I didn’t sleep too well. Woke up several times. Apparently there was an earthquake during the night, which Kaoru felt but I slept right through it. I got up about 6.00 (Kaoru was already awake), had a shower and we went downstairs for breakfast.

At Toyoko Inn, breakfast is included. It’s a serve-yourself-buffet – pretty basic foods, but it hit the spot, and fueled us for the morning.

Back in the room I got an eSim set up on Kaoru’s phone, so we both always have internet. Then we went to the bank as we had gotten cash in Australia some time ago when the exchange rate was looking good (it has since gotten better, but you never know). In Shinagawa we stopped for a cuppa – I had an iced match latte and Kauro had a coffee.

We then caught the train to Shibuya, and changed to get to Futako Tamagawa. This is where I used to catch the bus to from the airport, when I went straight to Mio’s. Our original plan was to have lunch with Mio, Arisa, Kenichi, Kozue, Yukari and Minami. Unfortunately Kozue recently caught covid, and Mio couldn’t make it, so it was just Kenichi, Yukari, Minami, Kaoru and I. We ate at a fantastic soba restaurant, with a set course meal that was amazing.

We started at 11.30 and didn’t finish until about 2.00, so were well fed! The girls english has come a long way and most of the meal was speaking in English to help them practice.

After lunch Kaoru and I went to Uniqlo to do some duty free clothes shopping. We then went to Starbucks where Yukari was working, and ordered a drink.

Our original evening plan was to go to a dance festival that was on – this is a long weekend in Japan. But luckily Kaoru looked it up and found that it finished at 6. So we found another festival to go to, which wasn’t very exciting but there were a number of stalls around. Unfortunately no craft beef ones. We had some yakitori to keep us going, and then caught a train to Oimachi and had dinner at an izakaya that specialised in tongue.

It was great to start with, but then some people started smoking, which was a shame. Originally we were there with no smokers – we could smell a faint smell of smoke but thought that may have been from in the past. But unfortunately not. It was certainly better than it used to be though, with some people smoking e-cigarettes which aren’t as bad.

We went back to the hotel after dinner and checked in to our new room. This was a king sized room – still very small, but certainly better than our last room. And is where we will be staying for the rest of our Tokyo part. We went to the supermarket next door to buy some treats (Sake / chocolate / ice cream / noodles), and had an early night as it had been a long day, watching some TV in bed.