a magical day. I cannot believe what just occurred as all the planning must have paid off. What Luck!!!!
Apr 15th, 2007, 12:03 AM
#23
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April 2
We awoke early this day and used our one day metro pass to go to Ueno Park, Imperial Palace, Ginza, and back to Shinjuku to view more cherry blossoms. The viewing at Ueno park is and different experience than in Shinjuku as thousands upon thousands of people were there doing their hanami.
There are many trees in this park and I highly recommend at least viewing them here but good luck in finding a place to set as almost every square inch of space under the trees are taken in advance, sometimes days in advance as corporations and families send their people to stake out and claim their favorite spots. On one mat we saw a big statue of a guard dog reserving a spot.
On returning to Shinjuku station we had our 4 day flexible JR East pass activated at the JR office in the East end of the station. It is a very simple process that took us only 10 minutes to do. I had purchased the pass in Honolulu for 20,000 yen each about two weeks earlier.
Note: We had the Odyaku Travel Center in the lobby of our hotel make our Shinkansen reserved seat reservations which was quick painless and to my surprise free of any charges. The advantage of doing it at the hotel was that the reservation clerk spoke and understood perfect English as the people at the train station could barely speak any English and were very hard for me to understand last year. I knew the schedule I wanted from the Hyperdia website so I just gave it to him to work out and we got everything we wanted.
April 3
It was raining when we awoke so we got umbrellas from the bell desk and went out to see the Sensoji Temple and shopped at the dori which leads to the temple. We bought a beautiful second hand ornate kimono to hang in our living room (thanks laurieco for the idea) then came back to our hotel to try the new Joules Spa which they were just building when we were there last year. The treatment rooms were very unique and luxurious. The treatments do cost a lot (starts at 22,000 Yen for a 90 minute treatment) but you are served a meal after and pampered to the max.
We later had a very fun evening with Kuranosuke and his wife Jackie along with laurieco and her husband Eric. Fabulous people and you’ve already read about what happened in another post so I won’t repeat it but we enjoyed all of their company immensely. What beautiful people you can meet from the Asia board, we are blessed.
April 4, 2007
We took the Chuo Express train from Shinjuku station to Tokyo station at around 9:00 am which is right in the middle of the morning rush.
If you’ve never experienced the morning rush in Tokyo I would highly recommend it. Take the Marounuchi line from Shinjuku to Ginza between 8:00 and 9:00 am. I don’t know how Tokyoites do this every morning but from a tourist point of view it’s a hoot.
Anyway, we took the 10:56 am Komachi/Hamabiko Super express Shinkansen from Tokyo station to Kakunodate and arrived on time at 2:24 pm. Make sure your on the Komachi side of the train when going to Kakunodate and not the Hamabiko side as the trains separate in Morioka and the Hamabiko goes off to Northern Tohoku while the Komachi heads towards Akita and the mountain region. It took less than a minute for the trains to separate and be on their way so if you book the wrong ticket you’ve got to be quick. We saw several people making the run between trains and everyone made it but it was interesting.
We dropped off our bags at the Folkloro hotel (thanks mrwnrfl for the tip) which is right next door to the station and set off to explore the town. The receptionist at the front desk gave us a map of the town and told us in very broken English where to see the cherry blossoms and Samurai houses so map in hand, off we went.
We walked down to the river and saw the 2 kilometer long rows of cherry trees that were in buds but not quite ready to open yet as the town is at high altitude and they weren’t expecting blossoms for at least another two to three weeks from today. We had seen pictures of what it was like in previous years in all the store windows and on post cards from various shops we had stopped in along the way and really wished we had seen them too but well maybe next year.
In fact we are going to make it a point of trying to see a sakura in Kakunodate in the near future. It will take a lot of planning and lot of luck and maybe many tries as the peak season there is also usually around Golden Week (yiiikkkkes), But Linda and I have agreed that this will be our mission. The place IMHO is that special. Thanks again mrwnrfl for introducing us to this spectacular spot of the world.
We then headed over to the Aoyagi Samurai Manor Museum which is one of the best preserved architectural beauties of its kind in all of Japan. The estate features the main house, a gallery, Sword, tools, and armory, a tea room, restaurant, etc. They charge 500 yen per person which is really worth it as this place was built in the 1600’s and has been passed down to the same family members for generations. I highly recommend this place.
After that we walked around the town for a while and checked into our hotel and had dinner in the lobby restaurant which has an English menu and serves surprisingly good Japanese set meals. We had dinner and a bottle of the local sake which was very good for 3,340 yen less 10% as we were staying in the hotel.
FYI they also have a washer and dryer in the hotel that cost 100 yen for the wash (30 minutes) and 100 yen for 30 minute increments of the dryer (it took 60 minutes for our load to dry). It was off to bed early as we were catching the train to Tazawako and Tsuruno-yu Onsen in the morning plus the hotel locks their doors at 11:00 pm.
Note: As I write this I am looking at a most beautiful starry night, the first stars we have seen in Japan this trip. The big dipper is very prominent in this northern sky.
