Final Weekend; Tokyo Love Hotel

Benedicte making her bed

This weekend was the final one in "Japan: Round 1".

Since we don't have any more classes there was no way we would spend our final weekend in Japan moping around in little ol' Togane.

So Benedicte and I packed our stuff and "moved" to Tokyo for the weekend.

Tokyo is only an hour away from Togane by bus, but the cost is actually the same whether you choose to stay overnight at a hostel, or go back and forth.

So we booked three nights at Sakura Hostel in Asakusa, and paid only a little more than 7000 yen (450 kr) each.

My bunk

So, after we settled in at the hostel on Friday we split up and I went to Akihabara to buy a new lense for the camera.

Not much to tell really.

In the evening I went bar hopping in Shibuya with Wictoria and her friend Li. Fun!

Hung over?

On Saturday we got up early and went to Odaiba, a big artificial island in Tokyo bay, which I've been wanting to check out.

Nope! Just feeling a little caged

Common room at the hostel

We went hunting for breakfast.

Benedicte in hunting mood

We ended up at a Chinese restaurant (hey.. when in doubt..).

A few pictures from the 15 minute walk from our hostel in Asakusa to the subway station:

Chocolate covered bananas

Candy fruit chillin' in ice

Hi there, mr. grumpy pants

At the skytrain station
heading for Odaiba

Benedicte

.. you betcha!

I've been lying to you
I've been in NY the whole time
There's just a hell of a lot
Asian people
here

On our way back to the hostel

The sophisticated love shack
next door

In Japan there's so called love hotels everywhere. This is where you take your girlfriend when you still live at home. Here you can stay overnight, or only stop by for "a rest".

Let's go and rest!

Celebrating New Year in Japan: I Have a Baby and Staying at a Capsule Hotel in Tokyo

Yes, I have a baby

He has appropriately been named Grudrun. Even though it's an unfashionable Norwegian female name. Oh, well.

Do you remember the cat I wrote about on Christmas eve? Well, it doesn't come as a shock that we haven't heard anything from Supermario sensee, so Cat and a bunch of other people took the cat to the vet and got it checked out. As we thought it's leg is broken, so now they are trying to raise the money for the operation and trying to find someone who'll adopt him.

Gudrun

On New Year's Eve my bus from Oita arrived in Tokyo at 9 in the morning. Then I rushed home to change and pack out before heading back to Tokyo with Cat and Julie to celebrate New Year.

We stayed at a capsule hotel in Kinshichoo. It was so cool! And pretty cheap; 3100 yen (ca. 190 NOK) per night.

Cat

There's even a TV!

Julie

We went to a club in Shibuya. It was WAY too crowded and the air was thick with cigarette smoke. I'm 21 years old, but I feel like a granny. I just wanted to go back to our cosy and warm capsule.

And when we finally did, at 4 in the morning, I slept like a baby.

Yokohama

I think you've already got a hunch that we'll do anything to get away from Togane. And you're right. That's why we always try to make good use of the weekends and get the h**l outta here.

Yesterday, Wictoria and I went to Shibuya in Tokyo. Wictoria wanted to go to H&M and I wanted to, well, find something I could snap a photo of.

I don't really like shopping, but I tagged along to find H&M. Hundereds of people were lining up for something, and we soon got a bad feeling. People had been standing in line in front of H&M (with the line already going a few blocks down the road, for that matter) for several hours to get the first dibs on Jimmy Choo's collection for H&M.

In other words, we found something else to do.

No one ever takes a photo of me, so I gotta do it myself. Bohoo

So we took the train to Shinjuku, and Wictoria and I separated so she could go shopping and I walked the area in search of anyhing interesting to see. The weather was pretty moody, and it rained sporadically and the warm wind was very strong.

Shinjuku

Shinjuku

Shinjuku

I even found a fruit shop selling two of my momma's favourite fruits
- durian and young coconut

Then we met up with Benedicte who had overslept, and Yoshi, a good Japanese friend of Wictoria whom she'd first stalked back home in Norway a few years ago.

Then we took the train to Yokohama.

It can get pretty intimate onboard the train. Mind you, one knee is mine,
the rest belong to strangers

Yokohama

I really liked Yokohama. It had stopped raining and the wather was warm. We even got to ride the humongous ferris wheel!

Yokohama bay

Yokohama from the ferris wheel

Yokohama from the ferris wheel

Then we walked to Chinatown for some chowder. I want to go there again!

Wonton Soup

Shrimp dumplings

When the sun set the sky had the most amazing color. I got so stressed because I really wanted to run back to the bay to get some pictures, but it was too far, and I was stuck in a maze of concrete. Oh, well.

Partners in crime - Benedicte, Yoshi & Wictoria

Wictoria and Green Tea Kit Kat!

Green tea Kit Kat

I'm most certainly not too old for blue and sparkly nail polish

Near Tokyo station

We've just figured out that there is a bus that runs directly from Tokyo Station to Togane - and it only takes around an hour! We felt a bit stupid, considering that we've been taking the train home all this time, when it has taken us up to three hours, and that we've had to change trains a bunch of times. Never taking the train home again, that's for sure.

Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite!