All the reviews we’d read of Japanese hotels pointed out to the relatively compact sizes of the rooms for most hotels short of the five star ones. So, at some level, we weren’t too surprised when we checked-in to find ourselves in a room that’s even smaller than our Rivervale bedroom:
To be fair; everything that we need is all there, and there are four necessities: a shower area, a bed, a water boiler, and Internet access (for me!). Some part of me though had still been secretly hoping though that the rooms were larger. The one I got at Kumamoto KKR – and this was a business hotel mind you with supposedly even smaller rooms – was far bigger and more luxurious than this. Still, the per room rate was even lower than what the booking site had suggested; for two nights, our confirmation email stated that the charges to be 15,000円 – but we ended up paying 10,720円.
On the upside, the room’s really cosy and we don’t mind the fact that it’s pretty small. It’s actually quite a fun challenge to navigate ourselves and our luggage about in the room without having to climb over each other!
We also went about exploring the immediate area around Chisun Hotel Kobe. There was a fairly large two-level supermarket situated just beside the hotel. Ling has already started eyeing the strawberries there!
Even for a relatively quieter and sleepy city like Kobe, there’s no shortage of dining and eating places. You’d totally spoiled for choice! There’re eateries everywhere, and a lot of times we’re just walking along roads and side streets looking at menus and trying to decide where to have our next meal. If only we could eat more than just that few times a day without ill-effect.
We eventually settled lunch at Kobe station. There was a Kobe Food Terrace’ foodcourt ‘of sorts inside the station, and Ling had her first taste of a Japanese eatery with what I’d call quick input-output. Office workers queue up, order and get their food, find themselves a free seat, tuck in, and leave – all in 10 minutes.
As though lunch wasn’t enough; on our way out, Ling picked up a donut snack that came in a one of those really cute packaging:
And Ling was especially looking forward to checking out those vending machines – which in themselves are ubiquitous throughout Japan.
Next post on our exploration of the Kitano district.:)
The one on the right of the one corn soup ling is pointing at is Chris’ favourite milk tea! royal milk tea. try it! it’s nice =)
haha… we feel the same way about food in Japan =) too many good food too little meals LOL and the donut shop… haha Chris likes the donuts too haha
I’ve only been to Japan once, and that was in Feb this year. The rooms all quite spacious though, other than the size/layout of the bathrooms, that is. Or maybe Hokkaido very “ulu”, so the rooms larger.
The room we’re in at Mitsui Garden Hotel now are more spacious. Not quite as large as what I got in KKR Kumamoto, but still larger than the very confined space in Kobe.:)