Wednesday 28 March 2012

The types of accommodation at IM Guest House

Each room has shower and toilet right outside the room, shared only with the other 2 rooms.

Japanese Tatami Room

Japanese style 'Tatami' room is equipped with futon beds.

Price ranges for tatami room.
- ¥3,800/night for one people
- ¥5,500/night for two people
- ¥7,500/night for three people
- ¥9,000/night for four people



Four Bunk-Beds Mix Room

Four Bunk-Beds Female only Room
- ¥2,500/night for one people

Private Room
- ¥3,800/night

Room facilities:
- Electric mattress heat pad (during cold season).
- Air condition
- Wireless internet
- Locker

Other facilities:
- TV, DVD & free Internet in the Living Room
- Hair dryer (free of charge)
- Shampoo, Conditioner and Body Wash (free of charge)

- Towel (¥100)
- Tooth brush (¥100)
- Shaver (¥100)
- Laundry (¥200)
- Bicycle (¥500/day)


Check out: 9am - 11am
Check in: 3pm - 10pm
Late check in can be arrange, please inform us.

Thursday 1 March 2012

Inside IM Guest House
 
 

















Okay, now I will introduce what is the inside of IM Guest House looks like!

There are 3 floors, 4 including the roof! Each floor has 9 rooms, 3 toilets and 3 showers.
Basically, there are plenty of toilets and bathrooms, so you don't have to worry about
sharing them with many people. And on top of that, they are right outside your room!

I have stayed in other hostel and guesthouse before, where you have to walked a fair bit of distance just to go to the toilet or take shower, and some are even located on a different floor! What I like about IM Guest House is how the bathrooms and toilet are just a door away, so you don't have to feel hassle when you have to go to toilet or take shower at late hours, and on top of all you feel so much safer!

Friday 17 February 2012


100 yen shop (hyaku yen shop)




 












Along momodani shotengai, there are this 100 yen shop that I often go to, everything in there is only 105 yen, it's 100 yen plus 5 percent consumption tax. You can buy almost everything in here, the quality are pretty good too! Some goods are actually value more than 105 yen!

The biggest 100 yen shop in Japan is Daiso Giga Machida, it's in Tokyo, in front of Machida Station, they have 5 floors! Next time I visit Tokyo, I will check it out, just wondering what goods they have to fill up all 5 floors!

In Osaka, the biggest 100 yen shop is in Nihonbashi :)

Thursday 16 February 2012

Pachinko 

What is Pachinko?

To me it looks like a mixture between a slot machine and pinball. I played it once with a friend of mine, it's not that easy to win, I lost just in a few minutes (well I only put in ¥1000 haha), it's somehow amusing and fun to play, but the noise inside the game arcade are usually very loud and I don't know why.



How to play?

When you put in some money, the machine will give you some silver metal balls. You control the speed of the balls fired by the machine using the power dial that can be turned up and down, and target them to the catcher, when the digital screen spin and you get three number for the jackpot, you win and can collect the balls to change with prizes. You can then sell the prize outside the parlor, it said that each ball worth around 4yen.

You probably notice that most people that go there are man, it doesn't mean that it's only for man because I went in there too, well I believe woman prefer to used the money for shopping instead ^^

In Japan, gambling is not allowed by Japan's law, so you won't be able to find Casino here for amusement, but pachinko is officially not considered gambling, you can find pachinko parlor all over Japan. As of 2011, there are about 12,480 pachinko parlors in Japan! The law says you have to be 18 to play pachinko or slots, but this is rarely enforced.

Well, if you come to Osaka, give it a try at least once, and if you stay at
IM Guest House in Momodani, Osaka, you can find 3 pachinko parlors near by!

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Momodani Shotengai (retail store area)

 
When I first arrived at the guest house, I was so amused by this area, my eyes were busy scanning for each of the shops, and on top of all the stuffs here are not as pricy as downtown. You can pretty much find anything that you need in this shopping arcade. They have supermarkets, bookshops, florists, hair salons, tofu shop, fruit and vegies shop, noodle shops, photoshops, pickle shop, music shop, bread shops, pachinco centre (gaming) clothing shops, shoes shops, restaurants, sport shops, 100yen shop, anything you can think of they will have it here, there are even misdo shop that i like!

Momodani station is only 15mins from downtown by JR loop, which make it easy to go to anywhere. I have been to Kyoto and Kobe, and the next city on my list will be Nara! I heard it's also not so far from here!

Ah, I forgot to mention that IM Guest House is in Momodani! It's only 6 minutes walk to the JR station and about 15mins walk to Tsuruhashi station (where you can explore the little Korea Town that I talked about the other day) ^^.






























Tuesday 14 February 2012

Korea Town

In Osaka, you won't be able to find China Town, but we have Korea Town instead! So for those who fancy spicy food, this is where you should be!

Not far from the Guest House, you will find your very own little Korea Town, without even fly out of Osaka, from samgyeopsal (pork sliced rolled up in a leaf), pajeon (korean pancake), japchae (stir fried noodle), kimbap (rice rolled sushi) and tons of banchan (side dishes) produced by the barrel!

There are shops where you can buy hanbok (korean dress), korean idols items shop, korean groceries shop and many korean street food like tteokbokki (rice cakes in red pepper sauce), odaeng (fish cakes) and sundae (blood sausage).
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday 13 February 2012

Public Bath


Public bath near IM Guest House

When I walked to Tsuruhashi station the other day, I notice this public bath. It's only about 5mins walk, public bath is famous in Japan. It's a custom in Japan to spend some relaxing time at the public bath (sento 銭湯) after a day at work.

Have you been to public bath before? If you haven't, you should give it a try, you need to have a lot of guts to get in there for the first time though ☺, but it's surely an interesting experience that you shouldn't miss while visiting Japan!






To help you prepare for your visit to the public bath, here are some tips for you so that you know what to expect and what to do when you get there.
  1. Take off all your clothes in the changing room and place them into the coin lockers.
  2. Japanese hot springs are enjoyed naked. Swimming suits are not allowed in most places. However, it is the custom to bring a small towel into the bathing area, with which you can enhance your privacy while outside of the water. Once you enter the bath, keep the towel out of the water.
  3. Rinse/wash your body in the bathing area before entering the bath.
  4. Enter the bath and soak for a while. Note that the bath water can be very hot (typical temperatures are 40 to 44 degrees). If it feels too hot, try to enter very slowly and move as little as possible.
  5. After you finished soaking, do not rinse your body, for the hot spring water's minerals to have full effect on your body.
  6. Most sento reject the customers who have got tatoo. If you have tatoo on your body, you have to hide them with like a node-colour tape.
There are actually four public bath around IM Guest House!!! So make sure you save some time to check them out, they are really worth it!

The locals here are very warm and friendly, you can actually get the traditional feeling of Shitamachi (literary means 'low city' but it's basically means traditional Osaka town), so you can really engaged in the Japanese Culture.