Stepping up a notch

Well, my training may not quite be in full swing, but my planning for the Tokaido walk has definitely stepped up a notch. Over the weekend I went on a booking spree and made reservations at a further 12 hotels along the route of my journey.

When Erik and I walked the Nakasendo, we stayed in a combination of traditional Japanese style inns (ryokan and minshuku) and business hotels. This worked out quite well. At ryokan and minshuku you get the traditional atmosphere (including a soak in a communal bath), two invariably delicious and immaculately presented meals, and interaction with your hosts and other guests. At business hotels you get modern conveniences like coin laundries and Internet access, and (for better or worse) privacy/anonymity.

One drawback of Japanese inns, however, is that they often don’t cater for single travelers. Often they just don't accept bookings for singles. Sometimes they do, but at double the advertised rate. So when I walk the Tokaido I'll mainly be staying in business hotels. One traditional Japanese inn I definitely want to stay in, however, is Ohashiya, which, like Daikokuya on the Nakasendo, has accommodated travelers since the Edo period.

I usually book my accommodation in Japan through Rakuten Travel. Not only are their rates usually very competitive, but their website has a "search from map" function which enables you to zoom in on different areas and look at all the accommodation options available in each, which is very handy if you're looking for places to stay along a fixed route like the Tokaido. There's an English version of Rakuten Travel here, although the range of hotels isn't as large as the Japanese version, and it doesn't appear to have the "search from map" function. I've also heard that you don't always get the same deals you get on the Japanese version.

This site is also useful for finding accommodation and other facilities in Japan if you know the name of the closest railway or subway station. First you enter the name of the station (in Japanese) in the search box. You then click the "search" tab, and you're taken to a screen where you can click on the name of the type of facilities (hotels, restaurants, bars, etc.) you want to search for around the station. It then brings up a Google map with the locations of the kinds of facilities you're interested in marked as well as links to reviews and booking websites for those facilities. Here, for example, is the result of a search for billiard halls in Shinjuku.

And finally, just so that no one can accuse me of taking backhanders, here's another popular Japanese accommodation booking site, Jalan.

Distance walked today: 3km
Total distance walked since Tokaido training began: 6km
Days left until departure: 89