I had been riding out of Tokyo in the rain for a number of hours, my gear was failing, my fingers were numb, night had taken over and the traffic was not letting up. I kept pinching myself that I was in Japan and somebody was crazy enough to give me this bike for a month, despite everything going wrong I was very content and happy with my situation. However this did have the capacity to limit my enjoyment, I needed to find shelter.

Finding accommodation in foreign countries can often be rather difficult, especially when you know nothing of the language. I really don’t like stopping and wasting time and in the darkness it’s incredibly hard to spot accommodation options. I spotted a few but they were about $60 a night and it wasn’t obvious where the front offices were, so I kept going. Eventually it was too much and I pulled into the flashing neon sign of Hotel Yuzuki.

I pulled in and did a few laps of the establishment but there seemed to be nobody home and no office. Going back to stoic philosophy again I thought the worst that could happen is I try one of the rooms and the owners will find me later and I’ll pay them then. I parked my bike out the front and proceeded to try one of the doors, to my surprise it was unlocked! Not only that but upon opening it the lights sprang on, I proceeded up the stairs and was greeted with this thing.

Despite pressing a few buttons I couldn’t make heads or tails of the thing, I tried the next door and into the suite I went.

Upon entering the room I found this rather large window starting straight into the bathroom. I was just so relieved to find shelter that it didn’t strike me as odd or out of the ordinary. I then had a look in the cupboard where I was expecting to find a mini bar.

..and finally it twigged when I looked at the tissue holder on top of the bed.



Yep, I had managed to find a love hotel on my first night on the road.

I shrugged my shoulders, it was still a nice room. At this moment of acceptance the lights cut off. I scurried around and found my headlamp and went back downstairs, upon opening the door the lights came back on. Phew, it was just a timer. This hotel hadn’t finished playing with me yet though, as I went to get more of my stuff from the bike, I found I couldn’t get back inside. I was locked out in the cold rain, missing half my stuff and without anyone around 😦

The machine overlords obviously felt pity on me and after about 5 minutes I was able to get back inside. I promptly propped the door open which tricked the light system into staying on and meant I wouldn’t get locked out again. Victory never felt so sweet over an inanimate object!

To celebrate my successes it was time to go to the local supermarket and sample the local Japanese supermarket.

Finally to treat myself to a day well done, I sat down with my giant 2L metal bottle / can of Asahi and had a nice bath.

With that, I put my gear out to dry and lay down for a well earned first nights sleep on the road, excited for the next day ahead.