We woke about 720, had a shower and left the room just as Michael and Leila got to our room at 8. Kaoru took us to a place she wanted to go to for breakfast, for a croque monsuier. It was a bit of a walk but worth it! The day was warming up already, on its way to 31.
After breakfast we aimlessly walked around for a while and waited for a cafe to open at 10.00 for coffee (i had lemonade) and do some planning. We then got our Shinkansen tickets for our next trip. We don’t leave until Friday but as we wanted reserved seats we thought we should get in early; as it was we couldn’t get 4 seats together.
We caught a train to Nippori and walked through the main street. It was a very old fashioned town. We found a craft brewery place and had some beers (tasting paddle) and food. We finished the walk through the main street, stopping in the occasional shop to look around. As we were ready for lunch we found a soba noodle shop. It was hot outside so some cold soba and beer was just what we needed.
After a bit more walking we got on the train to Akihabara. Kaoru wanted to show Michael and Leila a craft shop there. It wasn’t what she was expecting but there was s large selection of foods to look at, and we got a few samples. We then decide to go for massages so went to the same place Kaoru and i went to the other day. We had to wait 20 minutes or so, so passed the time with a bit of a walk around.
Once our massages were complete we got on the train to Shibuya, and then non JR to Kozawa daigaku station. It was then a bit of a walk to nikufest – meat festival. We were walking against a large number of people, so we figured we were going the right way but getting worried why everybody was leaving. It wasn’t as crowded as we were expecting so i think we choose the right time to get there. We had a couple of beers and some meat dishes. Nothing overly fantastic but still nice.
We walked back to the station and back to the hotel. A trip to 7-11 had us top up on supplies, and then we all went back to our room to eat and drink a bit, and plan the next day.