April 5 to 7th
When I awoke I took a look out the window and guess what? It was snowing outside. It snowed for a couple of hours. We got ready, ate breakfast and then went outside for a two hour walk around the other side of the town that we didn’t cover yesterday. The snow put a different look on the town and it was beautiful almost story book like.
We checked out just before 11:00 am and walked over to the train station and took the express train to Tazawako station a short 14 minute ride away. When we arrived at the Tazawako station I went up to the Tourist Information center located right in the middle of the train station. If you do not speak Japanese this place is basically hopeless as no one there spoke any English at all and all the maps and information is in Japanese. I did get them to sign point to me where the bus stop to Tsuruno-yu Onsen was located. It is the first bus stop of two located on the right hand side of the front exit of the train station.
We had lunch in the Ramen shop located outside the right hand side of the station which was very good. I had the Oyaku Donburi while Linda had a pork ramen soup with a side order of gyoza one soft drink and a cup of tea. No English was spoken here either but they do have an English menu. We had an excellent lunch for 2100 yen.
We then took the 1:15 pm bus to the Arupa Komagusa bus stop which is not the Kogen bus stop that the Japanese Guest House( they made all of our reservations for all the Onsen we used this trip) directions had said to take or the directions that are on the thorn tree forum.
Just ask the bus driver “Tsuruno-yu Onsen” and he will tell you where to get off. The fare was 640 yen per person. You must take a ticket from the fare box in front next to the driver as you enter the bus. These tickets are marked with a zero (that means you started at the main train station) and before you exit you can look on the screen above the front windshield which will tell you what your fare is for the zero ticket. You then put the ticket in the slot on the fare box and put your coins only in the same slot. If you only have bills you can put it in the bottom slit and change will come out in the change tray. It will only take 1,000 yen bills. You can also make change for 500, 100 and 50 yen coins by putting them into the slot for coins on the top left of the fare box. The change for coins comes out of the same change tray as the bills.
The bus ride took us about 35 minutes from the station. Then the Tsuruno-yu Onsen shuttle bus picked us up at the bus stop and took us to the Onsen in about 20 minutes. Talk about isolated. We went down a narrow winding, twisting and bumpy road till the very end against very edge the mountains.
What a sight this place is! It has been here since the early 1600’s so you can imagine. There are 4 indoor men’s only baths and 4 indoor women’s only baths. There are also 2 outdoor hot spring baths that are of mixed use (men and women) and one outdoor women’s only bath. The outdoor ones are especially beautiful in the winter with all the surrounding beautiful scenery. The baths are of sulfur content so the water has a sulfur odor and a milky white color.
Please be aware that English is a rare commodity here but don’t let that dismay you as you can easily get by with the little English spoken by a few who work there. One of those is the daughter of the owners who also works in the front office. She is the one who greets all of the English speaking customers and shows them around and to their rooms.
Our room was a 10 tatami mat room with a Toto toilet in a small separate room and a separate veranda that had a fantastic view of the mountains behind the minshuku.
Tsuruno-yu is a minshuku and not a Ryokan. The cost was 12,750 yen per person per night but there are cheaper accommodations available. Our rate included dinner and breakfast. We stayed here two nights so on day two we were offered lunch that is served in your room.
The lunch menu is very reasonable as everything here was (2100 yen for a bottle of good French wine) and included Ramen, Spaghetti, somen noodles, chicken curry and rice, omelet and some kind of sandwich which I could not understand what the owner’s wife was saying. There are a couple of other things on the menu which is all in Japanese but she couldn’t figure out how to tell us in English. Prices are between 200 and 450 yen per dish.
Dinner was served to us in our room by our room attendant that we nicknamed Grumpy. He wasn’t really Grumpy as you will see later in this report but it was just his natural look on his face that made him look that way. He is actually an extremely hard worker. He served all the guests in our wing dinners, breakfast (which is served in the dining room and with the help of a younger man set up the rooms with your futons for sleeping after they finished picking up your dinner trays and dishes. I also saw him helping the cooks at 5:00 am in the kitchen and he sets up the breakfast room for all the guests in the morning. He lives onsite with a few of the other employees.
As I mentioned breakfast is served in the dining room. You can have breakfast between 7 an 8:30 am. When you go to the dining room you will find a handmade wooden plaque with you room number on it and the cold food selections already there. Grumpy will get you the hot dishes after you arrive. Hot tea and cold water is self serve and available at 4 different stations in the dining room. Meals are served on the tatami mats with zabutons to sit on. If you are handicapped or not Japanese like us they will ask you if you want a low chair and small table. We declined the offer. The first morning we saw our room number (1) in the very back corner of the room furthest away from the self serve stations.
The food at Tsuruno-yu is very good as we ordered a Japanese breakfast and an American one so we could see what the differences were between the two. The Japanese one had various tsukemono, fish, miso soup, tea, natto, tofu, fruit and various vegetables, The American one had everything the Japanese one had minus the fish and natto and plus Canadian bacon and one sunny side up egg and toast also an optional coffee. I opted for the Coca cola, my favorite coffee in the morning.
