The Japanese-Style Suite Mistake

A Japanese-style suite room sounds great at first, but it may not be the room you want to be in at night.

About five hours ago, I (Fallout) reserved a hotel room for 3 people. I noticed the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka had great prices: 325.00$ CAD for a large suite with two washrooms, two sinks and a large shower. Without thinking twice, I booked the Japanse-style room, amazed at how I found such a great deal.

About an hour ago, we arrived at the hotel via a shuttle from Narita (cost us 3000 Yen). At the front desk, while checking in, the lady looked up our reservation and paused for a minute. She looked up at the three of us and with a perplexed face, asked, “Japanese-style room?”

We all nodded cheerfully, expecting a nicely themed hotel room with am abundance of Japanese artifacts. She smiled, took down my credit card information, and sent us off to our room, 34 floors up. We honestly didn’t know what to expect.

We finally entered our suite, and were immediately amazed at the size of the room. A woman who brought up our luggage posed a question we wish we answered more correctly: “What time do you want your beds done?”

Hinjew, Thundergod and myself just looked at each other. Oh, the woman just wants to know when we’re leaving tomorrow, we all thought.

“We’ll be out of here at 9:30 in the morning.”

The woman, yet again confused, said, “You mean at night.”

At this point, we just said, “Yes, yes, don’t worry” as we weren’t certain what she was saying to begin with.

“Do you have any questions?” the lady wondered.

“No, thank you, we’re fine.”

Obviously she was trying to hint at something, perhaps of our ignorance and lack of understanding of Japanese culture, but we were so amazed at the size of the room we just kicked her out.

We started exploring the large suite, going through the sitting area, the Japanese soaking tub and checking out the gorgeous view of Tokyo right out of our windows. That’s when we realized that there are no beds in this hotel room.

When I say beds, I’m talking about the big mattresses that every Caucasian out there is used to sleeping on. This hotel room had none of them. We then understood what the lady meant about preparing our beds. We found a closet where thin floor mattresses and covers were stored, with a pillow to go with.

Oops.

We decided to keep the room anyway, as this may be a one-of-a-lifetime experience we may never witness again. We took a bunch of photos of ourselves dressed up in the given robes, sitting around the low table, acting all serious. We’re laughing now, but I’m sure we’re going to regret keeping this room the following morning because of the back pain we’re all presently experiencing. There are no sofas or normal CHAIRS to sit on here. Lying on the floor with a 2-inch thick mattress is going to kill us.

Anyway, we’re off to the cocktail bar on the 40th floor to enjoy some drinks and the view of Tokyo.