Zsup~!

So now we're in Kyoto, and lodged in (yet another) internet cafe... I hadn't blogged about the previous one and planned to, so here's the presentation of both together...

I knew we weren't always going to be able to get as sweet a place as we did in Nagoya, or lovely as the Sendai peeps. But it seems things are swinging to new lows in Kyoto, where I have barely got more ability to access the internet than when I'm wifi-ing on my iPhone.

Grouse 1: So the first computer I had was so lagged out, I ended up changing to another computer. Sadly, the second computer has thus far failed to impress with its especially irritating keyboard (currently being mangled by my very persistent typing), backdated programs (archaic IE, no Firefox, Java mangle that *I* had to update for them) and refusal to upload my photos to Facebook after having stated that it was successful twice.

I recognise, incidentally, that the last could be Facebook's fault. But my travel companion is not facing the same nonsense, so I choose to blame the computer instead.

Grouse 2: Most expensive so far, and all I got was a "free" bath and a really old recliner. This is sad, because I know, Kyoto has a long, traditional history and a very popular tourist area. Still, they could do more about their obvious complacence in at least providing reasonable service for their freaking inflated prices. C'mon. It can't be that tough to give a good chair when charging nearly half extra all the previous places that DID give very excellent sleeping arrangements. *mumbles*

Incidentally, for Kyoto, we are putting up, ONE NIGHT ONLY, in Media Cafe Popeye, located along Kawaramachi Road. Never again. I'd rather go back to sleeping on the cold stone tiles of Forum Ippukudo. At least that didn't dig out my pocket to frustrate me.

And now, to recover my soul, I will point out that the space we had in Yokohama was actually not a bad one, all things considered. We stayed at a DICE outlet, near Shin-Yokohama station. It's not the nearest, but the nearest place charged a bomb for its location. A short walk of 200m provided us with an automatic "discount" of nearly 1k yen on the overnight package price. They charged the cheapest so far, but they had no shower facilities. Then again, it's not like we couldn't get access to that elsewhere (Thank you again, Milton!). However, the computers were reasonably swift, even if we had dodgy USB ports that shook in the casing. And we did manage to sleep quite well in the temperatures set indoors.

What impressed this traveller most, however, was their thoughtfulness in providing sanitary pads in the ladies' toilet. It's quite a nice thing to do, you never know when someone might have forgotten or run out, and it's not always easy to acquire it in the middle of the night, either - particularly in the middle of paid-internet-time. I also very much liked their non-contact pad disposer. You wave a hand over the sensor and the lid lifts, so that you can dump the stuff without actually touching the bin. Even better, the bin has a built in sanitiser and deodorant so that subsequent occupants of the toilet won't have to deal with the unsavory scent of used pads - something which is not at all rare in Singapore.

And yes, rarity as it may be, no photos for this entry because THE COMPUTER AT MEDIA CAFE POPEYE IS BEING AN ACCURSED BRAT.

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