Apartment antics in Nikko

When we arrived in Nikko, we left our luggage at the station, and went exploring. Late afternoon, we came back for our luggage, and called our hotel to come and collect us, as they advertised a shuttle service.

Lots of confusion ensued. At first, it seemed like they didn't have our booking, which we'd made over the Internet. Eventually we worked out that they did have our booking, but wanted to transfer us to their in town site, rather than the pretty looking mountain site we'd booked, because they had a big Christmas party happening at their mountain site, and were worried that we wouldn't be able to get any sleep.

Reluctantly we agreed. The town site looked pretty shabby, but we didn't want to be kept up all night by drunken businessmen. We were shown to our apartment, which at least had a little bit of space, unlike the one we'd had in Tokyo, and proceeded to settle in. A little later that evening, we decided it was time to shower and go to bed. When we turned on the hot water, nothing happened. We tested the kitchen, and the same problem ensued. It wasn't that we had cold water, but rather no water at all. Reception was closed. I called a number I found, but that rung out. I went out looking for another number to call, found one, but it went straight to message bank. Then I ran into a lovely Japanese guy with wonderful English, who informed me that the reason I couldn't get through was because he was on the phone with them about broken air-con, but I could use his phone and inform them of my problems. 15 or so minutes later, someone came, checked our apartment, and informed us that it would probably be best if we moved into a different apartment.

We gathered our stuff together, and moved down one floor, and had to start afresh with the air-con, which took ages to shift the temperature to something acceptable. Then we, we slept all night with the electric blanket on full, and halfway through the night decided to turn on the aircon too Nikko was cold!

We had no dramas on our second day, but on our last morning when it was time to check-out, there was nobody in reception. Reception (which also included a cafe, figure that out) was only open from 3-6pm. I found a number to call and they told me where to leave the key, and also where we could leave our luggage. Then when we returned to get our luggage, a bit after 3, Hunty thought he'd buy a snack from the cafe, and found that they couldn't cook anything for him because the lighter for the gas stove had run out.

The one thing I'll say for them was that at least communication wasn't an issue, all the staff we interacted with had very good English.