Accommodation poll

[gamera 0]

What kind of accommodation do you prefer and what do you expect when you stay there?

[big-will 7]

Staff were strange! I like that one

[gamera 0]

Can I hear your story just for my study, big-will?

[montoya 0]

gamera, what is the actual difference between Pension/B&B, and Minshuku?

 

 

the things that I tend to rememeber about a place is the level of food served, and the hospitality of the staff. some of the best food I ever ate in Japan was in a place up near Furano 5 years ago.

[gamera 0]

montoya - I think Pensions are Western style accom mostly built by wood like mine. They mainly have western rooms but some have some Japanese tatami rooms. And usually they were built for the accommodation business.

 

And "B&B" basically expresses they offer Bed and Breakfast (no dinner).

In that point, I think some pensions are "B&B"... maybe kind of complicated though.

 

Minshuku - origianlly they offered some of their private rooms to tourists in old days. So usually their houses were not built for the purpose only. Their houses were built for them to live in but later they made it a business to offer some rooms. So, probably I can say all minshuku are basically Japanese style.

 

One common point is Pension, B&B , Minshuku are mostly run by family, not by a big company.

[kintaro 0]

I prefer ryokan's with rotenburo's. 'Business hotels' suck. Unless it's a suite at the Royal Park in Yokohama or Shiodome, I don't find them to be very much about business at all. Ryokan's almost always have excellent service and very nice dinners. The only complaint I have are the 10am check outs and 3pm check-in's. Noon is much more appropriate and that way you're much more likely to get my business for lunch....

 

What's the check out/in time at your place Gamera?

[gamera 0]

10am/3pm, kintaro lol

[kintaro 0]

 

Very clever gamera, you can't go wrong with the price of this market research, can you?!!

[gamera 0]

errrm.... what do you mean?

[Ocean11 0]

We've decided to avoid all places with staff and stay in cottages and cabins whenever we can. That's because we hate having to wait around for somebody else to meet our basic needs, and because the food served is nearly always pretentious but not particularly nice.

 

One thing I particularly hate is being thirsty all the time, and having to dial somebody up just to get a drink of water that is cool and tastes OK - but it always comes slowly, in insufficient quantities, with loads of ice. Paying 10,000 yen and having to explain how you like your water just seems like masochism.

[sanjo 2]

Lots of hotels seem to have another big problem - not "too cold" but "too hot".... too hot and you can't open the windows = can't sleep and not fun.

[miteyak 0]

You forgot to add log cabins to the list, my prefered option by far...

[wakaran 1]

 Quote:

too hot and you can't open the windows = can't sleep and not fun.

I hate that. Apart from the fact that it is frustrating and uncomfortable, it's just such a waste as well.

[gamera 0]

Yeah, I didn't put cottages/cabins in the list.

sanjo, wakaran, I have the problem now. People can adjust their room temperture but if it's some public space, Japanese prefer warmer like 25C or more but foreign people prefer lower like 20C or less.

Maybe because of their body temperture difference?

Sometimes I find some foreign men walk around in the house not wearing a shirt lol...... only pants!!!

[js 0]

When we travel OS, generally like the condominium set up = self contained, but in Japan prefer the Pension alternative - always nice to meet the locals, conform to their typically non-european cultural ways, etc.

 

As for the heating of rooms, have found the Yanks overheat theirs WAY too much, the Canadians get it right, as do the Kiwi's, and from experience, the Japanese too. (For me, it should be cool enough just to need a pair of tracksuit pants/flanelette shirt, etc)

 

Windows that open are ALWAYS good - ventilation is everything.

[white-void 0]

Like in shops, I really dislike overbearing staff. And yes many hotel rooms are too hot and often don't seem to allow you to open the windows (er, why?)

[2pints-mate 0]

Rooms that are too hot and you can't do much about it is absolutely the worst thing about hotels.

[gamera 0]

Oh? but you can switch the heater stronger/weaker ( is this a correct way of saying? )by a controller?

[Ocean11 0]

Another thing I don't like about hotels and pensions is wondering what you're going to get to eat.

 

We stayed at one the other day, and after the first course of moderately stale canapes we guessed what would be next up. Jokingly I said "steak and chips". And I nearly got it right. It was steak and one chip. My son had to make do with the 3-year old's 'child meal' even though he generally eats as much as I do.

 

We spent most of breakfast wondering when something thirst quenching would arrive.

 

So, to put it more positively;

- A blackboard with the menu chalked on it would be nice.

- A thermostat that can be set finely would be nice.

- Lots to drink with meals, and some readily available drinking vessels in your room so you can pour your own, and drink in a civilized manner.

- Young and attractive female serving wenches

[frannyo 2]

Was it a nice chip though?

 

My dad always brings out the "2 chips with his meal" story back home. Don't blame him it is totally ridiculous.

[snobee 0]

Definitely log cabins/cabins/cottages are our first choice. The independence & privacy combined with own cooking & bathing facilities. Can't beat it IMHO.

