it’s K-Rad y0!   Starting from scratch

As I had mentioned before, I used up some of my TD Visa Travel Miles to get a free flight to Japan from Hong Kong. I took the opportunity to hang out with Ed, and get my first tattoo. I mentioned how I just about missed my flight by about 5 seconds, because NWA Airlines has a strict 2-hour check-in policy. That would have been a nightmare.

What I didn’t mention is that on the way back, I was seemingly randomly upgraded to business class. I was just checking in like everyone else, and the girl at the counter just offered it to me. I guess they were looking for lone travelers, because I certainly wasn’t one of the first to check in!

That was a nice upgrade, and my first flight in that class. It almost felt ‘wasted’ because the flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong is only about 3.5 hours or so. Why can’t I ever get upgraded on a flight to Vancouver!?

When I got home, there was an email waiting for me from NWA. It was just a standard after-flight questionnaire. I usually don’t respond to these things, but I was in somewhat of a good mood. I also noticed that the email link had a tracking code, to make sure who I was. I had a sneaking suspicion that I might get some sort of incentive for doing so, even though nothing was mentioned in the email or survey.

Turns out my suspicions were warranted:

A 25,000 “Customer Relations Bonus” sweet! That brings me to about 32,000 miled, which is enough to get me anywhere in Asia in business class (on an NWA flight, which basically means “Japan”).

Pretty nice to get an unexpected bit of good news during these terrible times (our cat is very sick right now). I’ll have to start saving up for my next tattoo from Gotch, because as much as I’d like to get another right away, I just can’t afford it yet!

Since she was not around to witness it, Andrea requested that I record as much of my first tattooing experience as possible so she could see the video. Well I didn’t record a lot of it, but some of it. I put what little video I had, slapped in some photos, a cool sountrack, and left the rest up to Windows Movie Maker. Check out the video below!

Thanks again to Gotch and everyone at Harizanmai for making this such an awesome experience. It’s been a bit over a week, and I am loving my Oni so much! I can’t wait for my next one early next year

If you are reading this, then you are reaching this site at its new server. Well, not really “new” – it’s the one that had The Great Hard Drive Crash of 2008. I rebuilt it during my trip to Vancouver, with much better redundancy. I installed 2 new Western Digital RE3 drives. They are 250GB each, but incredibly light! This leads me to believe that they are single-platter drives, meaning better reliability and potentially better speed.

The specs of the system are otherwise the same. It’s a Dell PowerEdge 860, which I bought with a Celeron installed and swapped it out for a Xeon 3050. That is basically the same as a Core 2 Duo E6400. The only difference is… the name… Well the Xeon was cheaper at least

Once again I am using ISPConfig to maintain all my sites. I won’t be hosting too many sites for friends this time – that just requires too much extra work and resources. I may host the odd site here and there though… I do have the space.

Anyway, I am happy to be leaving the temporary webhost I was using… They were reasonably priced, but a headache to work with overall. I wouldn’t recommend them, but I am not going to recommend against them either, so I won’t mention who they were at all.

Time to start moving everything else over!

After months of planning and waiting and travelling and more waiting, I finally have my first tattoo.

After about 5 hours of needles tearing into my flesh, I am extremely happy with the results. It is actually cooler than I expected, and will only get better as it heals in the coming weeks:

I’ll post a better pic once it fully heals. At that time, the details in the shading will look even better, and the redness will be gone. I’ll also make sure not to slouch so much – I was tired after a long day, and pretty lazy when it was time to take photos! So my shoulders are going forward in this pic, so it looks kinda weird.. It actually flows perfectly with the shape of my arm.

Thanks to Gotch at Harizanmai in Kyoto. I’ll definitely be coming back for another (we already discussed my idea a bit for the second one).

Talk about awesome luck.

As I was leaving Harizanmai after my tattoo consultation, I noticed this little cafe underneath it that was closed at the time. Actually, I was borrowing their Wi-Fi for a few minutes, but don’t tell anyone okay?

Peeking inside, I noticed that it had an arcade cabinet with Street Fighter II. A cafe with an arcade game? Curious, I did a google at the net cafe, and as it turns out, Cafe La Siesta is a retro-gaming inspired bar/cafe. Yes, you read that right – a retro gaming bar, right below the tattoo place I am visiting. Right down the road from my hotel.