Dinners were excellent here and served in your room by Grumpy and his helper. There were 16 different dishes served which varied both nights, there was fish, meat, chicken, various tsukemono, rice, various kinds of fresh and pickled veggies along with pork and mushrooms and fruit. We could never finish all the food at dinner time here. It was just way too much food to eat at one sitting.
After dinner on the second night while Grumpy was finishing setting up our beds for the evening when I presented him with one of the gifts of Aloha that we always travel with for some special people that we always meet along our travels.
The look on his face turned from Grumpy to Happy as he gently cradled his gift and thanked us profusely as tears came to his eyes. Linda and I started welling up as he left the room with many a domo arigato goizai masus.
Another magical day!
to be continued....
We awoke early this day and used our one day metro pass to go to Ueno Park, Imperial Palace, Ginza, and back to Shinjuku to view more cherry blossoms. The viewing at Ueno park is and different experience than in Shinjuku as thousands upon thousands of people were there doing their hanami.
There are many trees in this park and I highly recommend at least viewing them here but good luck in finding a place to set as almost every square inch of space under the trees are taken in advance, sometimes days in advance as corporations and families send their people to stake out and claim their favorite spots. On one mat we saw a big statue of a guard dog reserving a spot.
On returning to Shinjuku station we had our 4 day flexible JR East pass activated at the JR office in the East end of the station. It is a very simple process that took us only 10 minutes to do. I had purchased the pass in Honolulu for 20,000 yen each about two weeks earlier.
Note: We had the Odyaku Travel Center in the lobby of our hotel make our Shinkansen reserved seat reservations which was quick painless and to my surprise free of any charges. The advantage of doing it at the hotel was that the reservation clerk spoke and understood perfect English as the people at the train station could barely speak any English and were very hard for me to understand last year. I knew the schedule I wanted from the Hyperdia website so I just gave it to him to work out and we got everything we wanted.
April 3
It was raining when we awoke so we got umbrellas from the bell desk and went out to see the Sensoji Temple and shopped at the dori which leads to the temple. We bought a beautiful second hand ornate kimono to hang in our living room (thanks laurieco for the idea) then came back to our hotel to try the new Joules Spa which they were just building when we were there last year. The treatment rooms were very unique and luxurious. The treatments do cost a lot (starts at 22,000 Yen for a 90 minute treatment) but you are served a meal after and pampered to the max.
We later had a very fun evening with Kuranosuke and his wife Jackie along with laurieco and her husband Eric. Fabulous people and you’ve already read about what happened in another post so I won’t repeat it but we enjoyed all of their company immensely. What beautiful people you can meet from the Asia board, we are blessed.
April 4, 2007
We took the Chuo Express train from Shinjuku station to Tokyo station at around 9:00 am which is right in the middle of the morning rush.
If you’ve never experienced the morning rush in Tokyo I would highly recommend it. Take the Marounuchi line from Shinjuku to Ginza between 8:00 and 9:00 am. I don’t know how Tokyoites do this every morning but from a tourist point of view it’s a hoot.
Anyway, we took the 10:56 am Komachi/Hamabiko Super express Shinkansen from Tokyo station to Kakunodate and arrived on time at 2:24 pm. Make sure your on the Komachi side of the train when going to Kakunodate and not the Hamabiko side as the trains separate in Morioka and the Hamabiko goes off to Northern Tohoku while the Komachi heads towards Akita and the mountain region. It took less than a minute for the trains to separate and be on their way so if you book the wrong ticket you’ve got to be quick. We saw several people making the run between trains and everyone made it but it was interesting.
We dropped off our bags at the Folkloro hotel (thanks mrwnrfl for the tip) which is right next door to the station and set off to explore the town. The receptionist at the front desk gave us a map of the town and told us in very broken English where to see the cherry blossoms and Samurai houses so map in hand, off we went.
We walked down to the river and saw the 2 kilometer long rows of cherry trees that were in buds but not quite ready to open yet as the town is at high altitude and they weren’t expecting blossoms for at least another two to three weeks from today. We had seen pictures of what it was like in previous years in all the store windows and on post cards from various shops we had stopped in along the way and really wished we had seen them too but well maybe next year.
In fact we are going to make it a point of trying to see a sakura in Kakunodate in the near future. It will take a lot of planning and lot of luck and maybe many tries as the peak season there is also usually around Golden Week (yiiikkkkes), But Linda and I have agreed that this will be our mission. The place IMHO is that special. Thanks again mrwnrfl for introducing us to this spectacular spot of the world.
We then headed over to the Aoyagi Samurai Manor Museum which is one of the best preserved architectural beauties of its kind in all of Japan. The estate features the main house, a gallery, Sword, tools, and armory, a tea room, restaurant, etc. They charge 500 yen per person which is really worth it as this place was built in the 1600’s and has been passed down to the same family members for generations. I highly recommend this place.
