Picking hotels

Ok I have decided to hit Tokyo, Hakone, Kyoto and Osaka on this trip. My goal is to find hotels with the best selection of porn videos. Just kidding. I am looking for location, no smoking and a price range around 10,000 yen. I know the size of the rooms are going to be small but thank God Lois is a tiny gal and likes to snuggle. Private toilet and shower is also important because with all the great eating comes all the great dumping. I got to do this in private for fear of being deported for air pollution. So where do you look for good deals? I started at Japan Guide and clicked on the adds on the side of the page. I used Agoda and JapanICan for two hotels and I booked direct for two others. I found info on the two I booked direct on Japan Guide.

TOKYO: I used to live in Tokyo and worked in Ikebukuro so I know this city the best. Ikebukuro gets totally ignored in all of the travel guides but it is actually a great city to explore for tourists. Ok there are no famous shrines but you could explore the area around the station for days and never see the same thing twice. I ended up booking the Sakura Hotel mainly due to the location and price. I have a bit of history with the Sakura group of hotels. When I was working in Tokyo fifteen years ago, Sakura opened up some gaijin houses in Ikebukuro. Now for anyone that is living in Japan there is a feeling that "ok now that I am here, stopping letting any more gaijin into Japan." I want to be the special freak show that everyone points at and not share the spot light with other freaks. Speaking of freaks.The biggest dorks in the world can come to Japan and teach English and all of a sudden they become a rock star. I am not saying that everyone goes crazy over them. What I am saying is it just takes one of the millions of hotties to fall for the gaijin dork and he is now tasting nectar that he could only imagine (insert porn rental joke here) at home. A lot of these guys get married to their J gal and take them home to his country where the Jgal finally realizes "My husband is a dork" when compared to the guys back home. OK back to Sakura house. So Sakura is running long term gaijin houses, gaijin hostels and now a hotel. I am not flying all the way to Japan to hang out with gaijin that is for sure but I think this will be the best way to break Lois into the Japan scene. I am spending 9,000 yen per night for a double room for five nights. I will give you a full report when I return. They have another hotel close to Shinjuku that looks like a killer location. Small town feel with lots of restaurants near by.

HAKONE: I wanted to stay at a ryokan in Hakone but they were all so expensive for the date I was looking for. I searched Japan Guide and found the Fuji-Hakone Guest House. This looked like a fun place with only about seven rooms. It is tatami style room so Lois can get a chance to try sleeping on a futon. There is no private toilet so I hope they forgive me someday. They have a furo that is private so Lois and I can have a private bath together. The cost is 11,000 yen and I included breakfast for 800 more yen apiece. Again this is a gaijin friendly place which is not really what I am looking for but will be fun to hang out with people after a nice bath and talk about who stunk up the bathroom.

Coming up next post: Kyoto and Osaka hotels. Thanks for reading.

Quagmire