the tall blond guy goes to japan

This is a weird hotel

Hotel Yamato

Nothing wrong about it, really, it's just a bit odd. Mister check-in man was very proud of his English skills and tried to explain every little thing to me in English. Ended up confusing us both, so he finally decided to back down to regular check-in lingo. One night? One night.

Yes, it is customary to pay in advance when staying in hotels here. I don't know about ryoken (Japanese Inns), but since I hope to be staying in one tomorrow night, I should be able to go into more detail about that later on. And (at least in all the ones I've been in thus far) you must return your key whenever you go out of the building.

My 2nd storey view is of the building next door. I can reach out and touch its walls.

I was sitting in my room, having just checked in, reading my map and deciding what to do next. Suddenly, I heard a key in the lock. Hello, what's this? I went to the door and opened it, giving the person behind it the fright of her life. I guess they weren't finished restocking my mini-fridge before I arrived- she was not expecting someone to be in the room, let alone a tall blond guy. After much apologizing on both sides, she restocked the fridge and left.

About a minute later, my lights went out. This was not something I did. I opened my door, saw that women again... using mime and grunting noises, I told her that my lights had gone out. Second major embarassment for that poor woman. "Aah! Sumimasen!!" She *sprinted* around the corner, I heard some muffled bangs, then my lights came on again.

80's alert: When you just gotta be rad, dude.

With the lights safely on, I decided to read the hotel information book. I always make it a point to read these things, if not for information about the hotel, but for the bizarre English that is sometimes used.

When filling the bath tub, please remember it taking only four minutes to be full. Beware of overflowing water! Also, when done with bathing, it is a good idea to keep the water in bath tub, as it would be useful in case of fire.

I'm not kidding.

Moral question of the day: The hotel room came equipped with a book entitled "The Teaching of Buddha". Is it wrong to steal this book?

Moral answer of the day: A golden tree in the quiet forest.