I wasn't looking forward to our accommodation in Tokyo, because it sounded so back to basics; and I wasn't alone in the bleak outlook. It the final days leading up to our departure for Tokyo it was feeling like we were about to embark on a complete downgrade from our sweet setup in Osaka.Our pad in Japan was a Ryokan. I'm talking wooden floors, tatami mats, slidey doors, low ceilings, all that good Japanese stuff you see in anime's, Samurai movies, ninja flicks and memoirs of Geisha's.
The Ryokan was cool to stay in because it was an experience unlike no other. If you go to Japan you have to experience the Ryokan style living for at least a day and a night. But because the Ryokan we stayed in was essentially somebody else's home - you felt like a guest in somebodies house the whole time. You couldn't take the slight liberties you would if you were in a hotel room, or a weekly mansion. Because there were always other guests and the walls were pretty much pieces of cardboard - you had to be as quiet as ninjas. No word of a lie. You had to roll like stealth ninjas at night. Tip toeing around the place. Shutting the doors quietly when you snuck in and out at night. Timing the toilet uses so the flush wouldn't wake anybody. Not being able to really talk and crack jokes at night because you'd be too loud. It got annoying fast. Plus the spaces are small. The amount of times I smacked my head on the ceiling beams, I'm surprised I didn't end up in a hospital.
It was funny hearing some of the guys go on about sleeping on the floor though. Me and a couple of the others guys pulled short straws by having to sleep in the tatami room in our apartment in Osaka. So we were used to it and became pretty accustomed to it. But the others, it was a wake up call and took getting used to. The cool thing was though, everybody realized how sleeping on the floor wasn't as shit and uncomfortable as they thought. I got better sleep on those tatami floors and duvets than I do in my own bed!
We got one of the better deals with the Ryokan though. We bumped into a couple of girls we'd met in Osaka dragging their suitcases though the street. We asked them what they were up to and they told us they'd ended up at a Ryokan just down the road, and that they were checking out from there because it was a dump: a lack of security and full of weird people. I'm gonna call the Ryokan out and give you name and address of it now:
Taito Ryokan: 2-1-4 Nishi-Asakusa, Taito-ku
They've even got a website, which you can check out at www.libertyhouse.gr.jp. The homepage has a stunning shot of the outside. There are photos of the interior, but they're close up's of some of the detailing featured within the house. So it all looks quite esquisite. Because the owners know full well of they post panaroamic shots of the room, that people would think twice about booking a room there. The place really is a dump. It looks like the outdoor cabin Lisa Trevor swags around in Resident evil 1. I walked past there and was like "Jesus Christ...People actually stay in this shit!?".
We were lucky we ended up in the nice Ryokan, because I would have actually cried and slept on the street if I found out we'd booked in at the Taito Ryokan. The owner of the Tokyo Ryokan was really cool. I like to think he's a Samurai pimp by night and a home owning husband by day. He just had this swagger and long hair, tied up hair do that had him look like he runs shit at night. He was a cool guy though. His wealth of knowledge of the area and many other aspect sof Japan was invaluable to us. And we wouldn've have coem across half the cool stuff in Asakusa we did without him.