Japan Day 3: Tokyo, Odaiba and a Love Hotel

Day three was filled with exploration!

We woke up early and decided to explore Asakusa 浅草(where our hostel was). We walked to Senso-ji temple in the heart of Asakusa.

It was a bit chilly and rainy so we decided to explore the mostly indoor wonder called Odaiba, situated on a man made island in Tokyo Harbour. In order to get to Odaiba you need to take the metro to Shimbashi station (To Book Train Travel in Japan Click Here) then buy a ticket on the Yurikamome monorail to get to Odaiba Island. Odaiba is a wonderland, filled with entertainment… movie theatres, virtual reality gaming centres, arcades, hotsprings, shops, restaurants, ferriswheels, replicas of Italian plazas, trick art museums, lego etc etc etc OH and a GIANT GUNDAM!!

TRICK ART MUSEUM

After we had exhausted ourselves at Odaiba, we took the train back to Ueno station near our hostel and walked leisurely back to our accommodation where we picked up our backpacks and headed to the love hotel section of Shibuya.

Trying to find a love hotel in Shibuya was a particularity interesting experience. Knowing practically zero Japanese, we wandered around the Love Hotel section of Shibuya, getting turned away or intimidated by almost every establishment.

We had read a bit about how Love Hotels work before deciding we would try to stay at one whilst in Tokyo. At a love hotel you can either  A: Stay for a short while (an hour or two) or B: Stay for the night. The first “short stay” option is designed for either workers who need a short rest between work or (for the more romantic reason) lovers to meet up and share each others “company” for a short while. We were in search of a place that would allow us to stay the night, which provided to be difficult. From what we read, after about 10 pm, Love Hotels begin to offer the overnight option. However,our inability to read Japanese made it difficult for us to maneuver our way through the self-serve system. We eventually found a Love Hotel where the lady behind the counter spoke perfect English, and the hotel was only offering the “long stay” option. We were saved!

Some Love Hotels have interesting themes and gimmicks (jail theme, jungle theme, school room theme etc.), our Love Hotel seemed to have the “generic hotel” theme.

All in all, the experience was very interesting, and I am glad we tried it!

Here is a video that Jives and I filmed (partially at Odaiba)