Brandon and I spent Valentine’s Day weekend at Hotel Tomo, a boutique/budget hotel in Japantown in San Francisco. It is owned by Best Western, but it is definitely not a typical Best Western hotel. There are murals of Japanese pop art everywhere, the lobby has a vending machine of Giant Robot t-shirts, and each hotel room has a Fatboy beanbag plus a game controller.

As you can tell from the few camera phone photos I took, the hotel room has a very modern yet homey sensibility. I love the yellow bedspread, the green table, the Ikea furniture, and the cool Do Not Disturb card. There weren’t a lot of amenities and the bathroom is pretty small, but everything was clean and the bed was comfortable, and that’s all I really want from a hotel room. There’s also free Internet, but I didn’t bring my laptop. As for the rest of the hotel, almost every surface (doors, walls) was painted in vibrant colors. The people who work in the hotel are also really friendly and helpful.

It was around $129 a night for a Deluxe King bedroom, which isn’t too bad considering it’s in San Francisco. Of course, seeing as it’s in the heart of Japantown, we were close to a lot of restaurants. Brandon and I went to Izumiya for the first time, and only waited around 10 or so minutes for a table (On Valentine’s no less). We both had okonomi-yaki, a Japanese pancake made with flour, vegetables, and eggs, plus your choice of meat or vegetable. The restaurant is quite small and crowded but we could still hear each other and carry a conversation. We also spent a lot of time walking around the Japantown mall, checking out Kinokuniya, and buying snacks from the Nijiya market.

It’s funny, but even though I’ve been to Japantown before, it’s a whole other thing to actually feel like you’re living there, even for a day. I felt transported. And the cool hotel helped.

(Originally posted on my Tumblr)