I didn’t take pictures of this – because of basic respect for strangers on holiday – but I hope my words can convey how strange and awesome it is staying in a Japanese tourist hotel in a resort town during a holiday.
I’ve written about the onsen (hot spring) and the unfortunate (for me) rule about tattoos – but there are some other things going on here that are just so unique and sort of bizarre, that I have to write about them.
First of all – I really like this hotel. It’s close to the train station, it has nice amenities, and it’s a very friendly place. In fact, I think the staff here speaks better English than anywhere else I’ve stayed in Japan – including a Holiday Inn, a Disney Resort, and places in Tokyo, Osaka, and Sapporo. I wasn’t expecting that given that Otaru is a relatively small city.
Hotels in Japan generally have robes and slippers and all the amenities you need so that you don’t need to bring them. Toothbrush, razor, q-tips, brush, soaps, tea, coffee, etc. Dormy Inn goes a step further and provides lovely ‘hotel clothes’ which are like fluffy pajamas. Quite comfortable and nice.
When I went to the onsen, I noticed that most of the men were wearing their hotel pajamas. This hotel also offers something I’ve never seen before – they have a complimentary bowl of soba noodles from 9:30 pm to 11:00 pm. When I went to that last night, it was interesting to see so many people in matching uniforms slurping noodles. There were far more people in the onsen at that time and the halls were filled with people going to get noodles, going to the hot spring, and just wandering around in pajamas.
This morning I went to the breakfast – which is just an absolutely astounding display of food. Otaru is famous for seafood – and all of it was available, scallops in the shell, mussels, oysters, three kinds of salmon, roe, urchin, squid – plus pancakes, omelets, toast, yogurt, fruit, specialty dishes of the region, fried chicken, roasted mutton – the list goes on. This is considered to be one of the Top 10 hotel breakfasts in Japan – and with good reason. Also – it was quite reasonable in price – which is good because it kept me from trying to get the value.
Okay, but here is the breakfast cult part. Everyone there (except me and a couple of other people ) were in their pajamas! combine that with the very light tinkly Japanese style elevator music that is constantly playing in the halls and common areas – and it really creates a total vibe. In many ways, this feels just as culty as the 10 day silent retreat I went on in December. I should point out too that there is the same kind of happy music playing through speakers in much of the street.
I want to be clear here, I’m not complaining. I actually like it. Yes, it’s kind of a conformity cult but seeing all the moms and dads, grandparents, kids, couples, and singles too all lining up for their morning repast in matching comfy fluffy hotel pajamas with light tinkly music (I heard at least one Beatles cover) is nothing short of fantastic. I used AI to generate some images so you could just get a little sense of the vibe going on here.
On my way back from breakfast, I translated the sign in the elevator – “You can wear hotel pajamas and slippers in the hotel.” Then I saw that it was also written in smaller English letters underneath.
This hotel is highly recommended – but only if you don’t have tattoos because the onsen experience is really a big part of it.
