2019 Japan Trip - Day 5 & 6 - Travel Day & Sick Day

Day 5 & Day 6 - Travel Day/Sick Day

After Kusatsu, our next destination was a town called Otsuka, situated in the heart of Tokyo.  

The trip out of Kusatsu had none of the speed, organization or perfection that the trip to the resort had.  For one thing, the trip out didn’t have the urgency to get to the resort for the check-in window.  Also the transit system is set up to favor people headed to Kusatsu.  There’s an express train, called the Kusatsu 3, that takes you from Takasaki to Naganoharakusatsuguchi station, followed by the packed express bus that takes you from there to the bus terminal at Kusatsu.  

These express lines are not available headed back.  The bus from Kusatsu to Naganoharakusatsuguchi has about a dozen stops or so before it gets there.  And there are several routes from Takasaki headed out to where you want to go.  Everyone wants to go to Kusatsu, but everyone is going someplace different going home.  

Otsuka - Omo5

We checked into our hotel, the Hoshino Omo5 in Otsuka in the early afternoon.  I had chosen the hotel after watching an NHK interview with the owner of the Hoshino hotel group.  He talked about how he wanted to create an upscale but affordable experience in cities like Tokyo, but placing his hotels in smaller neighborhoods close by.  

When I looked the property online, it did look stylish.  And Otsuka is located in main part of Tokyo.  Places like Ueno, Shinjiku, Shibuya, Tokyo Station, are about 15 to 20 minute train rides away.  It wasn’t as cheap as I was looking for, but from the pictures it looked like a place that would be easy to share, so I booked a reservation for the five days we’d be here. 

The reality turned out to be a bit different.  The hotel is very close to the station (I can see it from the window lobby as I write this) and Otsuka is close to Tokyo hotspots (a 15 minute ride from Ueno, where our Bullet Train arrived).  That part was dead-on.  

The room, however, was smaller than what the pictures indicated.  What looks like a spacious living room with a sleeping loft above feels more like a set of bunk beds.  There are even signs posted throughout the room to “Watch Your Head,” which you should take heed of.  I bumped my head several times going up the stairs to the sleeping loft, or not ducking under its support beam below while heading to the refrigerator.  

We also had to take an issue to the front desk shortly after we arrived.  Our original plan was that I would sleep in the loft above and that William would use the wide sofa in the living room below, to give us more space to ourselves.  The sofa is meant to be used as a bed, and even has bedding supplied to use it that way, but there’s a sign in the closet that says if you have “two or fewer guests” and use the bedding there’s an extra 3,000 yen charge for doing so.  We spoke to the person at the front desk about it, and went back and forth over it for a bit, at first being told that, yes, there would be the extra charge if we used the bedding, then being told that, yes, if you only used one of the beds in the loft and the sofa, then there would be no extra charge for the sofa bedding.  

That has been the only problem so far.  It was resolved in our favor.  I do wonder if the sign in the closest is the result of someone using a bad Google translation to create it.  And, I’m bracing myself, just a bit, for another confrontation at check-out time.  

Otsuka

I had picked up a cold before the trip started.  It had become a bit worse in Sendai (watching the baseball game in the cold hadn’t helped).  It was soothed by the hot springs in Kusatsu.  But the travel day to Otsuka had made it worse again.  I decided to take the day off from touristy things and stay in and around the hotel while William went to check out some of the nerdy things he liked that didn’t interest me as much.  

My impression of Otsuka is that it’s a bustling little town surrounded by a much bigger place.  In that sense it is much like my own Pasadena, which snuggles up close to Los Angeles.  Like most Japanese neighborhoods, the station is at the heart of the social scene, with neighborhoods becoming more residential looking as you get farther from the station. 

Ballroom Dance classes - "Beginners and the Elderly Welcomed!"

The 24 Hour Fitness gyms in Japan feature Ping-pong teams/tournaments

I did notice that there are lots of people walking around carrying musical instruments on their backs.  And once I saw three young men struggling to move some speakers and other audio equipment on a small cart from the station.  It makes me wonder if Otsuka is some sort of musical hub in the area.  Or if there might be some musical schools in the vicinity of the station.  I’ll let you know if I find out.  

Good Pizza in Japan

If you’ve heard me talk about my trips to Japan at any length, then you will know that I have not had a good experience with Japanese pizza.

The problem is that it’s just too…  Japanese.  First, they use far less sauce than I’m used to from a lifetime of eating American pizza.  Plus, they love to coat it with garlic mayonnaise, the same type of mayonnaise they use with takoyaki (grilled dough-balls stuffed with octopus, for the uninitiated).  Finally, their favored toppings are often seafood items.  The closest to what I would like to eat is something they called a “margarita pizza,” which is a cheese pizza with four slices of tomato, one in each quarter.  Since I don’t eat pizza with vegetables on it, that one is out.  When I first came to Japan in 2007, I couldn’t find a place that sold pizza with pepperoni on it.  Salami, yes.  Pepperoni, no.  

Yesterday, while taking a walk through the town, I came across a Domino’s Pizza place.  I noticed a sign over the window.  “American Classic!  799 Everyday!”

American Classic, huh?  Curious, I went inside.  

Looking at the menu, I discovered that it was, in fact, American styled pizza.  There were five different types of crust to choose from.  Two types of hand-tossed (which I could tell the difference between them), two types of pan pizza (one of which was some layered pizza, more like lasagna.  No thanks), and a crispy thin-crust.  

AND they had pepperoni!  I had to read it twice to make sure.  Having made this discovery, I had to try one.  I ordered a medium, crispy crust, pepperoni.  I ordered it for take-out (they would have charged me a thousand yen, or about 9 bucks, for delivery, more than the pizza itself).  The girl that took my order went to the side to make it.  My ordered appeared on the screen hanging from the ceiling counting down when my pizza would be ready.  

I went to a convenience store on the corner to get something to drink and some Japanese style vegetables to make it a proper lunch.  When I came back, the girl presented me with the box.  I opened it and saw what looked like a perfectly presentable pepperoni pizza.  

I asked her when they had finally introduced pepperoni to Japan.  She told me just recently.  I told her about how I had searched for pepperoni pizza on previous visits.  She smiled.  

The pizza was good.  It was certainly worth the price, about $7.70 with tax included.  Even with delivery, at $15.22, it wasn’t too bad.  

But it did mean that one obstacle to moving to Japan had been taken away.