Tuesday, February 1, 2011

The Japan Diaries- Prison

After seeing the review on the hostel we were about to go that it was a "prison", we were a little worried. However, the hostel had proper beds and there was a room just for the 5 of us, so we decided that it was going to be alright.

And well, we were truly grateful for the place, as compared to the one we had pre-booked. However, it was indeed a little like living in prison. Here's why.

1. Because the hostel is right above an office building, it is closed at 11pm. Any guest who don't return by 11pm gets locked out.

2. The bathroom is closed at 10 (if I remember correctly). We had to return to the hostel by 9pm just so we can bathe before we sleep. But the silver lining is, we don't have to pay to shower.

3. All guests have to get out of the hostel by 10am every morning, so that they can "clean up". The earliest time guests can return is 3pm. So we were up by 9am everyday.

4. There is a PA system within the room which we stayed in. At 7, 8 and 9am, it makes announcements regarding breakfast, and/or having to vacate the premises by 10am. Wakes me up every single day. It's better than our alarm.

5. There is a female receptionist who looks stern enough to be a prison warden. She scared the heck out of us, even though she never really did anything bad to us. She did, once however, scold really noisy kids. (Which we were grateful for because those kids were being nuisances)

And so, for the 7 nights that we were in that hostel, we would be in the streets of Tokyo by 10 in the morning. But it's alright, since we're all bathed and about to fall asleep by 11pm. I can't really remember where we went and what we did in Tokyo in sequence, but I can remember the sound of the PA system. Which liked to repeat the message quite a few times before they gave it a rest.

It was still, better than having to sleep in coffins for the night though.

We also felt that we were never more thankful for the abundant flow of water in our showerheads.

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