Kusuriya!

Sit, children, and let me regale you with the epic tale of me trying to find a pharmacy (kusuriya). It was really difficult, considering that I know perfectly well how to say 「Where is the pharmacy?」 - 「Kusuriya wa doko desu ka?」 (Those bars on either side of the sentence are quote marks in Japanese - I`m on a Japanese keyboard right now which requires some compromise for use). I needed some asprin and I stopped at three conbinis and a su-pa, and none of them had the brand the clerk at the hostel recommended (Bufferin, as it turns out, but she wrote it all down in Kanji so I had no idea it was Bufferin). When I finally DID find a Kusuriya, it was closed. So I stopped at a Kouban (sort of like a mini-police station, most neighborhoods have one every few blocks) to ask for directions, but the policeman was absent... So... Then I sort of wandered around and asked a shopkeep where a Kusuriya was, and finally found one. Yay for asprin.

Feeling better, and now I`m off to the aquarium!

The Hostel Post

I think one of the most interesting things about being in a foreign country aren't the things that are overtly and very obviously different, but rather the day-to-day minutiae. For example, everyone uses the toilet, everyone washes their clothes, everyone eats food. It's the ways in which those things are done differently from place to place that adds intrigue.

That said, much of the hostel is Westernized, or at least feels Westernized to me, though I really have nothing to base it off of, not living in a Japanese-style house or anything like that. I mentioned that the toilets have bidets, and actually encountered my first genuine "Japanese-style" toilet at the park outside Osaka castle yesterday. This is a traditional toilet:

It's worth noting that despite living in Okinawa for three years as a child, I JUST learned that you're supposed to FACE the flushing apparatus when you use a traditional toilet. I didn't use the traditional toilet yesterday (there were Western toilets, too), but there was a sign with a little stick figure illustrating the proper method.

The toilets in the hostel look like this:

Pretty standard stuff, except perhaps for the sink over the toilet (and perhaps the bidet, depending on which part of the "West" you're from). When you flush, water comes out of the tap on top and into the sink to refill the bowl. You can wash your hands with this water in the interim, and it's a pretty legit way to conserve water.

This is the hostel from the outside:

And a close-up of the entryway:

To the left there is a shoe-storage closet type area. The umbrellas are free to borrow for J-Hopper guests. The bicycles out front can be rented by the hour (¥100) or for the day (¥500). I had thought that would be the best way to get around, but the fact is I don't really understand traffic laws or bicycle laws for that matter, and I've not seen anyone take one on a train, so perhaps they're only ideal for getting around inside small neighborhood areas. Also, the traffic here goes pretty quick and they're not as respectful of pedestrian crossings as one might expect (in my experience thus far).

The view from standing in the doorway of the hostel, looking out:

And yes, those surgical masks are at least as prevalent as you've been led to believe.

Just inside the entryway:

Here you can see the kitchen and dining area towards the back of the room, the clerk area is to the left (closed when this shot was taken), and the stairs to the right lead to the TV room. One of the things you can't see is behind the little bar area is an actual beer vending machine. In the kitchen. Yep.

Speaking of the TV room, let's head downstairs and check it out...

Ah, here we are. This looks comfortable!

Off to the right (out of the pic) are two desktops set up for use. They usually have a rental fee for hourly use, but because of the emergency they are free right now. On the wall is a large map of Japan with what is easily hundreds of little cards with tourist attractions, their locations and descriptions.

There are J-Hopper hostels all over Japan, so you could easily tour a good portion of Japan and stay at their hostels on the cheap.

Remember those stairs? Let's go back up them! I hope you love stairs, because they're everywhere :)

We go up another flight of stairs to the 2nd (3rd? Whatever) story, where my shared room is located. Let's peek in!

As you can see, there's three sets of bunkbeds and a small table. All of the beds have that little curtain you can draw around your bed, which gives you some privacy and blocks out some light (though not all of it). There's also some lockers to the right and a small luggage rack at the foot of my bed (my bed is the bottom one on the leftmost bunk). The beds were pretty comfortable and came with a couple of sheets, some sort of thick-blanket/padding type thing that is like several blankets on top of each other then tied together with knots 'round the edges. Can't really explain it. Then a very soft warm faux mink blanket similar to the one I have at home, but smaller.

Down the hall are toilets, the shower (one on the 2nd floor and three on the 3rd floor, and more on the 4th and 5th, though I'm not sure of the numbers). There's also twin sinks with mirrors, but all of that is pretty standard. Here's the shower (it's unbelievably small, but very functional):

The only really annoying thing about the shower is that the water is only on for about 15 seconds and then you have to push the "on" button again. As a filthy gaijin who is accustomed to just STANDING in the hot shower water because it FEELS good and for no actual utilitarian reason, this is quite frustrating. I just hold the stupid button down. I don't really take long showers anyway, maybe 8-10 minutes, but I miss being able to stand there for a minute or two and just enjoy the water.

There's a laundry facility outside:

And a small sitting area:

Let's head up to the roof, one of the designated smoking areas (one of the signs on the door warns that nothing more than making out is allowed on the roof):

The rooftop has a sitting area as well, with some views of the city:

Ah, let's go back down five flights of this:

On the walls there's often pictures and text of useful information like this:

There's a small garden next door:

It's very peaceful in the hostel, even with people coming in and out. There's lots of restaurants, pubs, conbinis (convenience stores), su-pas (supermarkets) nearby. For breakfast I had eggs and what I swear to God was bacon until I cooked it and though it looked precisely like bacon when it was raw, it neither looked, acted, nor tasted like bacon once cooked. It WAS some kind of pork product, it just wasn't bacon. Still, it was ok. For lunch I had conbini sushi and some kind of salad that was really good but I couldn't begin to tell you what was in it.

All in all, I am having a good time. I leave the hostel tomorrow and head to the dorms. I hope they're at least half as comfortable as the hostel is.

Anyway, jaa mata ne for now! I promise my next update will be Osaka castle; once I can sort through the photos. And then I'll tell you about Umeda Sky Tower and the Gaijin JET English Teachers I met :)

Oh, and PS: I GOT SOME TOE SOCKS YAAAY: