Friday, 4 April 2008
When I’m safely ensconced in the Little House of Concrete one of the problems that recur in the day to day cycle is the relatively early rise. Except in exceptional circumstances, when the sun rises, so does Hughesy.
Not that I’m averse to sleeping in.
The lack of a decent set of blackout curtains in the bedroom means that it’s difficult to remain asleep once the roseate glow of morning sunlight starts to seep into the room, assuming you’re in any state of consciousness above totally comatose.
Which means that when I awoke fully refreshed to find the room in darkness at eight a.m. I was impressed. Previous references to Hughesy’s hotel ratings have tended to deal with the presence of abundant hot water (an important criterion) but if I had to specify one thing that raises hotel accommodation into the top bracket (at least in my book) it’s the possibility of sleeping in until the body tells you that it doesn’t want to sleep in any more.
And I found that to be the case in almost every hotel we stayed in over the next fortnight.
Having completed the morning preliminaries, just after nine we wandered into the larger of the two restaurants offering breakfast for my first encounter with the Japanese Viking (which is, essentially, a much easier way of spelling Smorgasbord).
After a light supper the previous night, and faced with the prospect of taking on enough fuel to keep us going till dinner time that evening, I attacked the range of delicacies on offer with considerable alacrity. One plate of more-or-less-Western-style breakfast, a plate of the Japanese version, a return to the Western option and an omelette.
This final selection was prompted by a sympathetic urge to relieve a chef from the boredom of standing at his station without anything to do, you understand, rather than any inclination towards gluttony. ‘Er Indoors pointed out that the two individuals rostered onto the scrambled eggs/omelette detail looked bored. Hughesy did something about it.
Any bookmakers fielding in the What’re the first two things Hughesy’s going to add to the plate when he reaches the buffet stakes would have lost heavily.
The first things added to the plate?
Cod roe spaghetti and parmesan cheese.
The alert reader will possibly have noted that I previously referred to more-or-less-Western-style breakfast.
Once we’d eaten, packed and checked out, we emerged into the outside world to find that conditions were much colder than anticipated, prompting the addition of several extra layers of clothing while we awaited the arrival of the shuttle bus.
Back at Sannomiya I had my first encounter with the subway system which, as you would expect, is designed to move the maximum number of people with the greatest possible efficiency.
For a start, there are lines that indicate where the doors will be when the train stops. So, if you anticipate wanting a seat for your journey you not only join the queue at one of the clearly marked boarding points, you decide to wait, assuming you can afford the time, for the next train should the queue be too long.
Which should, of course place you at the front of the queue for the next train.