Do you want to go on a totally different planet? Let’s go to Japan! It is the place where you can be fascinated at each and every step. I mean it! I have so many to tell you about my trip there, that it would take me months…
I read a lot before this holiday, especially about the unusual, surprising things that you can see from the moment you get to Japan and especially in Tokyo.
One of those things is in the Shinjuku, in the Keio Plaza five stars hotel: the Hello Kitty rooms. You should not miss this!
KEIO PLAZA HOTEL
Keio Plaza is the first skyscraper hotel built in Japan.
The hotel is a star: it was partially destroyed in the “Return of Godzilla” movie from 1984 and in “Godzilla versus King Ghidorah” from 1991.
I took photos of it from all the angles, then I went in, I crossed the luxurious lobby, which smells wonderful, and I stop at the front desk with a confidence that one would think I will take out of my purse at least a Black Card and I will ask for the presidential suite. J
An entire line of receptionists unfold in a disciplined manner in front of me. They are all calm, very nice and I wonder who will be the one helping me, to guess if I am able to convince him to let me do what I want to do.
Hm… The woman won’t go for this. She does not seem trustworthy… The young one will not allow me to do this, because he seems to be a beginner and he must be afraid not to break any rules. A third one, a young man who has just served some rich clients, calls me.
I explain to him with a tourist’s smile that I read about some special rooms they have in the hotel and that I would like to see them. His pause to think worries me. He turns towards a woman. Damn, I get to the woman after all… She seems to be some kind of a boss. He calls her, so I explain to her that I want to enter their Hello Kitty rooms. “Do you want to book the rooms?”, she asks me. “No, I would like to write about them”, I answer. I think that the best lie is telling the truth…
After a few seconds of thinking, she calls a bellboy and tells him something in Japanese, with a mimics that say something like: “Take the crazy woman to see the rooms, but watch her”…J Yes!!! I will see the Hello Kitty rooms I have read about!
The boy takes the keys and he tells me to follow him, with a politeness I have only seen in Japan.
HELLO KITTY ROOMS
They only have eight Hello Kitty rooms in the hotel, of two types. The first we go in is the Hello Kitty Town.
A grown-ups kindergarten inside a five stars hotel J. The paradise of the Hello Kitty fans and, why not, of the adults who do not want to grow up…
Everything there is in the room (from the entrance), absolutely everything is “Hello Kitty”! I don’t even know where to look first.
I found out that these people change the aspect of the room every day. What?? This is so cool! Well, I suppose the walls and the carpet are left there… And if you pay for breakfast, you get Hello Kitty personalized food. So she is so cute you could eat her…
I go to see the bathroom too.
I’d jump in the bed and I’d like to play with all that I find there, but the room is ready for some clients, so I behave… (a part of the eight Hello Kitty rooms are taken)
We go to another wing of the hotel, on a different floor and we get to the second model of room: Hello Kitty Princess.
This is more… girly than the other one.
I notice something (that applies to both rooms): they don’t have a matrimonial bed, but twin beds. I wonder who occupies these rooms. Two people, corporatists who come to an Anthropology, Archeology, History and Philosophy Conference?…
I am amazed that here too every object has the Hello Kitty brand: the garbage basket, the scales, the cabinets, the mirrors, even the water! The complimentary soft toys are there too, on each bed, next to the pajamas. God, I want to kiss them…
The “inspection” is over. I thank the nice young man who showed me the rooms. I feel bad I don’t give him anything, but I understand that tips are not part of their culture. Some of them are offended. Yet, I am sorry I don’t give him anything, because he deserves it.
HOW MUCH DO THE HELLO KITTY ROOMS COST
I go down to the front desk. My curiosity goes all the way: I ask about the price of the Hello Kitty rooms. Of course they are more expensive than the normal rooms. During the period when I was there, the price for a night spent in such a room, for two people, without breakfast (so no Hello Kitty scrambled eggs) is of 485 Euros for the Hello Kitty Princess room and of 470 Euros for the Hello Kitty Town room. Come on, don’t push, one by one, not all at the same time! J))
It is curious that they are not on the hotel site. At least I couldn’t find them. And neither were they on booking, although there I found no less than 19 types of rooms in this hotel! My God, for all the exigent and choosey people of this planet!
However, there are eight colorful rooms in the hotel “wrapped” in one of the strongest Japanese brands.
HELLO KITTY BRAND
Did you know that the first apparition of the lovable Hello Kitty was on a small coin purse? (the one in the picture). This happened in Japan, in 1974. Wow, she’s almost as old as I am! But she doesn’t show her age. J
I read that, in 2014, when Hello Kitty turned 40, her market value was estimated at about 8 billion dollars per year!!!
She has appeared and continues to appear on anything… yes, on any product you can think of! Or you can’t really think of. Like this plane of a Taiwan air company:
Speaking of planes… I should probably “take off” from the luxury hotel. I came, I saw, I’m happy…
I walk to my hotel that is a little bit more modest, to the “Hello Mladin” room. And, as this has opened my appetite, I cannot wait to go tomorrow to another Japanese invention that made me curious: the capsule hotel!
