rewind: my motel room

So, you want to see pix of my apartment? Well, too bad! (Seriously, I'm working on getting videos, but it's taking longer than I anticipated, for reasons I don't want to get into right now). Instead, you get to witness the marvelousness of my motel room, in which I dwelled for six nights. Actually, I slept remarkably well in this tiny little room, and I spent hours in it without going insane. I'm not sure what that suggests about my psyche.


I am standing next to the bathroom door and directly in front of the room door. That's how small the room was. Enough room for bed, desk, chair, and TV. Japanese TV is hilarious, by the way (except for the news, which is boring in any language). There are more shows of people sitting in panels and making guesses about things than I could count. I watched anime, cooking shows, travel shows, generally anything that caught my eye and was more than just people sitting around and talking.


The bed, which was just big enough for me, though the blanket was a little short. Very low, but very comfortable, more so than my apartment bed because the motel bed has a thicker mattress and sits on something soft. The pillow was a little weird, and I'm glad Genna told me about them beforehand. It wasn't filled with anything soft; instead it was filled with pellets (I think she said they were wheat germ? One of my students said that "macaroni" is also used sometimes). Seriously, you could single out the pellets and roll them between your fingers. Everytime I moved, it made weird crunchy noises. And yet, it was surprisingly comfortable. Although the pellets themselves were a little hard, they made a nice cushion. My real complaint was that it was too damn small.

The toilet, which was quite majestic in its own way. The bathtub/shower is to the left, and it was very small. The important thing here is the toilet, which has buttons. None of which I pressed, because I know how a bidet works, and I preferred not to get sopping wet. But the toilet does all kinds of wondrous things, and its pressure is magnificent. I LOVE Japanese toilets. I have yet to break any. Americans could learn a lot by studying Japanese toilet technology. My apartment toilet isn't as fancy or space-agey, but I like it just the same. It has something the motel toilet doesn't: a faucet on the top where clean water comes out so you can rinse your hands off. That is totally nifty.

And here's a view of the motel itself. First Inn is strictly a business motel, which explains why it's a little spartan in its functionality. It has both Japanese and Western style rooms, and the staff - speaking no English at all - was very helpful and considerate. I basically live right across the street from it and see it every day.

And, as you can see in the background, MOUNTAINS! I can't walk anywhere in this town without seeing mountains, the novelty of which still hasn't worn off for me.

Okay, so that was the motel. I hope to get an apartment post up by the end of the weekend, but I make no promises!