After that we walked around the town for a while and checked into our hotel and had dinner in the lobby restaurant which has an English menu and serves surprisingly good Japanese set meals. We had dinner and a bottle of the local sake which was very good for 3,340 yen less 10% as we were staying in the hotel.
FYI they also have a washer and dryer in the hotel that cost 100 yen for the wash (30 minutes) and 100 yen for 30 minute increments of the dryer (it took 60 minutes for our load to dry). It was off to bed early as we were catching the train to Tazawako and Tsuruno-yu Onsen in the morning plus the hotel locks their doors at 11:00 pm.
Note: As I write this I am looking at a most beautiful starry night, the first stars we have seen in Japan this trip. The big dipper is very prominent in this northern sky.
April 5 to 7th
When I awoke I took a look out the window and guess what? It was snowing outside. It snowed for a couple of hours. We got ready, ate breakfast and then went outside for a two hour walk around the other side of the town that we didn’t cover yesterday. The snow put a different look on the town and it was beautiful almost story book like.
We checked out just before 11:00 am and walked over to the train station and took the express train to Tazawako station a short 14 minute ride away. When we arrived at the Tazawako station I went up to the Tourist Information center located right in the middle of the train station. If you do not speak Japanese this place is basically hopeless as no one there spoke any English at all and all the maps and information is in Japanese. I did get them to sign point to me where the bus stop to Tsuruno-yu Onsen was located. It is the first bus stop of two located on the right hand side of the front exit of the train station.
We had lunch in the Ramen shop located outside the right hand side of the station which was very good. I had the Oyaku Donburi while Linda had a pork ramen soup with a side order of gyoza one soft drink and a cup of tea. No English was spoken here either but they do have an English menu. We had an excellent lunch for 2100 yen.
We then took the 1:15 pm bus to the Arupa Komagusa bus stop which is not the Kogen bus stop that the Japanese Guest House( they made all of our reservations for all the Onsen we used this trip) directions had said to take or the directions that are on the thorn tree forum.
Just ask the bus driver “Tsuruno-yu Onsen” and he will tell you where to get off. The fare was 640 yen per person. You must take a ticket from the fare box in front next to the driver as you enter the bus. These tickets are marked with a zero (that means you started at the main train station) and before you exit you can look on the screen above the front windshield which will tell you what your fare is for the zero ticket. You then put the ticket in the slot on the fare box and put your coins only in the same slot. If you only have bills you can put it in the bottom slit and change will come out in the change tray. It will only take 1,000 yen bills. You can also make change for 500, 100 and 50 yen coins by putting them into the slot for coins on the top left of the fare box. The change for coins comes out of the same change tray as the bills.
The bus ride took us about 35 minutes from the station. Then the Tsuruno-yu Onsen shuttle bus picked us up at the bus stop and took us to the Onsen in about 20 minutes. Talk about isolated. We went down a narrow winding, twisting and bumpy road till the very end against very edge the mountains.
What a sight this place is! It has been here since the early 1600’s so you can imagine. There are 4 indoor men’s only baths and 4 indoor women’s only baths. There are also 2 outdoor hot spring baths that are of mixed use (men and women) and one outdoor women’s only bath. The outdoor ones are especially beautiful in the winter with all the surrounding beautiful scenery. The baths are of sulfur content so the water has a sulfur odor and a milky white color.
Please be aware that English is a rare commodity here but don’t let that dismay you as you can easily get by with the little English spoken by a few who work there. One of those is the daughter of the owners who also works in the front office. She is the one who greets all of the English speaking customers and shows them around and to their rooms.
Our room was a 10 tatami mat room with a Toto toilet in a small separate room and a separate veranda that had a fantastic view of the mountains behind the minshuku.
Tsuruno-yu is a minshuku and not a Ryokan. The cost was 12,750 yen per person per night but there are cheaper accommodations available. Our rate included dinner and breakfast. We stayed here two nights so on day two we were offered lunch that is served in your room.
The lunch menu is very reasonable as everything here was (2100 yen for a bottle of good French wine) and included Ramen, Spaghetti, somen noodles, chicken curry and rice, omelet and some kind of sandwich which I could not understand what the owner’s wife was saying. There are a couple of other things on the menu which is all in Japanese but she couldn’t figure out how to tell us in English. Prices are between 200 and 450 yen per dish.
Dinner was served to us in our room by our room attendant that we nicknamed Grumpy. He wasn’t really Grumpy as you will see later in this report but it was just his natural look on his face that made him look that way. He is actually an extremely hard worker. He served all the guests in our wing dinners, breakfast (which is served in the dining room and with the help of a younger man set up the rooms with your futons for sleeping after they finished picking up your dinner trays and dishes. I also saw him helping the cooks at 5:00 am in the kitchen and he sets up the breakfast room for all the guests in the morning. He lives onsite with a few of the other employees.
