When one is attempting to do laundry in a hostel, drying is very important. When dealing with delicate fabrics the standard issue dryer with 1 heat setting may not be suitable. In this case, using a piece of rope from the nearby convenience store one can fashion a clothes line within the room. However one should always remember to secure the line to a stable, fixed object. Using a cheap, file cabinet looking locker that weighs less than a wet phonebook is not the best choice, as we learned the hard way. After stringing the line from the door to the locker to the nail in the wall above my head, we threw all our wet laundry up. It barely fit but we were quite proud ourselves, with high fives all around. As Justin got up to use the bathroom before turning in for the night he opened then door and set in motion a catastrophic chain of events. As he opened the door it pulled the line, which was anchored to the locker. The locker was not to sturdy or heavy and as the line pulled the locker began to topple over. With his back to locker Justin had no idea and with me in bed there was very little I could do. As I leaped from the bed, throwing my blankets all over the floor, I grabbed the locker just before it crashed into the ground but to late to stop all the clothes from falling on the floor. Our victory seemed to be short lived.
That actually happened our last night in Kyoto, but I totally forgot until looking at pictures. Osaka itself was a little boring, the highlight of the town being the enormous covered shopping district in Namba, 2 meals at Wendys and of course the claw game victory from the earlier post. We flew out for China Sunday afternoon and after a 3 hour flight arrived in Beijing. The airport in Beijing is massive and after waiting around for 30 minutes our ride to the hostel showed up. Quick 30 minute car ride where I thought I may die a few times and we arrived at the hostel.
Now when the driver pulled off the main road into an alleyway I was pretty sure we were about to be robbed. I saw nothing that looked like a hostel anywhere and lots of people eyeing us suspiciously. But the driver led us down a little more and into the entry way. We checked in with the girl working the counter, Winnie her name tag read, and she told us we were staying in their other building 7 minutes walk down the road. Then she said someone would come to help us with our bags. Our saviour showed up on a bicycle with a cart attached to the back. We threw the bags in and followed him down the road, dodging traffic along the way. We pulled into another alley, a traditional Chinese hutong and into our room. Still a little spooked we settled into the room realizing we had come a long way from our shiny room at the Hyatt.
