Early this morning, we checked out of the Hearton Hotel with our luggage and proceeded to go to our next accommodation. Before leaving for Osaka, N had looked up a few accommodation options. One was a guesthouse run by Taiwanese lady. This was a place featured in one of her Chinese-language travel books for the Kansai region. I can't remember when, but a few days earlier N called up this lady to book a room at her place. Fortunately, there was still space available for the few days for which we were extending our stay. Perfect.
We thought the guesthouse was pretty far from where we were, so the plan was to hop onto the subway, go the one station, then walk over to the guesthouse. When we got down to Shinsaibashi [心齋橋] subway station, it was right smack dab in the middle of rush hour. True to their reputation, Japanese subways are notoriously packed during rush hour. We waited for 3 trains before even attempting to get onto a subway car with our luggage. If it was too packed, we didn't want to force our way on. We thought it would really rile the polite-savvy Japanese. In the end, it was still tight and we were only going the one stop to Hommachi [本町] station.
Unfortunately, many Japanese subway stations are not designed with accessibility in mind. I'm not sure how a person on wheelchair would get around, but we constantly lifting and lowering our luggage through a series of staircases. Then we counted our blessings each time we encountered an elevator.
Later on, we actually discovered it would have been faster, easier, and a lot less work to have just walked from the hotel. Grrr....
So we walked a couple of blocks south from Hommachi Station to the guesthouse and checked in with the owner. A group of Taiwanese tourists were leaving for a day's outing in Osaka as we entered. We had to leave our shoes in the entryway and took a pair of slippers. When we entered the guesthouse on the ground level, the kitchen was right by the entry and there was a small living room where a giant flat screen TV dominated the room. There were a couple of guestrooms labeled with room numbers just behind the living room.
N chatted with the owner and got our keys for the small guest room on the second floor. She reminded us that the guesthouse is usually locked up in the middle of the day as she runs her personal errands or visits kids and grandkids. N and the owner worked out the costs and we were set.
I think the lady owner was a bit absent minded, though, because she kept thinking we had just flown in from Hong Kong. N had told her a few times already that we had flown from Canada and had been in town for many days already. It just didn't seem to really register in her mind even a few days later.
The staircase up to the upper floors was directly across from the giant flat screen TV. This staircase was super narrow too. We had some difficulty lifting our North American size luggage up as the staircase twisted upwards. There was no landing to speak of, so it was non stop up to the second floor.
Our room was bare and very minimal. No complaint here. There was no bed, but simply a floor level mattress on which to sleep. Of course, there were two pillows and a comforter to make the sleeping amenities complete. There were a few hooks on which we could hang jackets and/or towels. On top of a small table beside the door sat a small TV set. Oh oh. No cable and only 3 working channels. The evenings would not be as entertaining here. A look out of the curtained window showed that our room looked directly upon the road below. Luckily, it was not a busy street by an stretch of the imagination. It was a narrow one-way street with only the occasional mini-lorry or car rolling by.
Just outside our room was the shared bathroom - shower. And boy was this ever a small and tight set up in the bathroom. Very narrow door to enter the bathroom and the toilet is literally right there upon entry. I had a couple of few square feet to turn around. I could literally sit on the toilet and rest my head on the opposing wall. That's how small it was. The toilet featured a lever that could be pushed down on or pulled up upon. Down was labeled "big" for a big flush and up was labeled "small" for small flushes. I don't think I have to explain more. The toilet had a small thin pipe that run up the side with a spot that hung directly over the middle of the toilet tank. With a flush water would flow out of this small pipe and into a hole on the top of the toilet tank. I guess the idea is that you could wash your hands using the water that would fill the toilet tank right after flushing the toilet. I thought that was a good way to maximize the use of the toilet water. Then there was the shower. Oh my gosh, this shower stall had the sink and mirror inside the stall. Very awkward and very tight. I always hate it when I end up tracking my wet feet outside of a shower stall and make everything wet and dirty. I was not looking forward to the shower tonight.
The day was wasting away, so we just dropped off our belongings and took what would need for the day and get a move on our day. The first order of the day was to get some sustenance in our tummies. I didn't really want to have Matsuya for the umpteenth day again, so I suggested we eat breakfast at all small Western style bakery we passed on the way here. It was called the London Coffee & Bakery, or something to that effect. It served dead simple continental like breakfast. That was fine with me because I just wanted something different. N, however, wasn't all that happy. And for some strange reason, I had been craving coffee all this time while traveling through Japan. I usually don't have coffee so this was really an out of the ordinary kind of craving for me. N grabbed a pre-wrapped pork cutlet sandwich and ordered a glass of milk. I ordered something off the menu; something because I wasn't altogether sure what I was order, and a cup of coffee. Apparently what I ordered was honey drizzled toast of some sort. Hmm ... a little more plain Jane than what expected. In other words, not what I was looking for. Whatever, though. We partook in our daily bread and were quickly off to Osaka-jo [大坂城], or Osaka Castle.
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