I am sitting there now, enjoying a draft Sapporo Pilsner (yes, they make a pilsner too). I’ll grab a bite to eat in a bit, but not before I play some original Famicom games (they have a whole box of games) while listening to some whacky Japanese pop and chiptune music.

EDIT: I just finished dinner and it was pretty good! I ordered “Loco Moco” or “Hamburg” as it is often called. Invented by a Japanese chef in Hawaii, basically, it’s like having a hamburger but instead of a bun, it sits on a bed of rice. Talk about true soul-food! There is also a fried egg on top – something I am always a huge fan of. Fried egg + rice = ultimate meal.

Yeah, I’ll be visiting quite a bit in the next week

Here are some pics I quickly snapped:

Well I finally made it to Kyoto. I am staying at Kinsuikan, a budget Ryokan not far from Harizanmai tattoo shop. In fact, it’s right in the middle of the main shopping streets of Kyoto, so that’s cool. For some reason, I got a room with a bathroom, which I did not reserve. Oh well, I have my receipt from the Welcome Inn reservation system, so they’d better not try to charge me for the larger room

Anyway, my meeting with Gotch @ Harizanmai went well. His English is good enough that he fully comprehends what I want on my tattoo, which is just what I had hoped for. Everyone there is really cool, and it’s a relaxing atmosphere. As you’d expect with a tatoo shop in Japan, it’s in the ’seedier’ part of town; just about every single other business in the area is a hostess club. Even in the afternoon there are dudes working the doors, trying to get customers to come in. One even asked me, which is sort of unusual!

The tattoo is going to be a Japanese Oni (demon) in Gotch’s style (basically, it’s definitely a Japanese artistic style, but not the typical traditional style that is common on Japanese tattoos. Check out his flickr for some examples). My Oni is going to be a strong demon, wielding a kanibo (spiked staff) and wearing the traditional tiger-skin loincloth. It’s going to cover my entire shoulder, reaching down to the elbow.

If you were wondering about the inspiration for my first tattoo, I got it last winter when I was doing my Hokkaido trip with Aaron and Allison. We spent just about a week in Noboribetsu, an Onsen village in Hokkaido. At the end of this village there is an open sulphur hot spring that has basically ripped open a bright green steaming gorge in the middle of a valley. Because of this, it is called ‘Jigokudani’ or ‘Hell Valley’. Our hotel way right at the end of Hell Valley, so you could sit in the outdoor bath, hair freezing in the driving snow and -20 Celsius air, cozy in the natural hot springs with water that is about 43-45 degreess Celsius. It is such an amazing feeling, and thus Noboribetsu is my favourite place on this planet.

Noboribetsu is also famous for its demons – statues that range from 2 feet to 20 meters in height – that are scattered throughout the village. I really don’t know how they became the ‘mascot’ for the town, but they are cool nonetheless.

The combination of amazing hot springs, a feeling of being close to the power of the earth with live sulphur geisers blasting in Hell Valley, and rad looking demons looking down on you everywhere you go left an everlasting impression on me. So when it came time to decide what to do for my first tattoo, an Oni was the first thing that came to mind!

Of course, Oni themselves aren’t a very common theme in Japanese tattoos and artwork. They are usually either comical figures, being beaten down by gods, or represent a more ‘dark’ tattoo style that I am not really going for. I did plenty of research online – not the best place to look, but everything helps. Most of the tattoos and artwork that people think are Oni are actually the gods Fujin and Raijin. These dudes are badass, and make for some awesome tattoos, but they wouldn’t be very relevant to me. So my Oni is going to be designed from scratch by Gotch, based on the details I gave him. I am obviously not going for the exact same look as the statues in Noboribetsu, but I am in a way. Unlike the comical or evil Oni, they are strong, proud demons. They look like they could kick a god’s ass! And that’s what I am going for. A god-slaying demon! Yeah!

Anyway, It is going to be one long ass session, because we didn’t want to make the tattoo too small. Since I am only in town for a week, everything has to be done in one day. So my first tattoo is gonna be a biggie. I thnk Gotch was sort of reluctant to ask me to sit through such a long session on my first tattoo, but I told him I’ll be okay. I’m not sure though! We shall see.

I’ll keep this blog and Twitter posted throughout the day (this Friday, or Thursday for you guys back home), and I’ll be shooting video of the experience. I’ll be spending the week prior hanging out in Kyoto and checking out the sights. Actually, I plan to do a lot of photography, so I should be posting some of those too. Stay tuned!

Oh the Dreamcast. The last gaming console from Sega, and home to many great arcade ports of the early 2000’s. I actually owned one when it first came out, but I ended up selling it because I wasn’t really into games for a while. That was a bad idea – I miss my Dreamcast.

So when I saw some at the used video game stores in Akihabara, I had to consider buying one. They start at about $30 for an unboxed, smoke-stained one up to $60 for a regular boxed version. Of course, special editions are higher; I saw a black one for like $300.

After doing some research, I found that you can play games from any region on the earlier consoles, so buying it again was a no-brainer. All I need to play it in Hong Kong is a power adapter.

Since I am in a big fighting game mood lately, I also picked up Street Fighter Zero 3, Street Fighter 3 Third Strike, and Soul Caliber. These are all great arcade ports, something that the Dreamcast did very well for its time. I also picked up a fighting stick, because playing these games with a gamepad, well, sucks. Something like playing FPS games with a gamepad…

If anyone has suggestions for some other Japanese games to pick up, please let me know! I’ll be picking up some English games later on, such as Shenmue which has been on my ‘wall of shame’ for not having played it for SO long.

Oh and I can finally get some use out of the TV in my Ryokan that gets like 3 channels, all in Japanese. Street Fighter in a Ryokan! love it

My trip to Japan was perfectly timed so that I could play Street Fighter IV just a week or so after it debuted in arcades. Now I haven’t played a Street Fighter game since Alpha 2 back in 1997 or so, but I was into it pretty hardcore at the time. I have been itching to play Street Fighter in arcades again, and was totally stoked when I started reading and covering Street Fighter IV’s release.

So the time came, and I finally got to play it. How does it play? Well everything they said about it appealing to old fans and hardcore fighting game freaks appear to be true. Against the computer, I fared pretty well playing in my old-school style with Ken. But as soon as I have to play someone who has mastered the new tricks, I get pwned. See for yourself (video courtesy of Ed):

At least I can ride a scooter! In single player, I was able to make it to the final boss on a single credit (which is a good thing, because a credit is like $1). The new moves make the game less about absurd blocking tactics or ridiculous combos, and more about being able to adapt to a fight. I can’t wait to play it some more, and I will definitely be picking it up for PS3 when it comes out.

Talk about a close call.

If you’ve been following my Tweets, you’ll already know that I tend to have a bit of trouble sleeping the night before I travel. For some reason, the issue is even more severe when going to Japan. Perhaps because it’s one of my favourite places to visit, and like a child before Christmas, I just can’t settle myself down to the point where I can sleep. I was tossing and turning all night, and finally gave up around 3am. I had my alarm set to 5:30am, and intended to leave for the airport at 6:30am, in time to check in at 7:30am for my 8:10am flight.

So I had a lot of time to spare. Instead of jumping in the shower, quickly trying to dry off while eating breakfast, just in time to run out the door at 6:30, I could take a more leisurely pace. I had a nice leisurely breakfast while watching Olympic womens’ beach volleyball. So I spent my extra 2 hours well.

I headed out at 6:30, just as I had planned. I decided to take the MTR/Airport Express this time, since it wouldn’t be busy, and I only have one piece of luggage to carry around this time. This trip usually takes about 65 minutes, about 16 minutes quicker than taking the bus. Plus, I could check in about halfway through, get my boarding pass without lining up, and stroll leisurely through customs and security, making it just in time for final boarding call, where there is almost always a lineup anyway.

How wrong I was.

I arrived at the Airport Express terminal at about 7:10am. At that point, I am about 25 minutes from the airport – a bit later than I would have liked, but well within reason for usual. I have travelled many times, and I usually find that checking in within 30 minutes of departure is totally sufficient.

However, when I arrived at the Airport Express check-in. I went to Desk 12 where NWA’s check-in counter should be. Instead, the counter was for Air Canada. I asked the clerk if this was the NWA check-in counter, and she tersely asked for my name. I told her, and she said it was too late, that I will not make my flight. I guess the MTR ride took a bit longer than expected. Too late to check in at Airport Express, fine. I told her I would just check in directly at the airport, but again she insisted (in a miserable way) that I would not make it. NWA closes their check-in gate 60 minutes prior to departure time (which would be 7:10, exactly the time I was at the train terminal), so I better run if I want to make the flight.

