Flying to Japan was another experience - moving through the sky on Emirates Airlines was just as good the second time, and the flight path was arguably better. Looking out the window I got to see Iran, Afghanistanistan (just kidding, we conveniently went way out of the way to avoid that place!), Pakistan, India, and a lot of the North deserts of China. Unfortunately I was sleeping when we crossed the Himalayas - the girl in front of me said they came up almost to the plane. Shucks... but I'll eventually make my way to Nepal.
I got off the plane in Japan and immediately discovered I was in for an unexpected challenge - no one speaks English. Whoops. I managed to figure out the subway map and took a train to the nearest station (Okachimachi) to my capsule hotel. Then began the first of many frustrating hunts for my destination.
There are no street signs in Tokyo, at least that made sense to me. I saw lots of signs with arrows pointing to parts of town, and big signs on the street indicating the sub-district ahead. I eventually saw some street signs in bigger areas of Tokyo like Shinjuku, but these were far and few between.
While walking around dark, smelly alleyways trying to find my hotel a man walked up to me and started trying to make conversation. My training in every other country put me on high alert, but he had a suitcase and couldn't speak English very well at all, and seemed genuinely excited to meet me. I spoke with him as best I could, and asked him where the hotel was, and fortunately he was going to the same place. Turns out, though, there were three or four hotels with nearly identical names, and his and mine were not the same. So off I went again into the alleys.
As luck would have it I ran into a police officer and asked him where the hotel was. He had no clue, but when I showed him the address he pointed up and I was standing right in front of it. Thanks, intuitive subconscious!
The hotel was very weird, but honestly I liked it. The beds were little tubes with nothing more than a blanket, pillow and sheet. A TV hung from the ceiling and there was a radio with power outlet and light. Oh, and Japan uses the same outlet as the USA, which I much appreciated.
Each floor was filled with capsules, two high, so there were maybe 50 people on each tiny floor. Stuck in a corner was a sink and toilet, and no shower. The shower was in the basement, but it was no ordinary shower.
Apparently in Japanese history it was rare for each individual house to have it's own bath/shower. Instead bathing was done in big public bath houses - the practice was referred to as onsen bathing. Nowadays public bathing is still around, usually as very nice facilities with several baths varying in temperature, water pressure and even herbs and fragrances.
Capsule hotels almost ubiquitously use onsen bathing instead of showers as they typically market to traveling salarymen. My first hotel did not have showers, so I began my first night in Japan by jumping in headfirst into this part of culture. It was actually pretty relaxing and I got a nice robe to wear before and after.
I went to bed in my future-tube and started mentally preparing myself for robot city. Conichiwaaaaa.
Konichiwa
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