As I mentioned breakfast is served in the dining room. You can have breakfast between 7 an 8:30 am. When you go to the dining room you will find a handmade wooden plaque with you room number on it and the cold food selections already there. Grumpy will get you the hot dishes after you arrive. Hot tea and cold water is self serve and available at 4 different stations in the dining room. Meals are served on the tatami mats with zabutons to sit on. If you are handicapped or not Japanese like us they will ask you if you want a low chair and small table. We declined the offer. The first morning we saw our room number (1) in the very back corner of the room furthest away from the self serve stations.
The food at Tsuruno-yu is very good as we ordered a Japanese breakfast and an American one so we could see what the differences were between the two. The Japanese one had various tsukemono, fish, miso soup, tea, natto, tofu, fruit and various vegetables, The American one had everything the Japanese one had minus the fish and natto and plus Canadian bacon and one sunny side up egg and toast also an optional coffee. I opted for the Coca cola, my favorite coffee in the morning.
Dinners were excellent here and served in your room by Grumpy and his helper. There were 16 different dishes served which varied both nights, there was fish, meat, chicken, various tsukemono, rice, various kinds of fresh and pickled veggies along with pork and mushrooms and fruit. We could never finish all the food at dinner time here. It was just way too much food to eat at one sitting.
After dinner on the second night while Grumpy was finishing setting up our beds for the evening when I presented him with one of the gifts of Aloha that we always travel with for some special people that we always meet along our travels.
The look on his face turned from Grumpy to Happy as he gently cradled his gift and thanked us profusely as tears came to his eyes. Linda and I started welling up as he left the room with many a domo arigato goizai masus.
Another magical day!
to be continued....
Apr 15th, 2007, 08:38 AM
#27
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ht, nice report. sounds like you had a great trip to china and japan.
i hope my math is wrong, but you paid $127 for a bottle of italian white in beijing? wow! that must have been some good vino.
i'm interessted on how you planned your trip to tohoku. maybe we can talk about it in la next month.
i hope my math is wrong, but you paid $127 for a bottle of italian white in beijing? wow! that must have been some good vino.
i'm interessted on how you planned your trip to tohoku. maybe we can talk about it in la next month.
Apr 15th, 2007, 10:29 AM
#28
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Thanks for all the kudos and we will see you all in LA at the gtg.
k-suke,
hahaha....you noticed the price. I was thinking in a fog that night and when I ordered it I thought it would be around 50 US. Didn't use the calculator, lol.
It was a bottle of Orvieto that you can pick up at Tamura's for 7.80 US. Oh well no use crying over spilled wine or some other liquids
Aloha!
k-suke,
hahaha....you noticed the price. I was thinking in a fog that night and when I ordered it I thought it would be around 50 US. Didn't use the calculator, lol.
It was a bottle of Orvieto that you can pick up at Tamura's for 7.80 US. Oh well no use crying over spilled wine or some other liquids
Aloha!
Apr 15th, 2007, 10:29 AM
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I'm thinking more about what you said about the Sheraton in Hong Kong. It seems like you're in a non-Tower room, and there's a HUGE difference in the quality between Tower and non-Tower accomodations. Because I've heard lots of people raving about the Tower rooms.
Prices are higher, of course. I look at some dates in May. Non-tower starts at HK$1,800, Tower HK$2,400.
Prices are higher, of course. I look at some dates in May. Non-tower starts at HK$1,800, Tower HK$2,400.
Apr 15th, 2007, 05:13 PM
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rkkwan,
Actually I think the Towers rooms in this particular Sheraton are on the 3rd thru 7th floor not in a separate tower as is the case on other Sheraton properties.At least I didn't see any separate tower but my wife always calls me blind and I might have missed it.
We had a grand deluxe king harbor view room which was really alright the only real complaint was the window in the bathroom.
Sitting down and having absolutely no privacy is just not that comfortable to me and when friends(staying at the IC) came to see what our room was like and have a cocktail we had to exit to use the facilities.
I believe they are this way throughout the hotel except in the suites.
The difference between the Towers and the regular room section is the concierge and the added bennies of breakfast and a cocktail hour and I think 4 pieces of laundry per night, free use of gym, etc.
The tower rooms are the lower floors and I was lead to believe that their view is not as good as from the upper levels of this hotel.
Actually I think the Towers rooms in this particular Sheraton are on the 3rd thru 7th floor not in a separate tower as is the case on other Sheraton properties.At least I didn't see any separate tower but my wife always calls me blind
and I might have missed it.We had a grand deluxe king harbor view room which was really alright the only real complaint was the window in the bathroom.
Sitting down and having absolutely no privacy is just not that comfortable to me and when friends(staying at the IC) came to see what our room was like and have a cocktail we had to exit to use the facilities.
I believe they are this way throughout the hotel except in the suites.
The difference between the Towers and the regular room section is the concierge and the added bennies of breakfast and a cocktail hour and I think 4 pieces of laundry per night, free use of gym, etc.
The tower rooms are the lower floors and I was lead to believe that their view is not as good as from the upper levels of this hotel.
Apr 15th, 2007, 05:20 PM
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Of course I know the hotel is one big building with no seperate towers!
