I woke up feeling pretty seedy this morning.  Kaoru went out for coffee and bought me an electrolyte drink and a bun.  About 9.30 I got out of bed and went to Segafredo for some breakfast.  I messaged Kaoru and she joined me there.  We then went back to the room so I could have a shower.

Michael and Leila messaged saying they were going to Segafredo now.  So once we were organised we went over and joined them.  They both looked pretty tired too.

First job of the day was to go to the Shinkansen ticket office and arrange Michael and Leila’s tickets for the next part of their trip.  They could do it, as the ticket office speaks English, but it’s so much easier when Kaoru does.  It didn’t take long at all to arrange.  We then went upstairs and had an iced tea to decide on the rest of the day.

Plan A was that we were going to go to Shibuya and watch the AFL grand final, as Michael is a Richmond fan, and this is their first grand final in 35 years.  But then yesterday Gary had sent me a link about a sake festival and Michael was happy to miss the game to do that instead.  But this was all before a big night last night, and now we didn’t really feel like drinking all day.  So we came up with Plan C, which was to go to Ginza.

I needed a massage as I was quite sore.  I don’t think the pillow was very good at the hotel.  The others were all OK, so they weren’t interested, but Kaoru took me in to the place in Ginza to see when I could be done.  I couldn’t get in for 70 minutes though, so we made a booking, and then wandered around Ginza for a while.  At first we weren’t sure if Michael and Leila had been to Ginza before, but parts looked familiar once we were there.  We went to a few stores, got a bite to eat, showed Michael and Leila where the station was, and then Kaoru took me to the massage.  She was able to get one as well, which was great!

After the massage Kaoru had some shopping to do, so I went back to the hotel by myself.  I caught up on my blog, and then it was time to go to Mio’s. I bought a vitamin b drink on the way as i was going to need all the help I could get! We caught the train and walked from the station. My blisters were starting to really get sore.

Kozue, Kenichi and Minami were already there, as was Tomoko (a friend of Mio’s who I have met on a few occasions in the past), and another couple – he was a kiwi but has been living in Japan for 21 years so speaks fluent japanese, and she is japanese. They have 3 kids but they didn’t come.

After saying hello and exchanging gifts we made a start on the feast Mio had organized. At one stage Yoichi had to duck out to pick Arisa up from juku but after that he was allowed to start drinking. His birthday is tomorrow so a part of tonight is to celebrate that. And this was done in usual Mio’s bar form, by opening a bottle of vintage Dom Perignon. It was delicious. We also went through a bottle of Ichiros Malt (one which Mio had bought back in march) and put a dint in another bottle. We gave Yoichi his birthday present – a bottle of Hennessey XO, which is the expensive one he likes. We can never repay them for all they do for us so a good bottle that he appreciates is justified.

At around midnight we thought it was time to leave. I was getting a (dangerous) second wind, and Michael and Leila were struggling to stay awake. So we called a taxi to take us back home.