Our Hotel in Japan... It's Not Like the US of A!

Our hotel in Japan was definitely not like any we've been to in the US! We stayed at Uenokoen Candeo in Tokyo. My brother had warned us that most hotel rooms in Asia are very small, and he was right! Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos. But, Alex & I shared a double bed. There was a long table underneath the window. Besides that, there was very little floor space. If you put your suitcase down, there was just barely enough room to walk beside it. And, the bathroom was very tiny, too.

On the bed, there were 2 of these lounging outfits for Alex & me. We only wore them the first evening, though I used the slippers several times. You can put this on and walk around the hotel in it.

We were on the 11th (of 12) floor and only heard a siren once. Otherwise, we didn't hear anything. This is the view from our window. It's hard to tell, but on the far left you can see the mountains! My brother's room was on the same floor, but he had a wall next to him so he couldn't see the mountains... sorry, brother!

We took a lot of photos of signs that we saw. It reminded me of Jimmie's Collage! Anyway, we got the giggles over this sign posted by our hotel window: "In case open the window, be careful of invasion of AN insect." (emphasis mine) Another sign that gave us the giggles was the one that you would leave outside of the room when you wanted your sheets changed. It basically said that "This customer would like to change sheets." I was thinking, "Yes! Sign me up! I want to change sheets while on vacation!" OK... maybe it was funnier when you were sleep deprived. We were dealing with a 15 hour time change!

This isn't really funny, but it did take some time to grasp. Something we found interesting in Japan was that it isn't very acceptable to eat or drink while you walk. This is kind of hard when you're traveling! Anyway, along with this attitude came a serious lack of trashcans! We'd walk & walk and not find a trashcan. But, sometimes when we were in a restaurant (fast food) and needed to throw away trash, you'd have trashcans - up to 4 of them - each labeled differently in JAPANESE... no English! We'd have to play detective to figure out what went in which trashcan! Oh, and I was SHOCKED at how many signs DID have English on them also! There is a LOT of English in Japan! Well, especially around Tokyo.

One last room shot... my brother says these are common in many countries, but I've never seen one. To turn on the lights, any lights, you have to put the keychain into this switch. My mom says it's to conserve energy as you can't leave the lights on while you are gone! Anyway, I was thankful my brother could help us out with this one!