But from what I understand the "Tower" rooms are nicer. There are harborview and non-harborview rooms for both "Tower" and "non-Tower".
But from what I understand the "Tower" rooms are nicer. There are harborview and non-harborview rooms for both "Tower" and "non-Tower".
Apr 15th, 2007, 07:33 PM
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Continuing
April 8
The next morning we went down to breakfast and looked for our table in our usual corner. It wasn’t there. Just then Happy walked into the room and pointed to the opposite corner of the room where no one else was.
There was one setting set up right next to the fireplace and picture window that had the breathtaking view of the mountains and the river which was right outside that end of the building. He then proceeded to bring us a special breakfast which was more elaborate and different that what was being served to everyone else. We thanked him profusely for the extra service and went up to finish packing as we were leaving in a half an hour to catch our train to Nikko.
After we paid our bill and were going out the front door to catch our taxi that I had ordered the night before and there was Happy bowing and thanking us for staying there and for his gift. As we were turning away he let out a big
ALOHA!
Again it was tear time for Linda and me.
We will never forget our time at Tsuruno-yu Onsen and especially Happy. We plan to return again sometime soon!
The taxi ride from Tsuruno-yu Onsen to Tazawako train station took 24 minutes and cost 5,590 yen. We then took the Komachi Super express train to Sendai and transferred to the Yamabiko Super Express to Utsonomia.
We then took the JR local train to Nikko. Very easy to do with very little wait in between trains.
We arrived in Nikko at about 1:35 pm and took a taxi to our next stay which was a Ryokan named Nikko Hoshino Yado previously known as Konishi Ryokan. The price for the ride was 660 Yen as that was the price when the flag dropped and the Ryokan was close enough that the price never moved up.
The Ryokan is rated a B price Ryokan by Japanese Guest Houses. The Ryokan has a free pickup service from the train station but the phone number we were given did not work. That was the first of many things wrong with this place and our stay here.
The lobby of the Ryokan was really nice; in fact that is the nicest thing about this place. They have a beautiful rock garden with an ugly parking lot behind. I guess you just have to look “within” to see the beauty and not see with a closed mind. Ok, ok enough Japanese philosophy, lol.
Check in was easy enough as all the front desk people has some understanding of English. We were shown our room by the young lady of the front desk who had the best grasp of English.
As soon as we entered the elevator I thought to myself Holiday Inn Express. When the elevator door opened I thought Motel 6 and when we were shown our room I thought what a letdown from the place we had just left.
The room was a 10 tatami mat room with a Toto toilet and a veranda but the view was of the parking lot and the room was just plain worn and old looking.
The Ryokan has 2 women’s and 2 men’s hot spring baths one inside and one outside each. The baths are very small for the size of the Ryokan and the outside ones would be hard pressed to fit two people in them at once. The changing and bathing areas were also very small and only able to accommodate 10 people at once and with three stories and about 40 or so rooms in the place you can see what a jam can occur at bath times as no rooms had private baths only toilets.
Dinner and breakfast are served in the dining room which was very nice and we had a private dinning area with sliding shoji doors which added privacy to our meals which was nice. The food was as good as Tsuruno-yu and maybe a little more elaborates with a few more courses (16) for dinner and 14 for breakfast. They had separate electric foot warmers under the tables which was a nice touch. I had ordered no fish with my meals which they remembered to do but we had ordered one American and one Japanese breakfast as we wanted to see what both were like but they forgot and served us two American breakfasts which disappointed Linda quite a bit.
The main dish of Nikko and Kyoto is yuba and we were served it in various dishes there. We both like yuba but if you are not a fan I would suggest you let any Ryokan in Nikko know before as they serve it a lot in Nikko. The yuba we had in Nikko was actually a lot better than the ones we had in Kyoto. The texture is softer and the flavor a little sweeter. In the old days only temples in Nikko and Kyoto were allowed to serve this dish.
Dinner was very nice and the service was superb. We had a younger waitress as the only people there who spoke English were the younger (under35) workers. All things considered the entire place is a little run down and is in bad need of a face lift. The food was okay but the rooms were very disappointing as were the hot springs baths. I would not stay here again and cannot recommend this place to anyone. If you’re looking for an inexpensive introduction to Ryokan then maybe but I would give this place a pass.
April 9
We took a taxi for a 3 minute ride to our next Ryokan in Nikko called Senhime Monogatari which cost us 840 yen. We soon learned that you must have a taxi arraigned for the night or some time before, if you call a taxi then it’s where the taxi is when he gets the call is where the flag is pulled and meter started…..oh well live and learn.
As soon as we pulled into the parking lot I new this was going to be a nice experience. We got there early at 9:30 am so we checked in at the front desk and left our luggage with them as we planned to do some sightseeing and come back later in the day.
All of the front desk people spoke good English and the younger lady (Yamadasan) spoke perfect English. She went over all the details of our stay including the special meals that we had ordered and asked us if there was anything else that we required to make our stay more comfortable. Alright I thought this is what we were expecting from an A rated place and we were not disappointed as you will see.
