Just one night. (@Tokyo Disney Sea Hotel Miracosta!)

So at the end of May, my mother came to visit. As a part of our late Mother's Day celebration, I arranged for a stay at the wondrous Tokyo DisneySea Hotel Miracosta!

Our room keys. Each guest gets their own - to keep! Also, straight lines are hard to draw on a trackpad...

My family has gone to the Disney Resorts in Florida and California a handful of times when I was growing up. We've stayed at a handful of the Disney hotels, and when I was studying abroad in Tokyo, my parents and I even spent a few nights at the Tokyo Disney Ambassador Hotel. I was pretty confident I knew what it was like staying at a Disney hotel.

But the Hotel Miracosta rocked my socks off.

When I talked about how much I liked Disney, people here would almost automatically respond that I needed to spend a night here. But all I really knew was that the Hotel Miracosta is so popular that it's nearly impossible to book...supposedly you need to book over a year in advance - well, if you're trying to book directly. I hadn't planned that far in advance, but I barely managed to find an opening through a travel agency. Aside from the suites, Miracosta's rates (and availability!) depends strongly on which view you are booking - but I'll get into that a bit later in this post.

I was pretty skeptical with all the hype, but despite the lofty price tag, it was totally worth it. I'd so do it again.

Hotel lobby!

Land of dreams for sure! Cast members in the entrance area will enthusiastically approach you to see if you need help with your luggage. If you come around check-in time, the lobby will be overflowing with people waiting - not too long at all! - to be shown to their room by a cast member. The Miracosta has all the best parts of Japanese and Disney service combined.

Studiously checking out the hotel info channel.

Maybe because I only really stay at business hotels in Japan, but the sheer size of the room really impressed me. I guess it is the size of a standard hotel room back home though - I guess I mostly only stay at business hotels here in Japan, where the rooms are about the size of a closet ;D

Being silly in the powder room.

View from our room!

I touched upon this at the beginning of the post, but room availability and rates depend strongly on which side of the hotel you're trying to book. For standard rooms, there are three views are available (in the order of price/difficulty to book): the Porto Pallazzo side, the Venetian side, and the Toscana side. We were on the Venetian side, which offered a partial (but still gorgeous!) view into Disney Sea. Porto Pallazzo is by far the most popular side because it offers a full view into the park...someday I will stay in one of those rooms!!

Out front the hotel! (Also, yes my sweatshirt is insane and that's why I love it!)

Guests of Tokyo Disney Resort get to enjoy all sorts of perks during their stay, like an unlimited pass for the Tokyo Disney Resort monorail during the duration of your stay, and early entry into the Tokyo Disney Land or Sea (available on the day of your check out as well)! Even cooler is that (1) if you purchase anything from the shops within the resort, they can deliver it directly to your hotel bell service - fantastic considering how much omiyage people buy here in Japan! and (2) even if you're only staying one night, like I did, you can check out and they'll hold your luggage until late that evening (10pm, I think?)!

Wandering the Tokyo Disney Resort.

After settling into our room, my mother and I decided to take advantage of our monorail pass to go wandering around the resort. We took a lovely ride to the JR Maihama Station area, which is connected directly to the Ikspiari shopping mall and Tokyo Disney Ambassador Hotel!

Random shots as we wandered the Tokyo Disney Resort (counterclockwise, from the top left):
(1) Awesome giant map painting of Tokyo Disney Sea, located right by the Hotel Miracosta entrance to the park
(2) Ceiling mural at the newly renovated Ambassador Hotel - where my parents and I stayed 6 years ago!
(3) Giant cookie art (Happy 30th Anniversary, TDR!) the bakery inside the Ambassador Hotel.
(4) Mickey grabby things inside the monorail car!
(5) My mom being boss inside the Ambassador Hotel lobby
(6) One of my new favorite cafes - the epic nana's green tea, located on the ground floor of Ikspiari!