I ran.

Here’s an idea of how close I cut it – I ran to the elevators that take you to the train platform – the door was closing but of course everyone inside pretended not to notice the guy running to catch it. I had to wait for the next elevator, and take it down. I estimate that this wasted an extra 45 seconds.

If that had been 47 seconds, I would have been screwed.

I ran from the elevator, and the train was there. As I passed through the gates, the doors were closing! I couldn’t help but to yell out loud “AH FUCK!!!”. That was directed to the assholes on the elevator who wouldn’t hold the door for me.

Luckily, MTR doors are controlled by drivers, and the driver saw (and probably heard) that I really really needed to make that train. He opened the door, and I got in. It was about 7:20am at this time – I would be at the airport at about 7:45, which was ‘boarding time’ for this NWA flight, and a good half hour after the last passengers were supposed to have been completely finished checking in.

While on the train, I tried to get in touch with the check-in counter at the airport. With the help of Andrea, we tried various phone numbers – NWA’s reservation line didn’t open until 9am. The other NWA # was a pre-recorded message, telling everyone to make sure to check in at least 2 hours before departure time. We tried calling two different numbers at the airport, to no avail. There was no way to contact the counter directly, but I suspect it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.

So all I could do was sit and watch the time go by. 25 minutes later, I sprinted out of the train, running to the NWA gate (which was in Section H, at the very end of the hall). I looked all over for an NWA gate, but there were none (Section H is where all the smaller airlines reside in HKG – NWA only has a single flight from this airport, so they hire temps to check people in for them). Someone saw that I was running around, looking for a gate, and offered assistance. He was able to check me in, gave me a priority sticker, and told me I would have to run through to the gates. I had 10 minutes to get through customs, security check, and make it to the gate. Turns out, I would only need 5. Yeah, I run fast

Actually, I was able to ask someone (I believe he had a Taiwanese passport) in the front of the line at customs if I could go in front of them. I was probably a bit out of breath and sweating profusely by then, so he kindly obliged. Once through customs, an airport staff member took me through the cabin crew security gate, so I could bypass that lineup. After that, he told me to go downstairs and RUN to the gates.

Luckily, I know my way around HKG pretty well. I know that my gate (Gate 29) was basically right in the middle of the “should I walk, or should I take the shuttle train” limit. On a normal day, I would take the shuttle, which drops you off at about Gate 31 and walk 2 gates back. This was not a normal day though – I couldn’t risk having to wait 3 minutes for the train, waiting for the escalator or elevator to take me back up, delays not withstanding.

So I ran again.

There were NWA staff at regular intervals, who spotted my little red sticker. I guess their job is to make sure that the late comers aren’t dilly-dallying but RUNNING. I finally made it to the gate at about 7:50am. And guess what – THERE WAS A LINEUP. I probably had another 10 minutes to work with, in case of issues. Since I checked in so fast, I had to answer some questions to a security agent. They asked me where I was going, where I was staying, what did I have in my luggage, etc. You see, what I didn’t realize is that this flight is bound for Detroit after stopping in Narita. Therefore, they are adhering to more strict American security policies. The reason they want you to be at the gate way before other airlines is because they check everyone’s carry-on baggage for suspicious items. If I had known this, I would have left a lot sooner. Hell, I was up at 3am, I could have been there by 5am!

Anyway, after towelling myself off in the bathroom, I am happy to say that I finally made it onto the flight. I even got them to move me to an emergency row seat! I am sitting here listening to some Bach adagios (the only classical I really like is the really old, slow stuff) to help wind down a bit. And now they are serving breakfast – I get to choose between bacon and eggs, or udon with chicken. Here’s a K-Rad.hk travel top-tip; when flying to Japan, order the Japanese food. The fellow beside me ordered the eggs, and… well they don’t really look like eggs; more like yellow milk or something. And the bacon looks like it’s made out of plastic.

After breakfast I’ll watch Forgetting Sarah Marshall and maybe Redbelt or Street Kings (I have a bunch of movies on my laptop, but can’t decide!) I watched the first half of Street Kings, a pretty cool movie so far.

Stay tuned for more shenanigans and general tomfoolery from Whackyland*!

