My Time in Tokyo Part Three and Why I Hate Hotel Neo

Right, I prefaced this blog with the statement that I’d try to prevent it from turning into a collection of rants and although I feel I’ve only kept to that somewhat I’m going to completely abandon all discourse and just go for it with this post.

To cut sharply to the chase, we we’re sent down to Tokyo for a conference on volunteering overseas as well as to meet with our in-country representative (essentially our supreme baby sitter while we are abroad). The purpose of this is to mark the half way point of our time in Japan and make sure none of us are on the verge of having some sort breakdown. All was lovely and joyous until after the conference. Myself and James, using our unparalleled negotiating skills (we basically just asked), managed to secure an extra few days in Tokyo for catching up with the other volunteers and other such merriments. Afterwards however we would have to find new accommodation. Due to our infinitely impressive short sightedness and our infinitely tight budget (well…my infinitely tight budget rather) we decided to stay in Hotel Neo, the cheapest accommodation we could find. I had previously prided myself on my viewpoint of “as long as it’s dry and has a shower, I don’t care about the accommodation”.  This was my line of thinking at the time, please note the key words in that sentence; “AT-THE-TIME”.

James' Cell in Hotel Neo

We disembarked from our train in the district of Minami-Senju where the hotel was located.  Immediately we noticed that the area was different from most of the places we had been in Tokyo so far. It was smaller, more quaint and frankly a bit dirty. It had a grim, dusty train yard feel about it but we pressed onwards knowing that our bargain of a Hotel would make it worth while…how wrong we were. The first warning bells began ringing in my head when we bought our tickets to stay there from a vending machine located at the reception area. I found it strange but told myself to think nothing of it. Vending machines are popular in Japan and they use them for all sorts of weird and not so wonderful things (more on that later). We handed the man behind the glass our tickets and proceeded to our rooms.  Upon opening the door to my room I was greeted by what could only be described as a prison cell. It was a room approximately one third the size of a matchbox (in reality about the size of your average bathroom), that was furnished with nothing other than a bed a small table and a T.V. It had a small window and blank white walls rising up to a blank white ceiling. As the steel door clunked shut behind me I found myself struck for words. My thoughts began to drift to our friends staying together in the Tokyo volunteers apartment and how warm and friendly and how casual their stay would be. I envisioned them sitting around laughing, joking and catching up while I dropped onto the side of the bed and starred blankly at the dull white wall. With these unpleasant thoughts swirling around in my head I decided to investigate the facilities of the hotel or rather lack thereof. Wondering how I was going to bathe in the morning I meandered my way down to the second floor where the bathing facilities were located. I’ve stayed in youth hostels with shared bathrooms before and largely its completely fine but this time I happened upon one single, gritty, pay as you go, coin operated shower that served the hotel. As I starred at it, my jaw slightly ajar a man who genuinely looked homeless shuffled passed me to use some of the coin operated washing machines located next to the shower…and I stress THE shower…singular…one…for everyone. Upon returning to our rooms I encountered James chuckling at the depressing absurdity  of the situation. I managed to force a smile but was feeling quite miserable.

Hotel Neo rocking the Dull White and Sea foam Green cobination.

 Now although I am sure there are volunteers in Africa who have to stay in mud huts and glorified card board boxes for accommodation while travelling but for me it wasn’t the terrible quality of the hotel that got to me, it was the sense of separation and isolation. The sense that every night me and James would have the leave the other volunteers and trek halfway across Tokyo to our dingy white cells in dusty Minami-Senju while they would still be out having fun. Perhaps it’s an illogical hatred or perhaps I’m just pinning the unpleasantness of the situation on an easy target either way both me and James ended up reviling the hotel so much that we decided to spend our last two nights in Tokyo in a capsule hotel despite this being of considerable extra expense to the both of us. This however, was a fantastic decision and it considerably altered both our moods for the better. So in summation, while cheap accommodation can be tolerable never underestimate the values of convenience, cleanliness and atmosphere because otherwise you could very easily end up staying in what essentially feels like a prison and believe me when I say Hotel Neo certainly was one.