After all the questions and checking in I asked for bus and sight information which was provided in detail and all written down for us by Yamadasan so that we would not forget. She gave us bus schedules, maps, wrote down what buses to catch to where we wanted to go along with detailed info on what to do when we got there. WOW, we had only spent time checking in and I already felt like someone special.
We caught the bus at the bus stop right outside the Ryokan a went to Lake Chuzenji and had, rented a small boat to take pictures from the lake, had a light lunch at one of the restaurants that surround the lake, took in Keogen falls then took the bus back to Nikko to go back to Senhime as we were excited and anxious to begin our stay there.
Yamadasan had told us that we could check in at 2:00 pm but when we arrived back at 1:40 our room was ready for us. In fact we knew we were early so we were taking pictures of the grounds outside the Ryokan when Yamadasan came outside and told us that our room was ready so she led us inside to the tea room in the lobby where two tea specialists greet you and make you tea and sweets. The green tea was made the traditional way as it was presented still foaming from the whisking and absolutely perfect.
We were again asked if there were any other foods that we would prefer not to have then given a tour of the Ryokan and shown where everything was and shown to our room. This place has its own karaoke room, even some slot machines in the game room.
Our luggage were already in our fifth floor room when we arrived. Wow what a beautiful room. This was a twelve tatami mat room with private Toto toilet and full bathroom stocked with all Shiseido beauty products. The room had a beautiful veranda with Western furniture on one end and Japanese furniture on the other. We had a beautiful view of the river and forest. I could easily live here for a while,
The hot spring baths were on the first floor. What a difference from the previous Ryokan we had just left. The locker room area was huge and had everything you would expect from a first class Ryokan.
The shower area had over 30 shower areas and each station had its own soaps, shampoo and conditioners. They have one indoor men’s and women’s bath and one outdoor one each but they are huge. The indoor one can accommodate at least 30 people or more and the outdoor one maybe 20 or so. They also have two electric massage lounge chairs in the locker room area.
Dinner and breakfast are served in the dining room which is beautiful and everyone has their own private dining area. We were served a 19 course dinner and an 18 course breakfast. The food was fabulous and so beautifully presented that it was stunning. The meal ranged from Kobe beef to sashimi, all types of vegetables, yuba in various styles, several different tsukemono and shrimp and vegetable tempuras, just a whole lot of food as we say here in the states. They even had our meals printed out on separate menus (we both had different wants and tastes which we let them know of ahead of time) next to our seats when we arrived. The meals and everything about this Ryokan was fabulous and we would return in a heartbeat. I highly recommend Senhime Monogatari.
Have to go out now will finish tomorrow.
April 8
The next morning we went down to breakfast and looked for our table in our usual corner. It wasn’t there. Just then Happy walked into the room and pointed to the opposite corner of the room where no one else was.
There was one setting set up right next to the fireplace and picture window that had the breathtaking view of the mountains and the river which was right outside that end of the building. He then proceeded to bring us a special breakfast which was more elaborate and different that what was being served to everyone else. We thanked him profusely for the extra service and went up to finish packing as we were leaving in a half an hour to catch our train to Nikko.
After we paid our bill and were going out the front door to catch our taxi that I had ordered the night before and there was Happy bowing and thanking us for staying there and for his gift. As we were turning away he let out a big
ALOHA!
Again it was tear time for Linda and me.
We will never forget our time at Tsuruno-yu Onsen and especially Happy. We plan to return again sometime soon!
The taxi ride from Tsuruno-yu Onsen to Tazawako train station took 24 minutes and cost 5,590 yen. We then took the Komachi Super express train to Sendai and transferred to the Yamabiko Super Express to Utsonomia.
We then took the JR local train to Nikko. Very easy to do with very little wait in between trains.
We arrived in Nikko at about 1:35 pm and took a taxi to our next stay which was a Ryokan named Nikko Hoshino Yado previously known as Konishi Ryokan. The price for the ride was 660 Yen as that was the price when the flag dropped and the Ryokan was close enough that the price never moved up.
The Ryokan is rated a B price Ryokan by Japanese Guest Houses. The Ryokan has a free pickup service from the train station but the phone number we were given did not work. That was the first of many things wrong with this place and our stay here.
The lobby of the Ryokan was really nice; in fact that is the nicest thing about this place. They have a beautiful rock garden with an ugly parking lot behind. I guess you just have to look “within” to see the beauty and not see with a closed mind. Ok, ok enough Japanese philosophy, lol.
Check in was easy enough as all the front desk people has some understanding of English. We were shown our room by the young lady of the front desk who had the best grasp of English.
As soon as we entered the elevator I thought to myself Holiday Inn Express. When the elevator door opened I thought Motel 6 and when we were shown our room I thought what a letdown from the place we had just left.
The room was a 10 tatami mat room with a Toto toilet and a veranda but the view was of the parking lot and the room was just plain worn and old looking.
