Osaka and Kyoto

So after Hiroshima, Althea and I headed off to Osaka. Now I may be horribly misinformed but some of the friends I've spoken to who visited Osaka told me that there wasn't very many interesting spots there and from my research it didn't seem very interesting either so I admit that I didn't really plan to do anything there. Our main attraction for Osaka was the capsule hotel that we were staying in. The only other capsule hotel that I know of that also takes women guests is in Tokyo so we were very excited. For those who don't know what a capsule hotel is, it is basically an accomodation service originally designed for businessmen who, after a night of work or drinking, don't want to go all the way home (since they have to get back to work early the next morning) and need a place to relax. Instead of rooms, they offer you a capsule to sleep in which resembles, for the lack of a better word, a coffin.

An entire room of capsules

Its actually quite roomy once you get inside but then again I'm 5 foot 6 and a girl. I've talked to some guys who are taller than 6 feet and they find it quite cramped. Inside the capsule, there is a mirror, a clock radio, a light and a tv. There is also a little coin box beside the tv which is the magical box that turns on the porn channels for the low, low cost of 100 yen. Needless to say, I totally didn't use that box. There's also a screen at the opening of the capsule that you can pull down for a little privacy but you can totally hear anyone who is walking past your capsule. As I said, the whole capsule hotel concept was designed for people who just don't want to make the long trek home but still want a place to rest or take a shower so most of the clientele there only have a purse and the clothes off their back to put in their lockers. This was why it was slightly embarassing when Althea and I had to unpack most of our suitcases just to fit it into the tiny lockers they provide you. Nonetheless, our night spent at the capsule hotel was a memorable one and the beds were surprisingly comfortable which provided us some much needed sleep to get us ready for Kyoto.

Once we got to Kyoto which was only about half an hour away, we immediately checked in to our hostel to drop off our luggage. The hostel that we're staying at is actually really cool because it has a huge common area where people can mingle, eat or use the computer. We were really lucky because we met a great group of people who were bunked together in one room. They came all over Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the U.S. We hung out with them that night and exchanged travel stories and recommendations on where to eat or where to stay. Althea and I had been really looking forward to speaking to fellow travellers so needless to say, we had a blast. Unfortunately we all had to go our separate ways the next morning but it was amazing just to meet such a great group of people.