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We went to CoCo Curry. I was warned about the spice levels. I like spicy food, but I ordered 4 out of 20. It wasn’t too spicy, but it did hurt to eat

CoCo Curry is the biggest curry chain in Japan

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Evidently this place has been in a lot of movies and anime. Not sure which but I think I saw that it was in Lost In Translation. I saw that when it came out, but if they were ever here I don’t remember it

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We’re staying in a traditional Japanese machiya house in Kyoto. It’s kind of like an AirBNB or a vacation condo

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Bear Plug @bearplug.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Are you traveling? Did you wish you brought a chip clip?

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You can’t come to Kyoto without going to Fushimi Inari Taisha or Kyomizudera (Actually I’ve been to Kyoto six times and this is the first time I went to Kyomizudera)

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Bear Plug @bearplug.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

B-52’s (x2) Laurie Anderson (x4) Donna Summer The Police The Go-Go’s (x2) Joan Baez The Roches (x4) Kraftwerk k d lang Cilla Fisher and Artie Tresize The Mavericks The Indigo Girls The Pretenders That’s more than 10 but you get the picture

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Bear Plug @bearplug.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

If you go to Kyoto, you are kind of obligated to see a few things. Arashiyama, Kinkakuji, Nijo-jo

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Bear Plug @bearplug.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

The bathroom in Kyoto is very elaborate

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Bear Plug @bearplug.bsky.social · 21/05/2026

The bathroom in the Nara APA is so small, the mirror goes into the shower

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Bear Plug @bearplug.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Nara bathroom. It’s the smallest we’ve seen so far

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Bear Plug @bearplug.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

Now wherever I go, I can’t help noticing how big I am

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Bear Plug @bearplug.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

I’ve been to the Kobe area about 15 times for work. This is my first time in Japan as a tourist. The only sightseeing I have done before was in the Kobe/Osaka/Kyoto area

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Bear Plug @bearplug.bsky.social · 19/05/2026

We spent about an hour in Osaka. We’re not staying there. We’ve moved on to Nara. (Osaka is skippable)

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I’m glad we got to see Kinosaki Onsen. It is a pretty town, and the train ride from there down to Himeji is maybe the prettiest scenery I have ever seen. But I’m glad we got to spend an additional day and a half in Kobe instead. We made the right choice. /end

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By the way, I’m aware that my comments display more than a little insensitivity to Japanese customs, but I really did try to do my research beforehand to see if this town and this business would work for us, but I couldn’t find anything that spelled out the issues that caused these problems. /11

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When we left, the owner prostrated herself on her knees and bowed to the ground. I felt bad, and I said “gomen nasai” and we left. I’m so glad we bailed on that town. If you weigh more than 160lb and are more than 5’8” (US medium) I don’t think it’s the place for you. /10

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They were upset to hear this and tried to talk us out of it, but there was nothing they could say. I don’t think we’re going to get a refund, but when I get home I’m going to file a complaint with booking. com because their listing was definitely incorrect about the private bath. /9

Hubs asked if I wanted to leave, and I hated to do it, but I really didn’t want to stay. So he suggested we leave that town and go to our next destination. And I went online to IHG and booked a room in the hotel in Kobe we were headed to next and we went to the desk and told them we were leaving. /8

The whole point of the town was walking from onsen to onsen in the yukata and just taking it off to use a bath, not wearing your dirty clothes and bathing and then redressing in all your dirty clothes again, so 2 days there was going to be a real disappointment. I wouldn’t have enjoyed it at all. /7

That was fine. I had been aware of that, but Hubs was not happy about sleeping on the floor. The clerk left, and Hubs could tell I wasn’t happy. Everything she had said was a disappointment. Some of it we could have lived with. If only they had had big enough robes for us, it could have worked. /6

So we didn’t have the ability to bathe when we wanted or at all before 8. The room had a toilet room with a sink but no bath. When I booked the hotel, the listing specifically said it had an in-room bath. And then because it was a traditional ryokan, the bedding was a futon on the floor. /5

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She then explained the hotel bath/shower arrangement. Because the inn we were at had an in-house hot-spring tub area, she said we needed to reserve the use of it at the desk. And the only shower is inside that area. It’s first-come first-serve, and it’s only open between 8am and 11pm. /4

We got to the room and I put the yukata on over my clothes and it barely closed. She said it was the largest they had. Hubs is even bigger than me so it wasn’t going to work for either of us. So I said I guess we couldn’t use the town’s hot springs. And she said, “Just wear your own clothes.” /3

We checked into the hotel and the clerk gave us both LL size robes. I’ve been in Japan for work enough to know that the uniforms they give me are 5L or 6L. So I immediately asked the clerk if these would fit us. She said we could try them on in the room. /2

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Why we left Kinosaki Onsen: We planned on spending 2 days in Kinosaki Onsen, so we took a 5-hour train ride across Japan to get there. The idea of the place is that you get a yukata-style robe at your hotel and you wear it all over town while you go to the seven hot spring bathhouses. /1

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I’ve been trying to go to Himeji castle for 25 years. I wasn’t going to leave Japan until I did. I finally succeeded

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