I’m really looking forward to a sleep in the countryside without traffic outside the window! We were up before 8 and having breakfast. Showers afterwards, and we were ready to hit the road.

A real cool change has hit. Yesterday was 31. The day before was mid 20’s. Today’s forecast was 20 degrees. I walked out the room and second guessed shorts and a t-shirt, and grabbed my long sleeve T around my waist…just in case. I’m glad I did, as it cooled down in the afternoon!

We made our way towards Tokyo Skytree. We did the “tight arse” option and walked instead of catching the second train. Kaoru went to the “Koban” (police station) and asked for directions. We could see Tokyo Sky tree (our destination), and the officer kept wanting her to go a particular direction. She asked about taking the “back streets”. He kept making it sound like it was difficult. But ultimately we went the the back streets anyway. And crossing the street and river was a piece of piss. So we have no idea what he was concerned about.

At Tokyo tower we had a bit of time to kill, before making our way to the 6th floor, and meeting Kayoko, Michiro and their son Sorta – we met them in Akita last year (and Kayoko came to our wedding in Japan), but they have moved to Chiba now, so today was about catching up with them. After a short wait, Jun (another friend, who also came to our wedding) turned up, and the restaurant opened at 11. We enjoyed lunch together – most of the conversation was in Japanese but I had a few conversations in English, and also attempted Japanese; sometimes me speaking Japanese and them speaking in English. It was good practice for me.

After lunch we wandered around the shops at the skytree for a bit. This included seeing a “food sample” store, where children could create their own “plastic” food. And the “World Beer Museum”, but we didn’t get to stop in there.

We then started going upstairs, and found the Chiba University of Technology display, with robots that they had engineered. It was an interesting exhibition, and included a full scale version of an anime “transformer” character, in one of its intermediate phases. I have no idea who this character is, but Michiyo told me that he used to watch this Anime as a child. and now it was up to version 6 (season 6? Movie 6? I didn’t quite get that bit).

Then it was in to the “Post Office Museum”, for a walk around. Surprisingly, this was a paid exhibition, but about 300yen per person. So we paid and had a walk around. It was interesting to see the history of mail, and also a video of how the sorting in a post office works.

After killing half an hour or so in there, we left, and met up with another of Kaoru’s friends (I’ve forgotten her name), who was also at our wedding. Kaoru has met up with her on other visits to Japan, but I have not seen her since. Again, she spoke English, so we could communicate a bit while we were walking, but I wanted Kaoru to spend as much time as possible with her friends so I just stood back and tried reading and interpreting signs.

We were heading for a place to stop for a sit-down and drink. We were looking in a shop at possibly getting an ice cream or something, and before buying, we went outside to look for a seat. And what did we find?

So in we all went. It was all German-style beers, so no craft breweries inside, but the atmosphere was great. We managed to find a table for the 7 of us, and I got a tasting paddle from one of the places. We sat and enjoyed being out in the sun for a while, but quite suddenly it got cool, and I had to put my long sleeve T on. Kaoru’s friend (the last to arrive) had to go, and not long after we went inside for a bit more of a wander. Jun left after a bit, and eventually we decided to make tracks.

The 5 of us remaining caught a train, but after one stop, Miyako, Mitchiyo and Sorta got off, so we said our goodbyes. Kaoru and I had a bit of a doze on the train, as we made our way to Shibuya, and then changed trains for Daikanyama station. There, we got off the train, and made our way to Spring Valley brewery. This was quite an interesting area. The gap between the train and the platform was noticable. Kaoru mentioned that this was an “up-market” town, although it didn’t have the appearance of that at all. When we got to the brewery, we were surprised to find that it was actually a “Hop Festival”. So we had to pay 3,500 yen ($35) each to get in, which included 7 tickets, each being for one drink or food.

We sat and enjoyed ourselves for a while, until they announced that last drinks was in 10 minutes, and we hadn’t used many of our tickets. They hadn’t said when we entered that it was only a 2 hour session, and half an hour in by the time we had arrived. So the enjoyable atmosphere turned in to feeling very rushed, which was a shame. We ended up having 5 food platters, and 9 tasters, and I walked out with one in my hand.

We weren’t full (other than me being full of beer), so wanted some more food. So we made our way back to Shinagawa and went to the supermarket above the train station, knowing bento boxes would be on special. I bought a sushimi platter that was 40% off (from about $15), and Kaoru bought shumai and another assorted platter. I also bought a bottle of sake for tonight, and one to take to Nasu (not knowing what we would have available to us at our next accommodation), and dessert.

We ate food while watching TV, and planned a bit of tomorrow. We had an early night in the end, which was probably good for us – probably 10.30 lights out.