Hostel or Hostile?

The door opens. Walking miles and miles every day usually puts me in a deep slumber, but this time the sound awakens me. Perhaps because the stranger is making more noise than the usual middle of the night arriver. I fumble around my body for my phone, its usually laying somewhere underneath me keeping me hooked in by osmosis. My eyes try to adjust to the hypnotic sexy illuminescent glow of the screen. 1:43. Judas priest, who is coming in at this time and making so much noise? My unknown roommate, one of eight, is fumbling around in the dark and waking up everyone in the process. “Choko.” Really, is that what he just said? Is that even Japanese? “Choko,” I can tell he is trying to whisper it but it comes out more like a hoarse exclamation. I’m fully awake now listening to some asian wandering around our room in pitch black trying to whisper a word I don’t understand. He stumbles. Maybe he falls. I’m not sure. If I am lucky he hit his head and knocked himself up. That’ll give us peace and quiet for a little while. Then my curtain opens. A faint shadow formed by the small amount of light in the room starts moving onto my bed. I can smell the reak of alcohol immediately. “Um, no,” is all I manage to get out. He falls out of my bed and onto the floor. “So sorry. Sorry.” He finds a way onto his feet and fumbles trying to get the blinds closed. For another 5 minutes I listen to him go from bunk to bunk. I’m not sure what he is looking for. I presume its his own bed. Eventually I hear him give up and sit on the floor whining like a puppy wanting to sleep with its master. Whimpering? Is this man really whimpering? Do I get up and help him find a corner to sleep in? Do I throw him my blanket and tell him to shutup. Do I drop an F bomb, the only word he would understand to show how annoying this is? My mind starts rolling these questions around in my head, thankfully causing me to fall asleep. Luckily when I awaken in the morning there is no trace of my midnight intruder.

Welcome to Hostile living, or Hostel living if you prefer. For the unadventurous type, the idea of backpacking around a country is most intimidating when pondering a sleeping situation. Where do you stay from place to place that doesn’t cost an arm and a leg? Where do I stay that will be safe? There are pros and cons of sleeping in Hostels, and I want to go over a few of them that I have experienced in my limited time as a hostel traveler.

SIDE NOTE: I’ve been in Fukuoka, an incredibly westernized city on the island of Kyushu. In fact Fukuoka is credited with being a city that led Japan in modernizing itself to be compatible with the rest of the world. It has certainly become the gateway to Asia, with such close proximity to China, the North China Sea, and the closest major city to Europe. Here in Fukuoka I stayed at Hana Hostel. The hostel is in the middle of a covered shopping street next to an Owl Cafe. Yes, this would be a cafe with dozens and dozens of owls sitting on perches that you take pictures of while ordering incredibly overpriced drinks and buying owl trinkets.

Price

The winner is undeniably Hostel in this situation. This is the major function and role a hostel serves. A hostel will cost between 1800 yen to 3000 yen / person. This is roughly $16 – $28 each night. You are not going to beat those prices in comparison with hotels, ryokans or any other accomodation save a free couch.

Accommodations

This is obviously where the hostel loses. The accommodation is going to be at best an extremely large cubicle or bunk bed. I had the rare fortune of finding the place in Aoshima that provided a very comfortable bed without having a bunkmate above or below me. However I sacrificed privacy for this one. Most are simliar to capsule hotels, with a little more room for you to sleep next to your backpack. Dark curtains are provided to slide in front of your bed to give yourself a shield that you pretend will keep you safe from the world. When you arrive you receive a set of sheets and pillow case to make your bed to protect you from the grungy bacteria that survived the bleaching and wash cycle of the comforter and pillow.

Location

Location, location, location. This is where I believe the hostel wins. Certainly major hotels are situated in places for tourists, but they are also situated in places where everything around them is going to be more expensive. One can find a hostel in almost any place and usually they are located to transportation services but in side streets, backstreets, or simply off to one side of the expensive parts of the city. If you want to see the city for more than the leaders want you to see, then a hostel will give you a more realistic look at it.

Amenities

Well it is what it is. Hostel loses. You share bathrooms, showers, and usually rent towels and laundry services. There is a shared dining area. What more can I say.

So we are at 2-2 which leads me to the last category and the most controversial one. It brings us full circle to my introduction. People.

People

In a hostel you are subject to becoming 12-48 hour roommates with people you’ve never met before. This has tremendous cons and pros at the same time. On one hand I have met the most interesting people, had the most interesting dining experiences, and really enjoyed the best times with Japanese, European and even South American visitors through hostels. Everyone has a story and it’s interesting to hear them. Its never as simple as I am on a vacation. People who stay in hostels are usually quirky, adventurous or on a mission of sorts. For example my Argentinian acquaintances, brother and sister, were in Kagoshima looking for the remains of their grandfather. He came from the small city and they had one clue (a stamp with the family name) to look for where he was buried. They were in town to track it down. One sad part of staying in hostels is the constant event of saying goodbye. You make friends and then you have to leave them.

The opposite side of this is that you have to deal with people that you don’t and probably would never want to live with. They smell, they are messy, intrusive, loud, or just plain rude. It grates on your nerves and you think to yourself never again. For example, a drunk chinese man trying to crawl into bed with you is not an example of fun hostel living.

So is it hostel or hostile living? Well, I guess that is what I signed up for. I can’t really side for one over the other, because at certain moments I feel completely different. As I reflect, however, I do know that whatever annoyances surface I would gladly endure for the opportunities I’ve had to meet interesting people and create some good memories. I only hope that I don’t have such a negative experience to cause me to swear it off for good.

As a side note: Yes that is me engaged in my favorite hobby in the feature photo, playing games. I found a group and about 20 of us got together and played games for about eight hours. I played four games I’ve never played including Dead of Winter, a game I own but have never played. But now I know how and it was excellent.