Days go by in Japan

After spending a weekend (5-6 November) in Tokyo Disney Sea & Disneyland (staying at Villa Fontaine Hotel in Tokyo - a nice budget hotel), we headed off to Ootsuki and met with Rani & Hide. Then we drove to Yamanaka. The view along the way was soooo~ beautiful!!! The leaves were colourful!! We stayed at a nice and warm bed & breakfast called ファミリーロッジ(Family Lodge) near Yamanaka-ko (Lake Yamanaka). The view was stunning. Unfortunately I haven't been able to upload any pictures from my camera right now... After staying for 1 night in Yamanaka, we spent the day sightseeing around Lake Yamanaka and Lake Kawaguchi, enjoying the view, taking pictures, and then had lunch. Then Hide & Rani drove us back to Ootsuki Station, and we went to Kyoto.

[Edit: Now the pics have been uploaded]

Our first night at Kyoto was something to remember. Not because it was good, unfortunately. The guest house we had booked called Toji-an (東寺庵) turned out to be a horrible place !!! What you see on the web site is not what you get. When we got there we were 'greeted' by 2 guys who just woke up from sleep, smells cigarette smoke, and when we went inside toward the bed room, it smells like toilet. The toilets were at the end of the small hallway. When we enter our room, the beds were not neatly made, the sheets and blankets were not neatly folded - so I wondered if they were clean or not And there is a used towel on the hanger! We can hear the guests in the next room chatting and giggling, because it turned out to be a very small wooden house. And the room cannot be locked.

It was 10 pm and we were very tired, but we prepared our daypack, left our backpack and travel bag in our room, and we roamed in Central Kyoto night to find a place to stay. We walked back to Kyoto Station and make phone calls to some accommodations we saw in my guide book (so a guide book is very useful in that kind of situations). Most places were full! But finally we got a room at Matsubaya Ryokan (www.matsubayainn.com). We got a Japanese-style room (和室 / washitsu), nice but very expensive for us; but we were really in need to stay at a decent place so we gladly took it. We were greeted by an old woman (who answered my phone call a few minutes before), her name is Kumiko Hayashi. So last night we could finally sleep well - past midnight and very exhausted.

Rani & Hide got home in Utsunomiya at about 11 pm last night, after a very long ride from Ootsuki. They checked the internet right away to look for an accommodation for us...poor guys I'm very sorry to trouble them, but we couldn't find another place in Kyoto - they are full. Rani had to go for work at 6 am this morning. She is pregnant and she catched cold. I hope she and her baby are OK, and they can have a good rest tonight to recharge their batteries.

So this morning Hide found a place for us to stay, not in Kyoto but in Shin Osaka. We checked out from Matsubaya Ryokan, walked back to Toji-an and complained because we didn't get what we saw on the Internet. They say the have free shower, but the fact is they don't have a shower room. Guests have to walk a few minutes to a public bath (sento). We asked for our money back for the next nights that we had paid but they would only refunded one night.

Everyone, don't get trapped like us. Stay away from the guest house called TOJI-AN.