Posted by Jess
23 January 2011
This weekend we took a little mini-trip to Kamogawa, which is a small ocean side town about two hours east of Tokyo. Kamogawa is home to Japan's Seaworld Park, but the park itself will be on the next post. We booked a room at the Kamogawa Seaworld Hotel, which is attached to the park. After arriving at Awa-Kamogawa station on the express train from Tokyo Station, we took the hotel shuttle to the hotel. The hotel is Japanese Ryokan style, which means room is like a house you see on TV when you see Japan. Its just one room with a kotatsu table in the middle where you sit on the floor to eat and tatami mats on the floor. And no beds! Our room was about 300 square feet in total when you include the bathroom.
As you enter the room, the first thing you find is the slipper rack. There are slippers there for all sizes (well, maybe not quite OUR sizes!) for you to wear in the room and around the hotel. In Japan, you always take off your shoes when you enter a home, so its the same thing here.
Immediately to the left is the very small bathroom area.
Then you enter in to the main room.
If you look at the picture directly above, on the table in the red wood container is a set of tea cups and glasses. Straight ahead is the closet where the bedding is kept and to the right is the coat/clothing closet (above the safe). When you slide open the bedding closet doors you find the mattresses and the blankets.
Around 7:30, two women came in to our room and made our beds. They pushed the table out of the way and put out the mattresses.
You can see in this picture that the mattresses are not very thick (about 2 inches, maybe?) and not very soft either! The pillows are made up of the same material as the futon mattress so they are hard as rocks. The blankets however, were nice and cushy!
In the coat closet were our Yukatas (Japanese robes). At a ryokan hotel, you wear these in your room and anywhere around the hotel and only have their underwear on underneath. While Jason and Ella wore theirs (with their clothes on underneath), I didn't try mine on. Ella and Jason wore theirs to dinner in the hotel restaurant.
Dinner was a buffet of Japanese and Western foods, but of course no English signs so we had a little bit of fun trying to figure out what everything was. The girls had chicken strips and french fries for dinner and I had some noodles, salad, rice and took what I thought was chicken, but was clearly fish when I turned it over! Jason had crab legs, noodles, rice, fish dumplings, sushi, sashimi and tried a few other things. Dessert was some small cakes and creme puffs - like the kind we buy from Sam's Club at home! The restaurant was very kid friendly with every table having a baby chair (highchair) and a kids area to play in.
It was already pretty late so after dinner we headed back upstairs and worked on getting the girls to bed. At 10pm, this was pretty much a disaster waiting to happen. The girls were so tired and in a completely new place, plus there was no way to keep them from getting up and wandering around (Abby really needs a crib to keep her in one place at night!). Abby had a really tough time falling asleep and was mad when we tried to rock her. Jason had to take her to the lobby to avoid bothering other guests and getting kicked out the hotel! Good thing that it was a kid-friendly hotel so all the rooms were filled with parents. Maybe we even got a little sympathy. Maybe.
After Jason brought Abby back up (finally asleep), I stayed with the girls and he headed down to the onsen. Onsens are the Japanese hot springs and are public bathing areas. This is a concept that as an American I shudder at - I don't want to wear a swimsuit in public, not sure why I would want to sit around naked in a hot tub with strangers! But Jason is a brave soul and we were going for a Japanese experience. Knowing that the hotel was quite empty and he wouldn't have much company, he headed down. The hotel had an indoor onsen - one for women and one for men. If you are curious what this area looks like, here is a picture from the hotel website. Jason didn't take the camera with him. Ha!
Jason went to the mens one and used the showering area to soap up and rinse off. It is bad form to get in an onsen unbathed. He used a small hand towel to cover himself while walking into the onsen and then put it on his head as he sat in the onsen. Since these are made from volcanic activity, there is sulfur in the hot springs which is said to be a natural muscle tension-reliever and after the fight we had with Abby to get her to sleep, I'm sure he needed it! While sitting in the onsen, he put the towel on his head (to keep the towel from getting wet). There were just a few other people coming in and out. Jason said 4 people in total, so it was a good time to try it. He stayed for about 10 minutes and then came out, put on his yukata and came upstairs to crawl into our 'beds'.
Abby woke up around 3am and was up and off of course (again we could have used some way to contain her in a bed!) so we were both up - and Ella too - trying to get her back to sleep. Let's just say 7am came way too early and with some sore backs and hips, but at least we had a beautiful view from our window.
Breakfast was also included with our stay down at the buffet so we went down and had some eggs, rice, fruit, toast, bacon, and sausage links. They also had traditional Japanese breakfast items like fermented soybeans and miso soup, but we stuck to the more western side of things. After breakfast we packed up and checked out and walked the short path to Kamogawa Sea World for the day.
We were glad to be able to experience a ryokan style hotel, even though it wasn't quite the bed and breakfast experience of the traditional Japanese ryokan. It was nice to try it and get a flavor of it while knowing it was family friendly, we had our own bathroom, and had solid walls (instead of rice paper walls) for when the girls were loud!
Kanpai!