* Whackyland = Japan

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be heading out to Japan once again – this will be my 6th trip there in the last year and a half. What can I say, it’s just a great place to visit! Actually, most of the trip is being paid for by my travel points. I am using this ‘free’ opportunity to get my first tattoo. I’ll talk more about that in a later post… For the first week I’ll be hanging out with Ed, who is on the last part of his own 2 month long stay in Tokyo. After that, I’ll be in Kyoto for a week to get my tattoo.

This will be my first trip to Japan where I will be staying exclusively in affordable Ryokans (usually we get a great deal at Sheraton locations thanks to a family member that works there). If you don’t know what a Ryokan is, hit up Wikipedia. Basically, it’s a Japanese inn, similar to a bed-and-breakfast. They range in size from less than 10 rooms in an establishment, up to larger ones that are more like large hotels. The rooms are the typical Japanese style ‘tatami rooms’ where your one room becomes the bedroom at night, once you unfold the ‘futon’ mattresses to sleep on.

You can actually save quite a bit of money staying at these types of places, because the price goes significantly lower than most hotel prices. For instance, during my 2 week stay I will not pay more than 5500 yen for a night. That’s about $53 CAD. Right in the middle of Tokyo and Kyoto. Look at most hotels, and you will usually end up paying at least $100 a night to stay in Tokyo, even for a tiny room with basically a single bed covering the entire floor. You can save even more by staying at a Youth Hostel; if you don’t mind sharing a room with others and having a STRICT curfew, you might find one in the 3000-4000 yen range.

I should note now that at these prices, you will likely not get a Ryokan room with a private bathroom. For a room like that, the price premium seems to be 1500-2000 per night extra. I am willing to give up a private bathroom in order to save $300 on my trip. Besides, if you look around you might even find some places that double as a bath house. In other words, people go to that location just to bathe. If you haven’t experienced a Japanese bath, you’re missing out on a very enjoyable experience.

The trouble with trying to find a suitable Ryokan is that there seems to be a very specific way to find information in English. Obviously, most of these places are catering to local Japanese clients, so information in English is scarce. The key is to find the ones that do offer information in English, and allow overseas bookings. I spent about 3 days planning my trip (you’ll see why it took so long later) and felt that it might be a good idea to share my experience here.

First, you will need to have the following links handy:

• JNTO Accommodation Search – This is run by the Japanese National Tourist Organization. It offers a connection to most English accommodation search engines in Japan. (basically Rakuten’s English listings, and the next site on my list) all from one decent search engine that allows you to set a broad location, price range, and hotel room type.
• Welcome Inn Reservation Center – Run by the International Tourism Center of Japan, many of the hotels found by JNTO’s search engine will direct you here. However, going directly to this site allows a much more refined search. ITCJ only lists accommodations that meet certain criteria – they must welcome and be capable of lodging forigners, and they must be within a certain price range.
• Google Maps – all the maps will be in Japanese unfortunately, but you should be able to match up some symbols. This is only really useful if you are looking to stay near a particular site. For instance, I wanted to find a place close to Harizanmai, the tattoo parlour I’ll be visiting in Kyoto. So I punched in their address, and did a search for “Ryokan”. It found many of them, most out of my price range. But luckily I found one which was actually my top choice for Kyoto before I even did this search.
• Google Translate – Most of the Ryokans listed in the two search engines above have a page or two with English information. But usually their Japanese pages are much more detailed. In these cases, you can run the sites to Google Translate to get a better idea of what to expect.
• Hyperdia – OK so you found a place for a really good price in “Tokyo”. But Tokyo is a really big place… What if you will end up having to travel an hour each morning to get into town, and an hour at night getting back to your hotel? That can really cut into your travel time… For this, you should use Hyperdia to get directions from the Ryokan you are considering into central Tokyo (or wherever). As a general rule, you will probably want to be close to stations on the Yamanote loop – that’s where most of the sites are that most people want to see. So find out what the nearest station to your Ryokan is, and do a search to Shinjuku or Tokyo. This should give you an idea of how much time (and money – these trains aren’t cheap) you’ll be spending.

