We just got back from Kamakura, a beautiful city about 2 hours away from Tokyo. Sidra had really wanted to go to the beach, that was why we went there so we could go to Yuigahama beach nearby.
I really love Kamakura, the city is small yet so beautiful. The streets are clean with lots of places to look at.
We didn’t go to the beach in the first day and only took a walk around and went to some temple. There are a lot of beautiful temples and statues in this city! I really wanted to go to K?toku-in to see the great Buddha statue but it was raining and we didn’t have enough time, so we headed to our ryokan before it’s getting late.
We went to the beach on the second day. It was still a bit cloudy but we had so much fun there. It was one of the fun moments in my life! We got back to Kamakura in the afternoon and went to Swany, a pretty fabric shop. They had a bazaar going on, so many pretty fabrics! I snatched one or two (or three or four) pieces and swore that I would be back someday.
Actually we planned to do some sight-seeing in the third day, but Sidra looked so happy at the beach that we decided to spend the whole day back at Yuigahama beach. The day was sunny and beautiful, so there were more people there. And we had fun one more day! I love this place!
The wet futon incident
As this is still holiday season, we couldn’t get any place to stay in Kamakura nor the beach, the nearest place we could get was this small ryokan (Japanese-style inn) run by a family in Hiratsuka, another small city nearby. The place was decent although the furniture seemed a bit outdated, we didn’t think much about it because we only needed a place to sleep. But on our last night, the owner called our room, she said that one of the futon was wet and we were charged with cleaning fee, which she would send later. I was pretty upset about this, because we didn’t wet the futon! It got more suspicious that she couldn’t tell how much the cleaning fee was, and was going to send the invoice later (once we got home).
The next morning, my husband looked for the woman to talk about the wet futon. She said that it was probably from urine, while glancing at Sidra. Fortunately, my precious son, who only wet his bed once when he was two years old, was oblivious to this accusation. My husband said that Sidra never wet his bed and it was also impossible that we wouldn’t notice that if he did. The woman and my husband went back and forth in Japanese, then she went behind the door to talk to an old woman, maybe her mother. When she went out again, she said that we were only charged with half of the cleaning fee.
A discount? Yay? That was of course even more unacceptable! My husband said that he wanted to see the wet futon. The woman seemed that she didn’t expect it, but she didn’t have any choice. Then we were shown a mattress with a slightly damp spot, not wet at all. You see, the mattress is placed on the floor, the futon above it, and the duvet cover on the top. My husband asked whether the futon was also wet, and the woman said no. So in order to wet the mattress, Sidra had to move the duvet cover and the futon first, with us sleeping next to him. The woman began to realize that she wasn’t making any sense. She looked embarrassed and then said that it was okay, we didn’t have to pay anything. We left the ryokan with her apologizing behind us.
I guess she expected that we (my husband) wouldn’t have enough Japanese vocabularies to argue with her made-up accusation. I’m really proud of the way my husband handled this, though. If it were me, I would definitely lose temper and got angry. But he was so calm and never raised his tone. I think I should learn to be more like that. Or maybe just let him do the talking when it’s needed (-_-;)
hi
I’m living in kamakura and I have a Kamakura group in Facebook.
this story is very nice so may I paste this to my group ?
thanks
Hi Takahide,
you can post a link to this story in your page
You’re welcome!
PS: I love your city!
YES to standing up to the futon schwindler!!!
i love your romper so much, always loved it– oh! and i saw your BS book creation when i dropped mine off, it is exquisite! i know the fabric wasn’t what you were expecting, but honestly, i thought it was just perfect.
How lucky of you to live so close! I’m kinda relieved that you thought it was good because i wasn’t so sure about it. Thank you!
Now I can’t wait too see what everybody has made and the photoshoot!
I went to Tokyo on my honeymoon and we went for a day visit to Kamakura. I loved it! I got to see the Great Buddha and lots of other temples. So pretty there, I miss Japan. People were always nice and polite.
I am surprised with the story about the wet futon, I guess no one country can have 100% of good people. Your husband handled it very well!
Wow! I can’t believe what happened with the wet futon! I’m so glad you weren’t tricked into paying more. But, I can’t believe that they would do such a scam. I always think of Japanese people as very honest. But, I guess there are bad people everywhere.
Most people are very honest here, you can leave things and people wouldn’t even touch it. But yes (unfortunately) there are bad people everywhere. And maybe these ryokan people were desperate too. But compared to where I came from, that incident was nothing. She didn’t yell and even looked embarrassed afterwards. In my country, that woman would yell and keep arguing. It was my first time to encounter something like that here, so actually I was afraid that there might be some arguing. Glad that it didn’t happen
I love your hat!
And it’s good that the futon incident was resolved.
I caught a glimpse of the hat when we went pass a hat store there, and I instantly fell in love with it! My son said it looks like a mushroom 😀
I personally think that it looks like a floppy 70s hat and that it goes well with your hair.
But yes, there’s certainly something mushroomy about it as well.
I am so going to Japan next year 😀
Your vacation trip looks really lovely and you look so happy with your family!! … And I’m sooo looking forward to see, what you will sew with the new fabrics you’ve bought!!
Looks like a fun vacation, even with the wet mattress incident! Sounds like your husband handled that very well. I can’t believe they tried to deceive you like that! Maybe I will stick to the more impersonal business hotels from now on, since I would not be able to argue effectively in Japanese with crazy ryokan women!
Actually I love staying at ryokans, especially the good ones with beautiful onsen (hot springs bath) and have dinner served in the room by old women, it’s fun! They’re quite costly though, so I guess next time we have to be careful with cheap ryokan…
Oh how beautiful!! I love the place and it is so interesting to visit different culture! All the picks are nice! you look great! So unfortunate that woman try to make money on you.. i happend though everywhere.. Glad you resolved it and had so much fun!
Love that picture of your husband and son flexing their arms, it’s so cute! Shame about the ‘wet’ futon incident, but it’s great that it all got sorted out in the end. I would probably have lost my temper too, I have such a short fuse.
It is seriously so awesome to get to “visit” Japan through your blog, thank you for sharing such wonderful pictures. : )
Your pictures are lovely
I’d love to go there someday.