Retracing our steps from 7 years ago!

Next post...mother-daughter date at Tokyo Disney Sea!

Home sweet home.

I just returned from a lovely weekend in my beloved, wonderful Kamogawa. Basically, I was there to help out my old employer welcome a music delegation from Kamogawa's sister city, Manitowoc, WI, USA! Not only do I love work like this, but it was also great to see so many Kamogawa friends. I am feeling a bit weary physically, but mentally/emotionally recharged!

Anyway, a quick peek into my weekend through photos:

The cute frog/heart thing was engraved into all the clothes hangers! Looks like it's the inn's logo.

I've reviewed the fantastic Hidamari Inn before, so I won't delve too far into it, but I just wanna say that they finished adding an additional building, so now they've gone from just 4 rooms to 12! Still nice and cozy, but now a bit easier to book. (Although all the rooms were filled over this weekend! :D)

Rehearsal at Kamogawa Civic Hall.

The music delegation is 35 members from Manitowoc's Lakeshore Wind Ensemble! During their one week stay in Kamogawa, they performed at Nanso Bunka Hall in Tateyama and Kamogawa Civic Hall over the weekend, and they'll be playing at Tokyo Disney Land on Tuesday (wish I could go)!
Watching their performances made me remember how nice live music is.

Food hunting, and my haul!

(starting from top right, clockwise):

(1) Awajiya, a cozy little Japanese restaurant right near Maebara beach in Kamogawa. It's run by a husband and wife. The wife, who usually handles taking orders and bringing the food, can seem a little...cold? At times, but I think it actually makes you like her for some reason.

(2) Maebara Beach. Gorgeous even during the rainy season!

(3) Kamogawa Energy. It was originally a fictional item from Lagrange no Rinne, an anime that takes place in Kamogawa. They made it real, and apparently it's surprisingly good?! These guys are currently chilling in the fridge, but I'll let you know how it goes.

(4) Su-namero! SO GOOD. I walked all the way down to Awajiya during my lunch break because I've been craving namero for aaaaaaages. I've previously posted about what namero (and su-namero!) is here.

(5) Summer veggies. I make a point to pick up locally grown produce whenever I'm back in town! Today I scored zucchini (80 yen...and it even included recipes!) and cucumbers (88 yen for 4). The supermarket I went to only sells produce from local farmers who bring in the veggies themselves every 1-3 days! The labels are marked with the name of the farmers too. It is oddly reassuring to have those names on there! Anyway, I'll be sauteing the zucchini, and the cucumbers are already pickling.

Many more adventures to come - stay tuned!

Eco Hotel Hanaya (エコホテル華屋)

I love Kamogawa. Even after spending three wonderful years there, I still go back an average 1-2 times per month. Often enough, it is because I am blessed to have wonderful friends who call me out for dinner (and some drinks!).

But, Kamogawa is a close but far 1 hour, 40 minute drive from Chiba City. Not to mention that Japan has really really strict laws against drunk driving (not that I would want to anyway!), I spend the night almost every time I go down to Kamogawa.

It's always fun to stay with friends, but I also like to take advantage of the fact that I am no longer a local resident, and explore the city from a more "tourist" point of view - including trying to stay at the different hotels, ryokan, etc. all over the place.

Awhile back, I had dinner scheduled two nights in a row in central Kamogawa. As much as I was tempted to stay at my beloved Hidamari Inn, I knew it would be a waste because I would be out about the entire day and night, and only return to the hotel late at night to sleep. So I decided to look for something simple and cheap!

Entrance to the hotel.

After a bit of research, I was pleased to find the Eco Hotel Hanaya!

It is located just 5 minutes by foot from JR Awa-Kamogawa Station, and in the heart of central Kamogawa. Many of Kamogawa's eateries and izakaya are also located in this area, so it was just what I was looking for - somewhere I could easily go in and out of by foot.

Single Western-style room.