Here’s how I did my searching:

First, decide if you need to be staying in a particular area. I already mentioned that I wanted to stay near a tattoo parlour in Kyoto – and I ended up finding a good Ryokan that is just a couple blocks away. And while in Tokyo, I wanted to be near Ed’s hotel so we could easily meet up each day. Once you find that out, you can use ITCJ’s map page to find listings (just click on the map on the main page). This will show you every single “Welcome Inn” listing that exists on their site, placed on a map – here’s Tokyo for instance. If you can spot where you want to stay on the map, this might be all you need to find a place. Note the icons though – there are Ryokans listed, as well as Hostels, Business Hotels, and even Capsule Inns.

If that didn’t work out, use the “Search By City” listings. Larger cities are split into several wards – if you don’t care which one you want to stay in, just highlight all the city’s listings. On the results page, you will see categories such as hotel type and rate. I was looking at rates in the “Moderate 4000-6000 yen” range. It goes higher than that, and even lower for hostels and capsules. Each “Welcome Inn” will also have a full page of details, including different room types, some (unfortunately very small) pictures, and general directions ot the nearest train station. There is also a local access map of each one, in English.

Each inn is assigned a registration #, so you may want to make note of those separately when considering several locations. Also note the name, so you can do a google search for more information. None of ITCJ’s details pages offer links to official homepages, so you will be relying on Google to find them (if they exist – many of these older, smaller ryokans don’t even have websites yet).

The tough part is figuring out what makes one place preferable to another. The ITCJ’s pages don’t exactly tell you much in the way of details (like, how big are the bathrooms? How old are the futons you’ll be sleeping on?). For that, you should Google the hotel’s name, and see if you can find some reviews. Many of them will have reviews on TripAdvisor, but I find those to be very unreliable. For every glowing review of a place, you’ll find one that equally hates it. But you will also find them mentioned on personal blogs (in fact I plan on writing about all the places I’ll be staying at). Also be sure to punch in the Japanese name into Google Japan and use Google Translate to find out what Japanese travellers are saying about it.

In order to use ITCJ’s services, you need to register first. Once you do, hit ‘apply’ and complete the rest of the form detailing the dates of your stay, how many visitors, etc. Once you do this, ITCJ will contact the hotel or ryokan on your behalf, and make the reservation for you. Unfortunately, there is no way to tell if they’ll be able to accommodate you for certain dates, so you have to wait until they get back to you with a reply. This caused many delays for me, as I had a few choices that were fully booked, and it would take an extra day to apply to one, wait for the response, and apply to another.

To get around this setback, use JNTO’s Accommodation Search. This search engine is not quite as refined as ITCJ’s (you can only set general areas, not particular wards, and there is no map) but it not only uses ITCJ for results, but two more English travel booking sites Rakuten, iTravel, and Japanican. I should mention that I tried using both of these sites directly, but their interface is… well pretty terrible (especially Japanican’s). Most of the listings are on all three sites though (and in that case, JNTO will give you a choice of which to use to complete the booking). Since this search combines the listings of at least three different search engines, you have access to many more listings (although not nearly as much as you’d get if you had a Japanese address and ID, and could use Rakuten’s Japanese site to do bookings).

When using the other sites via JNTO, you have the advantage of being able to book your room directly over the net. On each listing page, you will see a “Book Now” and a “Room Available” button. Click the latter button to see if there are rooms available on the dates you are interested in. If so, go back and book your rooms! This kind of immediacy is the main advantage over using ITCJ’s Welcome Inn system. In at least one case, I used Rakuten to see if a room was available, and booked it using ITCJ’s service.

Again, be sure to do some Googling on the places you are interested in. Most of them do have websites, with some English. For instance, here’s the English site for Kinsuikan, the Ryokan where I’ll be staying in Kyoto. Based on this site, I can see that it has a large communal bath as opposed to private showers that will likely have a lineup of people waiting to use them. This was one of the main points I had in mind when deciding on a place to stay. There are also some directions on how to get there, telling you exactly which busses and trains to take.

Keep in mind that Ryokans and Japanese hotels charge per person. So a room may be about $55 for one person, but with two people it will be around $84 for the same room. So while the price goes down per person, the same room can become significantly more expensive. This can be an advantage if traveling alone or with more than 4 people, but with 2 people I think it ends up being pretty expensive.

I hope sharing this experience will help make things easier for other travellers. All of this advice applies not only to Ryokans but other Japanese hotels as well. These are almost always cheaper than the chain hotels we’re familiar with (but the rooms and service will be a bit different). Stay tuned to this blog for writings on my trip, the hotels I’ll be visiting, and of course my first tattoo! Time to start packing!