I slept really well last night.  No surprise.  I went downstairs for breakfast – Yoichi had already left for work and Mio and Kaoru were chatting.  So after a breakfast of scrambled egg on (ultra-thick) toast with a side of garlic prawns, I was ready to start the day.  First thing was organise our bags a bit so we had some space in our room!

Mio drove us to the train station at 10.30, dropping Arisa off at school at the same time.  We started by going to Asakusa because there was a big festival there and Kaoru wanted to show me a big crowd.  It wasn’t as crazy as I thought – I was expecting an extra 50% people at least!  But we walked around and had some food.  It was quite warm.  We ate Takoyaki first, which were massive bits of tako, but wasn’t cooked well and, to be honest, not good at all.  We went in to a shopping strip and bought Sakura Ice Cream Sandwich, which was nice and refreshing in the heat.  I was still a bit hungry so we finished that off with Pork Kushiyaki (grilled on a skewer).

We made our way back to the train station and then went to Akihabara for a massage.  We managed to get in to the same place we went last time (and the time before – 3000 yen for 60 minutes) with just a 20 minute wait.  We wanted to sit down in a cafe after that but they were too busy, so we went on to Shibuya and found a cafe there.  I had an iced chai latte and Kaoru had a cafe latte; we also ordered an apple crumble (which unfortunately had walnuts in it so Kaoru had to eat it) and a strawberry cake.

We went shopping at Bic Camera for some alcohol.  Last time I bought a bottle of Nikka 12 Year whisky which I really enjoyed so needed to replenish it.  Kaoru wanted a bottle of Bailey’s and a bottle of Yuzu.  I also got a 6 pack of Suntory Premium Malts, which came with a top to the can, with a pourer that does frothing as well.  Probably doesn’t work but a fun novelty.

We looked further and I noticed some drones.  I thought it might be a good toy and Kaoru really wanted one too.  I found a unit for ~AU$150.  It would be AU$168+shipping in Australia so despite the extra weight to have to carry, I bought it.  That was duty free, plus a further 5% discount for paying by AMEX.

We were pretty loaded up now so made our way back home.  Kaoru spoke to Mio on the way and found out she had missed a number of messages from Mio during the day – we were going to be cutting it fine for our dinner booking.  They met us at the station and we caught a taxi to the Kushiage restaurant.  Ageru means deep fried, and Kushi is on a skewer.  Note we had Kushiyaki for lunch (skewer but cooked on a grill – Yaki).  We had a sauce to dip (no double dipping allowed!) the food in before eating it.  Nice, but not as keen on the deep fried foods.

Youichi left early to pick Arisa up from school.  Mio, Kaoru and I caught a taxi back to the house maybe 15 minutes later, and we actually were back first.  Kaoru had a bath, and I stayed to talk to Youichi and Mio.  I then had a bath, and we packed our bags for the next part of our adventure, and were off to bed.