It takes an absolute age to boil a kettle. I am not exaggerating at all. If you want a quick drink, have something cold!
Hotels pretty much come with a kettle as standard. Which is great if like us you love a hot drink. Take your own brand tea bags or coffee if you are fussy or have the green tea which is provided in most places but remember that it takes maybe 5-10 times longer to boil a kettle of water than at home. I swear it. No exageration at all.
The kettles often look like a mini pressure cooker and some even don’t need to be poured as they have buttons to pump out the hot water into you mug but they are very very slow and may catch you off guard if your hoping for a quick brew before making a train booking or attending an event.
I wandered a few times jokily if the reason they served Iced green tea complimentarily in resteraunts rather than hot green tea was down to the fact it was quicker to freeze ice 😄.
One onsen hotel we stayed in had a fire pit in the room so we had the option to boil a kettle over a fire. This was right next to the electric kettle. Why? I’ll let you decide.
So as with everything else in Japan. The service is absolutely excellent in the way of providing drink facilities in hotels and I think you would find it difficult to find a hotel that didn’t provide a kettle of some sort as well as green tea bags or matcha sachets (Some also provide coffee) but don’t expect a quick cuppa!
Thanks for reading.
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