Generally the price of cabins works out far better than catered accomodation.

For example, in my neck of the woods every January we always spend a couple of nights in a Finland cottage;

- 2brs (great beds) & 1 loft sevices 6 adults

- good dining kitchen

- BIG bath room with long western bath

- seperate toilet

- nice verandah

- Total Price = ￥12,000 for 6 = Y2000/per.

No other accom. can compete with that and I don't just mean the price - it's the Whole Package that's great.

Having to leave a pension/minshuku room at 3:00am in the freezing cold and stumble down a dark corridor to find a toilet is not my idea of fun.

And I guess I'll never accept the paying per person system over paying for the room.

It's one of the biggest turn offs of accomodation in Japan. You know 4 people in a room @ Y8000 each = Y32000, when the true value is half.

I love staying every year in a trailer park near my fave skijo for a couple of days. The owner is great and we get on really well. He does some good deals for us so I'm not complaining at all,

BUT it's about 4,500/per. so for my wife & kid(half price) it's OK, but last year we brought 3 friends (caravans are 2br, 6 berth, full kitchen, bath etc) so total was 5 adults @

Y 22500 + 1 kid @ 2500 = Y25000 for a goddamn caravan for crisakes.

 

IMO this system is the bane of Japanese accom.

- closely followed by 2nd rate food masquerading as "local gourmet".

 

However there are great examples of all accom. to be found, it's just the finding that's the trial.

[NoFakie 45]

Don't like the food myself. Maybe I've just been unlucky, but the Western breakfasts have been pretty crappy. You get a fried egg cooked with the yolk pretty much solid, yet no crisping or even colour in the white. It looks like something out of a microwave, not a frying pan. The "bacon" will be a slice of processed ham or that weird super rectangular "bacon". The salad on the plate will come with a copious amount of heavy dressing already on it. It could be done a lot better.

 

I have been places where all of the breakfasts were laid out at the same time and just left until you turn up to eat it. It shouldn't need pointing out that fresh, hot food is nicer.

 

The evening meals in pensions tend to be style over substance, as Ocean describes, so we normally don't bother. I'd rather go out to eat.

 

My main complaint about Japanese accomodation would be plastic slippers, if the place insists on you wearing them. I have Japanese sized feet but I still detest them. I think I'm going to come a cropper whenever I wear them, especially when I encounter stairs. Those things are seriously dangerous. If I have to carry my kid, I'd be pretty tempted to think to hell with this and walk in with my shoes on. I know Asian people have their customs about shoes, but you don't take them off in any of the big hotels here. People walking around with their shoes on doesn't stop people going there.

[pie-eater 207]

Japan just does not get bacon does it? Add that and sausages to the list headed up by pies and cheese.

 

I've never had decent bacon or sausages here. Anyone ever?

[pie-eater 207]

 Quote:

I was refused to stay

I'd like to know more about that one.

[gamera 0]

Snobee - the per person charging system sometimes goes too complicated e.g. if a party included adults, high school kids, elementary school kids and kindergarteners if accomdations had different rates for each and every so we have already switched it per room back in March 2003. Much easier and simpler but a difficulty is sometimes people seem to misunderstand our rates per person because we are also located in Japan. That charging system seems to be famous lol.

But I am not sure how many cabbin type accommodations can survive by providing that cheap rate ( e.g. 12,000yen per night ) holding

some rooms, a kitchen, a bath etc in one. Probably they would if they could fill all the cabbins 90% or more days of 365 days in an year though. Is there any magic?

 

MrW, there's some traditional old accommodations with slippery wood stairs you know lol..... Maybe you had better not put a pair of slippers on if you needed to hold your kid in your arms.

 

Pie-eater

I have been often told that some people had been refused to get in clubs/pubs/restaurants/accommodations in Japan because they are gaijins. Some places even seem to hold a "No gaijin" signboard at the door which sounds very strange to me.

Concerning to accommodation, a lot told me that they had difficulties to book one on the phone if they don't speak Japanese. And 5 minutes later they could book ones when their J spouses, friends called the same accom. I guess probably hoteliers are affraid of language difficulty or they have some odd preconceptions about foreign people.

So, for example if it is 3-5 years ago, a lot of foreign guests stayed in my place said something like " I appreciate that you accept us", I felt more like sad rather than happy when they said that imagining how hard time they had had in the past. Now I have that case less and less which I think is a good sign.

 

I have never had that hard time when I explored around Europe when I was a uni student. I don't speak Greek but when I got in a tiny sourvenir shop in Praka area of Athens, the granma ( I think ) there tried to communicate with me in Greek which was really impressive. I didn't speak Greek and she didn't speak English but I had a sketch book in my hand so I explained her if I could ask a post office to ship some of sourvenirs to Japan and if there's some strict rules for it or not!!! I guess she had hard time with this strange boy lol.

 

I hope Japanese could have a general/universal/international point of view and they should know Japan has already ratified the

International Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.