The Ryokan has 2 women’s and 2 men’s hot spring baths one inside and one outside each. The baths are very small for the size of the Ryokan and the outside ones would be hard pressed to fit two people in them at once. The changing and bathing areas were also very small and only able to accommodate 10 people at once and with three stories and about 40 or so rooms in the place you can see what a jam can occur at bath times as no rooms had private baths only toilets.
Dinner and breakfast are served in the dining room which was very nice and we had a private dinning area with sliding shoji doors which added privacy to our meals which was nice. The food was as good as Tsuruno-yu and maybe a little more elaborates with a few more courses (16) for dinner and 14 for breakfast. They had separate electric foot warmers under the tables which was a nice touch. I had ordered no fish with my meals which they remembered to do but we had ordered one American and one Japanese breakfast as we wanted to see what both were like but they forgot and served us two American breakfasts which disappointed Linda quite a bit.
The main dish of Nikko and Kyoto is yuba and we were served it in various dishes there. We both like yuba but if you are not a fan I would suggest you let any Ryokan in Nikko know before as they serve it a lot in Nikko. The yuba we had in Nikko was actually a lot better than the ones we had in Kyoto. The texture is softer and the flavor a little sweeter. In the old days only temples in Nikko and Kyoto were allowed to serve this dish.
Dinner was very nice and the service was superb. We had a younger waitress as the only people there who spoke English were the younger (under35) workers. All things considered the entire place is a little run down and is in bad need of a face lift. The food was okay but the rooms were very disappointing as were the hot springs baths. I would not stay here again and cannot recommend this place to anyone. If you’re looking for an inexpensive introduction to Ryokan then maybe but I would give this place a pass.
April 9
We took a taxi for a 3 minute ride to our next Ryokan in Nikko called Senhime Monogatari which cost us 840 yen. We soon learned that you must have a taxi arraigned for the night or some time before, if you call a taxi then it’s where the taxi is when he gets the call is where the flag is pulled and meter started…..oh well live and learn.
As soon as we pulled into the parking lot I new this was going to be a nice experience. We got there early at 9:30 am so we checked in at the front desk and left our luggage with them as we planned to do some sightseeing and come back later in the day.
All of the front desk people spoke good English and the younger lady (Yamadasan) spoke perfect English. She went over all the details of our stay including the special meals that we had ordered and asked us if there was anything else that we required to make our stay more comfortable. Alright I thought this is what we were expecting from an A rated place and we were not disappointed as you will see.
After all the questions and checking in I asked for bus and sight information which was provided in detail and all written down for us by Yamadasan so that we would not forget. She gave us bus schedules, maps, wrote down what buses to catch to where we wanted to go along with detailed info on what to do when we got there. WOW, we had only spent time checking in and I already felt like someone special.
We caught the bus at the bus stop right outside the Ryokan a went to Lake Chuzenji and had, rented a small boat to take pictures from the lake, had a light lunch at one of the restaurants that surround the lake, took in Keogen falls then took the bus back to Nikko to go back to Senhime as we were excited and anxious to begin our stay there.
Yamadasan had told us that we could check in at 2:00 pm but when we arrived back at 1:40 our room was ready for us. In fact we knew we were early so we were taking pictures of the grounds outside the Ryokan when Yamadasan came outside and told us that our room was ready so she led us inside to the tea room in the lobby where two tea specialists greet you and make you tea and sweets. The green tea was made the traditional way as it was presented still foaming from the whisking and absolutely perfect.
We were again asked if there were any other foods that we would prefer not to have then given a tour of the Ryokan and shown where everything was and shown to our room. This place has its own karaoke room, even some slot machines in the game room.
Our luggage were already in our fifth floor room when we arrived. Wow what a beautiful room. This was a twelve tatami mat room with private Toto toilet and full bathroom stocked with all Shiseido beauty products. The room had a beautiful veranda with Western furniture on one end and Japanese furniture on the other. We had a beautiful view of the river and forest. I could easily live here for a while,
The hot spring baths were on the first floor. What a difference from the previous Ryokan we had just left. The locker room area was huge and had everything you would expect from a first class Ryokan.
The shower area had over 30 shower areas and each station had its own soaps, shampoo and conditioners. They have one indoor men’s and women’s bath and one outdoor one each but they are huge. The indoor one can accommodate at least 30 people or more and the outdoor one maybe 20 or so. They also have two electric massage lounge chairs in the locker room area.
Dinner and breakfast are served in the dining room which is beautiful and everyone has their own private dining area. We were served a 19 course dinner and an 18 course breakfast. The food was fabulous and so beautifully presented that it was stunning. The meal ranged from Kobe beef to sashimi, all types of vegetables, yuba in various styles, several different tsukemono and shrimp and vegetable tempuras, just a whole lot of food as we say here in the states. They even had our meals printed out on separate menus (we both had different wants and tastes which we let them know of ahead of time) next to our seats when we arrived. The meals and everything about this Ryokan was fabulous and we would return in a heartbeat. I highly recommend Senhime Monogatari.
Have to go out now will finish tomorrow.
