Kaoru wanted to do some shopping so left early (about 8.00). I got up, and Mio cooked breakfast for me. The cleaner arrived at 9, and we left the house about 9.40 for the shopping centre. Mio had some shopping to do, so I said let’s meet back in an hour, so I could walk around at my own pace and she could get things done.
I had a leisurely walk around the shopping centre, and bought myself a soft serve to keep me going. We met again at 11.15 at the bookshop / cafe, and walked to another section which had an exhibition – I think invitation only. They had some wines / champagnes on display and tasting, so I sampled the $250 bottle of champagne while the guy explained it to Mio (she was driving so couldn’t taste any). We then went to the sake’s, and this guy spoke English so I had to listen to him while tasting. I went through 4 there, and passed on the 5th.
Kaoru managed to find us just as we were leaving. She hadn’t ended up buying anything as she didn’t have her visa with her to show that she doesn’t live in Japan. We went for lunch, but the line at the first place we had in mind was too long, so we ended up at an eel restaurant. It wasn’t air conditioned though, and was hotter than outside the restaurant so very uncomfortable. We ate and left as soon as we had finished, and went outside for some fresh air.
Kaoru and I left Mio for a bit, as Kaoru wanted to look at some things in Uniqlo. Then we met again at the massage place, where I had my first reflexology. Mio and Kaoru left me for an hour to do some things while I relaxed and had a fantastic treatment. The therapist spoke some English so we were able to converse – I found out she had been to Melbourne and Sydney when she was 19. My thought was that she wouldn’t be more than 21 now – but she said “long time ago”. You never know with Japanese people!
After the session she said she would talk to my wife as she didn’t know the translations for what she needed to explain “about my body”. Kaoru and Mio arrived about 5 minutes later, and she came out and said that my “liver had pain” :). Side effect of last night, perhaps? 🙂 We then went upstairs to another bookshop, where Arisa was reading a book. We split up and I walked around this shop for a bit to see the various sections. Kaoru showed me a WordPress book she wanted to buy, but we were going to get it another day when it was tax free (different store). Mio, Kaoru and I then went to a coffee shop – I had an iced chocolate, Kaoru had an iced tea, and Mio had an iced coffee. We also shared an apple pie. It was bloody expensive! Oh well. Mio left us to take Arisa to Juku, and came back 15 minutes later.
We found an ATM as Kaoru was running low on money, and then went back home. The cleaner was still there finishing off a few things. We sorted out our suitcases, and worked out how we were going fitting everything in. It was hot so I needed the air conditioner on to keep going. We then went downstairs and I caught up on my blog, and then the 3 of us ate dinner. I had a bath and when I came back downstairs Youichi was home from work and eating his dinner. We had a couple of drinks but i was quite tired so we went to bed.