Thursday, June 28, 2007

Youth Hostel Supplement

In keeping with my tradition of listing my accommodations...

Sakura Youth Hostel (Tokyo) - Great way to arrive in Tokyo (man that feels like it was a long time ago, way more than two months!). Clean, friendly place in the "old" part of town, Asakusa. Great atmosphere in the common area. Only downside is that it is difficult to find your first time there. 2940 yen.

Backpacker's K House at Mount Fuji (Kawaguchiko) - Possibly the best hostel I have EVER stayed in...ever! Mellow place, lots of "long term" guests, full kitchen, nice common area with large HD LCD. Seriously a wonderful place to be (it is very new) and as luck would have it, right next to a quality (and cheap!) onsen. 2700 yen.

Warakuan Guest House (Kyoto) - Very cool traditional place that will give you the Ryokan experience in this cultural center for a decent price. The rooms are 3 or 6 people on tatami mats. Centrally located (although, since we only spent one full day there, I never got a feel for Kyoto's layout) 2500 yen.

Asakusa Capsule Hotel (Tokyo) - Across from the Asakusa metro entrance, this capsule hotel may not be exactly representative of a Shibuya or Shinjuku capsule hotel but it was fun none the less. The clientele appeared to be more of an older men, smoking watching sumo wrestling demo than the young drunk salaryman who missed the last train. Not exactly great but it worked for the night (not available to book online...4000 yen)

I'll have to work up my favorite hostels all told a little later.

Next up: Probably Toronto. I am meeting a few folks for a camp out in Algonquin national forest.

--Joey

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Algonquin must have been where Roger and Lee took your dad and me camping back in 1969. We canoed and portaged in, which sounds a lot more Lewis-and-Clark than it was, and camped on an island. I think you could hear wolves baying at night, but check with your dad because his memory might be more accurate. This trip had the ugly canoe grounding incident, where your dad ignored the instructions of a Mt. Holyoke trained canoeist (me) to "Backwater, Brother!", and ran us into the rocks.

Anonymous said...

Algonquin Provincial Park is where Tia Laura demonstrated that she is no Lewis OR Clark - or even Sacagewea! I've seen more efficient paddling among ducklings on their first day out of the egg.

To reiterate, you need to leave Toronto by 10:00 AM on Friday - the 400 highway starts backing up early on a holiday weekend. And this is Labor Day weekend for the Canadians as well.

Dadman