The Hanaya was renovated in August 2011, so it's really clean! Before then, I think it was a ryokan or minshuku (Japanese B&B) with a pretty long history. It may not be the fanciest place, but I stayed in this single for just 4000 yen per night...a total steal when it comes to Kamogawa! The cheapest rates for single guests in Kamogawa are probably around 8000 yen on average - and you'll be hard pressed to find somewhere with a better location at this price.

The single room has a Western style bed, toilet, sink, fridge, and TV - perfect! There is no separate bath for this room, but the Hanaya has two large baths for the women alone - obviously, I don't know what the men's side was like, but I would assume it's the same. During my two night stay, I didn't run into any other guests (though there were definitely other women staying there at the same time). Some of the other rooms do have private baths though.

Recycling, laundry, and other amenities.

As an "eco hotel," the Hanaya is not only nice on your wallet, it's environmentally friendly too! Every floor had recycling bins, and bags to put used sheets/towels in. Electric pots, tea sets, etc. are also set here instead of inside of rooms, so guests can use them if needed.

I don't smoke, so it is a huge merit to be able to stay at a hotel and not come out smelling like smoke. More than often, I've stayed at business hotels that reek of smoke even when the room is supposedly "non-smoking." So this was a lovely surprise for me!

The entrance to the road the Eco Hotel Hanaya is on can be pretty difficult to find though, especially if you're going by car. In this photo, the road is going towards Awa-Kamogawa Station...but the two signs with the arrows are where the alleyway entrance is!

Coming from Awa-Kamogawa Station, if you pass this place, Curry House Satsuki, you've gone too far! The road is located between Satsuki and Yakult.

Anyway, if you are headed to Kamogawa and looking for a place to stay - but want to stay somewhere cheap, clean, and accessible, this is the place for you! The more people you have, I think you can get even better rates. I'm not sure what the details are, but the Hanaya was featured on a TV show because of its special 980 yen rate plan! It might definitely be worth looking into...

One Week in Chiba: Part 2 ~Living Sky-High~

(Let's ignore that they spelled my name wrong...*sigh*)

After lunch at Ryokusuitei, we checked in at our hotel, the Kamogawa Grand Tower! I mentioned this place very briefly in a previous post, when I stayed in one of their standard (but still gigantic and gorgeous) standard condominiums, but this time I stayed in a royal suite!!!!!

If you were to pick Kamogawa's three most luxurious hotels, it would be the Ryokusuitei, the Kamogawakan, and the Kamogawa Grand Hotel/Tower. Each of these places cost an average of 100,000 yen per night (for their suites - the Kamogawakan and Grand Hotel/Tower have more standard rooms, which are still fairly pricey).

Of course, staying in such places is not really possible on my salary...but an acquaintance of mine was extremely generous enough to give me a coupon reducing the room rate to 31,500 yen for a night! 

 
There are only four royal suites in the the Kamogawa Grand Tower! All of them look totally gorgeous, but I chose "White Breeze" because it was supposed to be the one with the best view - and  despite the cloudy weather, the view really was absolutely amazing!

Really excited to check out the room!

Hello Grand Tower!

Can't even fit it all into a single photo...:D

The Grand Tower stands 33 floors high, and is the tallest building in Kamogawa - the next tallest being Kameda Medical Center's K Tower, which I believe is only 15 floors tall. It's pretty impressive standing at the base...and just as epic from the top!

The 32nd floor is the highest floor for rooms (the 33rd floor is the hotel bar), and is dedicated solely to the Royal Suites.

First, you have to slide your card to get into the lobby for the suites. I felt super VIP already, and we hadn't even gone into our room yet!

Garden on the 32nd floor!

And now...I present photos of our suite! It has a giant living room, two bed rooms, a mini-kitchen, and three bathrooms, plus a huge entryway.

Entryway. This is already enough space for a standard business hotel room.

