Chapter 2

Asakusa and Ryokan

We wanted to eat the fried rice that we already bought at the airport. We couldn’t check in to the ryokan yet because it was still ten o’clock in the morning. I went inside the ryokan to eat there. Then, the owner of the ryokan, who was old and unfriendly, told us that we weren’t allowed to eat inside the ryokan because they didn’t want us to create a mess. So, we had to eat outside even though the weather was really cold. My grandparents were so angry at him.

After we ate, my cousins, brother, and I went running in and out of the ryokan. The owner was not happy with us, my mom told me after. The ryokan only had four floors and ten rooms on each floor. The lobby was small, but there was a small breakfast place across the lobby table. There were two elevators across the entrance of the hotel. The first floor was the lobby, the second and third floor was full of rooms. Lastly, the fourth floor was two Onsen rooms (it was like bathrooms), each for men and women.

My mom told us to just wait outside while my dad and uncle went into the hotel and went to check-in and pay first. Since we got bored, the kids went to play ‘Tag’. We all ran back and forth again and again. We kept on running until my grandpa told us to stop running around.

My mom and aunt were curious about the neighborhood. So, they went to walk around and returned. Then, they called my brother, my cousins, and I to come along. When I look to the right and left, it was full of stores. My mom asked us to walk around even though the weather was so cold. We agreed and went to turn right at the street. There were lots of shops with people buying and waiting.

We went to check some stores like the soft toy store and a jeweler store. My brother wanted to buy a Pikachu soft toy and I wanted to buy a bracelet. My mom bought them and my brother kept his Pikachu and didn’t let anyone touch it. We went to look around and I found a fan store. I bought a Japanese-looking fan and it was beautiful. My mom and aunt found lots of other stores that sold clothes, bags, food, and more stuff.

We also went to visit the famous Asakusa Temple. We saw lots and lots of people praying in the temple and there was a board where you could write your wish. They were lighting the incense too. It was so crowded with shops, souvenirs, and people.

All of us went back after checking the stores and we got lost. I told them I saw a familiar sign outside a store. So, we took a left turn and found our ryokan. My dad was there waiting for us and said that we could check-in already. So, we brought our things up to our rooms. We had four rooms; our first room was for my grandma and grandpa. The second room was for my mom, dad, brother, and I. Our third room was for my aunt and the last room was for my uncle, aunt, and my cousins. The rooms were tiny.

Inside our rooms was a TV and no bed. There were two tatamis (mattresses) with pillows and blankets, but there was no bolster There was a chair and a table there too. There was no wardrobe and no place for our suitcase and shoes. So, my dad put the suitcase on the floor and told me to put my shoes in front of the door.

I was hoping that our bathroom had a bathtub, but it turned out that there was no bathtub. But my grandma and grandpa’s bathroom had a bathtub. There was a shower, a toilet, and a sink in our bathroom. It was a very small bathroom. Our rooms were on different floors and we were going to stay for three days and two nights in the ryokan.

After that, all of us agreed to eat lunch after checking in to the ryokan. We didn’t rent a car yet so we walked and used GPS to find our restaurant named Ichiran Ramen. We had to walk towards the wider and more crowded streets. Then, we walked past MRT stations and more stores. We complained because we walked a lot. My cousins were still young so they brought a stroller. The adults didn’t complain about being tired of walking. But they talked along the way so they didn’t feel they were tired. My dad finally found the restaurant.

We went inside the restaurant and there was a narrow staircase when I looked inside. My dad led the way downstairs. I saw some wooden tables, chairs, and lots of people eating ramen. We found a table with ten chairs, so we took one more chair because there were eleven of us.

My aunt ordered our food using their vending machine. It was touchscreen and we had to pay by inserting money into the vending machine. My brother and I wanted ramen because we both love ramen. All the others wanted spicy ramen but both of us cannot eat spicy food. So, they ordered the regular ramen for the kids. It took fifteen to twenty minutes for the food to be ready. I ate quickly because I was hungry after all the walk and the cold weather. We ate for thirty minutes and we enjoyed the meal. The adults talked a while after they were done while waiting for the children to finish eating.

After we ate, we went to the department store near the restaurant to look around and buy some things. My aunt wanted to buy cloth that has the writing of my cousins’ names on them and she bought them. Afterward, we went walking back to our ryokan to rest for a bit. Later on, we went out for dinner. The bad news was we had to walk to find the restaurant again in the cold. We had unagi and rice dishes. The restaurant was tiny too. After that, we walked back to the ryokan and we played in our grandparents’ room while my parents, my aunts, and my uncle went out to have a walk.

Around eight o’clock at night, my dad, mom, Nathan, and I went to the fourth floor of ryokan to the Onsen room. Onsen is a hot spring in Japan and bathing facilities. My mom and I went to take a shower first before we had the onsen. Next, we went to a bathtub full of warm water. It was very relaxing there and it was very peaceful. We were in the onsen for about twenty minutes and we went to dry ourselves using our towels. We went outside and called my dad and brother as we are done. We called it a night after that. What an eventful first day in Japan.