Hostels!

So despite not being able to get into all the hostels and hotels I wanted (stupid hostels making me think you can only book up to three months in advance) I did find some very nice-looking hostels for our stay in Japan. I've mentioned them in a previous post, but here I've listed them again, including links to their websites, so you can check out what they're like!

Saturday, July 31st and Sunday, August 1st - Tokyo
Sakura Hotel Jimbocho, located in Central Tokyo, will give us a chance to explore that area. Also we'll visit Harajuku on Sunday, when the gothic lolitas are out there.
Here, we will have a double room.

Monday, August 2nd - Thursday, August 5th - Tokyo
Sakura Hotel Ikebukuro, located north of Central Tokyo. The Ikebukuro station is the second busiest station in the world, and it gives us easy access to anywhere else in Tokyo. Here we will have a twin room (bunk beds) with private bath.

Friday, August 6th - Sunday, August 8th - Osaka/Koyasan
We'll be staying in Osaka for three nights, visiting Koyasan on one of the days. We will be staying at Osaka J-Hoppers, a chain of backpacker's hostels in Japan. Here we will have a twin room (bunk beds).

Monday, August 9th and Tuesday, August 10th - Nara
On August 9th, we are traveling on to Nara, one of Japan's old capitals, famous for its old temples and beautiful surroundings. We will stay at the Nakata B&B. It's one with a shared bathroom, but since it has only 4 rooms taking 2 or 3 people per room, I don't think that will be an issue.

Wednesday, August 11th - Kobe
Well-known for its beef and the recent devastating earthquake, Kobe is a nice city as well. Here we will stay for one night at the Kitagami Hotel. Here we will have a twin room with private bath.

Thursday, August 12th - Saturday, August 14th - Himeji, Hiroshima and Miyajima
On this day, we will travel to Himeji Castle, an amazing castle left over from Shogun times. At the end of the day, we will travel on to Hiroshima, well-known of course for the A-bomb of 1945. There, we will stay at Hiroshima Hostel, which refers to itself as a Hana Hostel (Flower Hostel). I'm curious! Here we will have a twin room, sharing the bathroom. From here, we will also travel to Miyajima Island, on which there is this beautiful toorii gate that is at the top of this blog.

Sunday, August 15th - Monday, August 16th - Kyoto
We will then take the long trip back to Kyoto, which is near Osaka. We won't go there earlier, because from August 13th-16th there is a festival in Japan called Obon. And on the final day of Obon, August 16th, they light huge bonfires in the shape of kanji (Chinese characters used in Japanese) on the hills surrounding Kyoto. This promises to be quite a sight! Here we will stay in Kyoto J-Hoppers, another branch of the same hostel as in Osaka, so bound to be good! We will have a twin room here.

Tuesday, August 17th and Thursday, August 19th - Tokyo
After Obon, we will travel back to Tokyo (like probably about a million other people...) and we will spend the nights at Sakura Hostel Asakusa. Located in the oldest part of Tokyo, I had intended to book the nights at the beginning of the trip here as well, but they informed me they were full then. They did, however, have these two nights for us, so I took them. Here we will have a twin room. It's close to Ueno park. But what I actually want to do on our last day in Tokyo, is visit the Ghibli Museum. Anyone who has ever seen a Studio Ghibli film (Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro, Howl's Moving Castle, too many more to mention) knows they are amazing and when you look at the museum's website it seems wonderful!

And then on August 19th, we are flying back to Amsterdam. Eddie will stay at a hotel at Schiphol for one night before flying home, so he has asked me to join him there. So on August 20th I will be arriving home, hopefully satisfied!