This is the main bedroom, where I got to sleep. Totally random, but you can open/close the curtains with a button on the night stand!

Changing area connecting the bed and bath. There were so many towels...There were tons of towels in all of the bathrooms too, even though there were only 3 of us staying 1 night. It made me feel wasteful even though I didn't use them.

I also monopolize this whole bathroom! I couldn't fit it all in one photo, but there's another sink, marble shower, and toilet on the other side of this room.

The view from my bedroom! Downtown Kamogawa - and the tall gray-ish building to the right is Kamogawa City Hall.

The living room area looks out over the Pacific Ocean~!

Dining area to the back right, and one of the bedrooms to the left.

The view from the left side of the living room area.

My parents' bedroom for the night. I love how open it is~.

A peek into one of the other bathrooms. This one also has a toilet and full bath.

And last but most certainly not least, the view from the second bedroom! It's no wonder why my parents chose to sleep here instead of in the main bedroom.


After visiting one of Kamogawa's seaside areas in the morning, and enjoying a view of Kamogawa from our room in the afternoon, we headed out to Kamogawa's Nagasa district, a mountain/farming area, in the evening!

Next post: experiencing Kamogawa's mountainside culture.

Relaxing at the Hidamari Inn.

So today is the big day!! My parents are coming to Japan to stay for the week - in a bit I'll be heading out to Narita to pick them up.

We'll be staying in Kamogawa for 3 days, 2 nights, but I actually came down to Kamogawa a day earlier because I joined another matsuri yesterday (no pictures this time though, sorry!). Normally I stay at a friend's place, but since I had already made reservations for my parents' accommodations, I decided to just add an extra night at our first hotel (we'll be staying at two different places).

Hidamari Inn!!! I've wanted to stay here for ages, but never had a chance. It's a family-owned place - a mother and son pair first started off with a ryokan called Tomioka Ryokan, which is actually behind this building. Through lots of hard work, they expanded their business and opened this building, the Hidamari Inn, two years ago. So now they have to Tomioka Ryokan, which offers Japanese-style accomodations, and the Hidamari Inn, which is Western-style.

In the same complex is the Sumibiya, a restaurant-bar that I frequented a lot when I still lived in Kamogawa. Just as the name implies, the tables are equipped with shichirin grills where food is cooked right in front of you!

This place was also built together with the Hidamari Inn, so it's only 2 years old, but it's already really popular with both locals and visitors! The chef is a very pretty lady who studied/trained in Spain, and everything she makes is absolutely genius! They serve everything from paella to sashimi to deer jerky (yes deer jerky - and it's reaaaaally really good!).

Anyway, into the Hidamari Inn itself:

Room C!

The Hidamari Inn only has 5 rooms, and it's reaaaaaally popular so it books up really fast! This is the third time I've tried to book here, and the first time I ever managed to get it.

So spacious!!! So pretty!!

Okay, I'll be honest that I was expected a very small, closet room - that's what it's like for many hotels in Japan. And the price is so cheap - I only paid 5250 yen for Sunday night, which is an absolute steal for Kamogawa, a resort city. (I believe the rates for Saturday night are around 8000 yen, which is still super cheap for Kamogawa.) I was VERY pleasantly surprised when the owner opened the room and showed me inside.

This is the view from the room! All of the rooms overlook Futama Beach (a popular surfing spot) in Kamogawa's Amatsu District. This is the same place we did jibiki-ami fishing last month~. The area around here is really nice, really quiet - perfect for strolls along the shore!

Taken from the other side of the room.

And yet another perk of staying here - all of the rooms are equipped with free internet access (via LAN). Here in Kamogawa, hotels equipped with free internet access are pretty much nonexistant, so this alone gets huge points in my book.

Anyway, if you are looking for a nice place to stay in Kamogawa, but don't want to put too much stress on your wallet, I definitely definitely recommend the Hidamari Inn!


http://www.hidamari-inn.com/