Urawa Business Hotel Saitama

... br>“No, I told you, first week is training” she responded.
“Yeah, but my schedule doesn’t have me teaching any classes now. I now won’t have a break until 9 tonight!” To this she just gave some sort of chuckle like I was joking and kept driving. Already I was thinking, what have I gotten myself into here… Asa had a lot of little tricks like this up her sleeve. Adding classes that you wouldn’t get paid for. Cutting the length of time ...

I'll make this short and sweet, while doing my best to leave out the sappy nostalgic stuff.

I'm writing this post from the 9th floor of my Tokyo hotel. For the biggest city in the world, you can't quite tell that from scene of my window. Lonely cabs passing intermittently on the street below make me wonder where all the people are? Think of Tokyo as a mix of LA and NYC, an expansive city of impressive high rises that seems to go on forever. The tangled web of multi ...

... Hoofd naar beneden en gewoon echt slapen. In de trein zat er zelfs een keer iemand 2 uur lang keihard te snurken! - Alle fietsen hebben mandjes. De fietsen zijn zowieso van het formaat `kind`. Zo`n mandje voorop is natuurlijk handig, maar als je die fietsen parkeert nemen ze dus ontzettend veel ruimte in. - Jappanners kunnen niet fietsen. Het ziet er raar uit (zeker bij die vrouwen, vanwege de x-benen). Ze fietsen heel hard, maar het is ...

... room complete with its own TV and Karaoke machine. Using the phone on the wall you can call the desk to order food and drinks until you time is up. That night we all sang our faces off until everything sounded great! We were up till about 3:30 in the AM and hit the sack for about three hours so we could see Becky off. I helped her all the way to Shinjuku station which was about a half an hour away. It was a good thing ...

... a sneaker'?) and are definitely not wearing anything from the Jacqueline Smith collection at J.C. Penny. Completely unbelievable. A walk down Omotesando past the 5 story Prada building, Chanel, Gucci and Louis Vuitton displaced any misconceptions i had about Tokyo. Not only do they have access to these luxury brands, they are aggressively buying them and are not afraid to wear couture ...

Japanese culture is consumed by details. From the intricate Japanese tea ceremony to the meticulous art of bowing, it seems that the Japanese revel in minutiae. Bozai, martial arts, flower arranging, even sushi preparation are all done to painstaking perfection down to the last detail. Respect for your surroundings is a key element of Japanese culture, as is respect for those you come into contact with. The Japanese have no ...

... to head out downtown on our own is during our embassy night, which we skipped thanks to some friendly advice. The short walk we take around Shinjuku and Shibuya station is again quite surreal. So many lights (much more than in Hong Kong), and tons of people, but at the same time there is a wonderful calmness about the whole space. Car honking is extremely rare, and the place is super clean for a city this size. People also give each lots of space, and the general ...

... Damme to have another top-up ramen lunch and gyoza lunch at Shibuya with me - that was a bit disappointing (though reading the comics on how the owner started off having a street noodle stall to owning the chain was entertaining and enlightening) - but at least I had two meals for lunch! We then walked to Harajuku- I didn't get specticles from A-Look as last time, but went into a very crowded shop like "Tough Jeans" in Hong Kong and bought a ...

... to check it out so in we went. Inside the noise was deafening, and not really being able to figure out what the game was we left very quickly and had some ice cream crepes, which are delicious. The rest of the evening was passed in the hostel watching more Japanese T.V, which is somewhat addictive especially when I don't know what's going on, and chatting, which seems the staple nighttime activities here.

... spent more than an evening or two just chilling in the hostel watching DVDs with the other guests. We have seen School Of Rock, Shawshank Redemption and every episode of Star Wars at least 5 times each and even as I type I think someone has stuck School Of Rock on again in the background. *My gut got busted!* We were lucky enough to have timed our trip to coincide with 1 of only 6 yearly sumo tournaments. To make things even better, it was being held ...