Jess
23 January 2011
This weekend we took a little mini-trip to Kamogawa, which is a small ocean side town about two hours east of Tokyo. Kamogawa is home to Japan's Seaworld Park, but the park itself will be on the next post. We booked a room at the Kamogawa Seaworld Hotel, which is attached to the park. After arriving at Awa-Kamogawa station on the express train from Tokyo Station, we took the hotel shuttle to the hotel. The hotel is Japanese Ryokan style, which means room is like a house you see on TV when you see Japan. Its just one room with a kotatsu table in the middle where you sit on the floor to eat and tatami mats on the floor. And no beds! Our room was about 300 square feet in total when you include the bathroom.
As you enter the room, the first thing you find is the slipper rack. There are slippers there for all sizes (well, maybe not quite OUR sizes!) for you to wear in the room and around the hotel. In Japan, you always take off your shoes when you enter a home, so its the same thing here.
Immediately to the left is the very small bathroom area.
Then you enter in to the main room.
If you look at the picture directly above, on the table in the red wood container is a set of tea cups and glasses. Straight ahead is the closet where the bedding is kept and to the right is the coat/clothing closet (above the safe). When you slide open the bedding closet doors you find the mattresses and the blankets.
Around 7:30, two women came in to our room and made our beds. They pushed the table out of the way and put out the mattresses.
You can see in this picture that the mattresses are not very thick (about 2 inches, maybe?) and not very soft either! The pillows are made up of the same material as the futon mattress so they are hard as rocks. The blankets however, were nice and cushy!
In the coat closet were our Yukatas (Japanese robes). At a ryokan hotel, you wear these in your room and anywhere around the hotel and only have their underwear on underneath. While Jason and Ella wore theirs (with their clothes on underneath), I didn't try mine on. Ella and Jason wore theirs to dinner in the hotel restaurant.
Dinner was a buffet of Japanese and Western foods, but of course no English signs so we had a little bit of fun trying to figure out what everything was. The girls had chicken strips and french fries for dinner and I had some noodles, salad, rice and took what I thought was chicken, but was clearly fish when I turned it over! Jason had crab legs, noodles, rice, fish dumplings, sushi, sashimi and tried a few other things. Dessert was some small cakes and creme puffs - like the kind we buy from Sam's Club at home! The restaurant was very kid friendly with every table having a baby chair (highchair) and a kids area to play in.
It was already pretty late so after dinner we headed back upstairs and worked on getting the girls to bed. At 10pm, this was pretty much a disaster waiting to happen. The girls were so tired and in a completely new place, plus there was no way to keep them from getting up and wandering around (Abby really needs a crib to keep her in one place at night!). Abby had a really tough time falling asleep and was mad when we tried to rock her. Jason had to take her to the lobby to avoid bothering other guests and getting kicked out the hotel! Good thing that it was a kid-friendly hotel so all the rooms were filled with parents. Maybe we even got a little sympathy. Maybe.
After Jason brought Abby back up (finally asleep), I stayed with the girls and he headed down to the onsen. Onsens are the Japanese hot springs and are public bathing areas. This is a concept that as an American I shudder at - I don't want to wear a swimsuit in public, not sure why I would want to sit around naked in a hot tub with strangers! But Jason is a brave soul and we were going for a Japanese experience. Knowing that the hotel was quite empty and he wouldn't have much company, he headed down. The hotel had an indoor onsen - one for women and one for men. If you are curious what this area looks like, here is a picture from the hotel website. Jason didn't take the camera with him. Ha!
Jason went to the mens one and used the showering area to soap up and rinse off. It is bad form to get in an onsen unbathed. He used a small hand towel to cover himself while walking into the onsen and then put it on his head as he sat in the onsen. Since these are made from volcanic activity, there is sulfur in the hot springs which is said to be a natural muscle tension-reliever and after the fight we had with Abby to get her to sleep, I'm sure he needed it! While sitting in the onsen, he put the towel on his head (to keep the towel from getting wet). There were just a few other people coming in and out. Jason said 4 people in total, so it was a good time to try it. He stayed for about 10 minutes and then came out, put on his yukata and came upstairs to crawl into our 'beds'.
Abby woke up around 3am and was up and off of course (again we could have used some way to contain her in a bed!) so we were both up - and Ella too - trying to get her back to sleep. Let's just say 7am came way too early and with some sore backs and hips, but at least we had a beautiful view from our window.
Breakfast was also included with our stay down at the buffet so we went down and had some eggs, rice, fruit, toast, bacon, and sausage links. They also had traditional Japanese breakfast items like fermented soybeans and miso soup, but we stuck to the more western side of things. After breakfast we packed up and checked out and walked the short path to Kamogawa Sea World for the day.
We were glad to be able to experience a ryokan style hotel, even though it wasn't quite the bed and breakfast experience of the traditional Japanese ryokan. It was nice to try it and get a flavor of it while knowing it was family friendly, we had our own bathroom, and had solid walls (instead of rice paper walls) for when the girls were loud!
Kanpai!
Jess
1:34 AM |
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