Last Updated: May 26, 2024

Love Hotel Lodging?!?

Backup Travel Accommodations in Japan

This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium.

Try as I might, I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. We had just been informed by the station attendant that the Akita Shinkansen would not be running for the rest of the night. Yup, you read that right. Not running at all. Along with many other now-stranded travelers, my plans were completely FUBAR. There was just no way that we were going to make our way down to Ichinoseki where we had a hotel booked. Moreover, literally all of the hotels in Akita City were booked out. Left with no recourse, all the station attendants could do was offer us the stranded bullet train for the night so that we could get some sleep.

Looking back at it now, I have to laugh. Honestly, you’d be hard-pressed to come up with a more messed up logistical nightmare. Alas, we weren’t in a humorous mood when we were in Akita. You see, my travel partner had kindly offered to cart us around in a rental car on the following day. To do so, she was going to need to be well-rested, else we crash into a curb (again) or something. With this in mind, the two of us frantically searched every online travel agency (OTA) in existence in a last-ditch attempt to get her a room somewhere. Luckily, we were able to snag what was likely the last vacancy available in Akita due to a…