I woke up a bit before 8. Everybody else was already up and going. Kozue had taken the day off work, and Kenichi was working from home, so we got to spend some time talking in the morning. Minami had already gone to school, and Yukari was getting ready for work, so we got to say goodbye to her again this morning. After breakfast I turned the laptop on to catch up on a few things, and Kaoru did some more research for things to do for the rest of our trip.

Lunch was leftover Hiroshimayaki, and noodles, which Kozue cooked. After lunch we packed up, said goodbye to Kenichi, and Kozue drove us to the train station. It took us a couple of trains, and we arrived in Yokohama. We found Kaoru’s hotel and left our suitcases at reception. We then made our way to tomorrow’s hotel, to try to work out where it was. It looked very modern, so we’re looking forward to it.

I had been experiencing pain in my legs. At first my concern was DVT, but after consulting Dr Google, it sounded more like a strain. My conclusion was that it was because of my shoes (I don’t normally wear these ones at home) so I wanted to get some new ones. Kenichi is a shareholder of Asics, meaning we can get 30% off. Plus the 10% off Tax Free, and a starting price cheaper than in Melbourne, meant it made sense. So we found an Asics shop in Yokohama. After getting measured I tried a couple of shoes on, but they were only walking ones, and didn’t feel right. We were told that we would have to go to Tokyo to go to the sports store to get more range. Bummer.

We went to Starbucks and tried their Yuzu Lemon drink, and a macha latte, and decided to just go to Tokyo and get the shoes over and done with. It was about 3.30, so after relaxing for a while, we caught a train back to Tokyo station. It was only about a 35 minute trip. But there we could go to the Asics store and get much more range. Unfortunately as they were “end of season”, there wasn’t much choice in colour, but I bought one pair, and decided I might buy another online and have delivered, which does give more colour options.

I had received an email about my glasses being ready (which was great – we weren’t expecting them for a few more days), so since we were at Tokyo station, we went and picked them up. Kaoru’s were supposed to be another week or so, but they had just arrived earlier that day! So they told us to come back in 30 minutes and they would also be ready for pickup. We couldn’t pass up that opportunity as it means we don’t have to come back to Tokyo station if we don’t want to.

We caught the train to Shin-Yokohama, via Yokohama, and found the Prince hotel, where we met up with Paul and Lyn. They had just finished a 15 day tour of Japan. Our original plan was to pick them up tomorrow, but since they hadn’t had any real good Japanese food while they were here, we decided we would meet them early and start their experience of Kaoru being a tour guide. They were thrilled at the idea. So we found an Izakaya near their hotel. Nothing too fancy, but we had some good food and a few drinks and heard about their adventures.

After dinner we walked them back to their hotel, and then Kaoru and I caught the train back to Yokohama. At the station we said goodnight, and I went to my hotel, while Kaoru went to hers. I had never experienced a capsule hotel, so that was my plan for tonight! I had already booked and paid for it (when the exchange rate was better!) I found the building and checked in. I was given a key on a wristband, and the brief – ground floor was the eating / bath floor. Women were on the 2nd floor, and men were on the 3rd floor. So up I went, found my locker, put my bag in, and then went in to the sleeping area to check it out. Wow – it was quite interesting!

I went and had a bath, which was a scary experience – the other two people in there had tattoo’s! That means they were probably yakuza. I washed, had a quick bath, and then decided to call it a night. At my locker a Japanese person spoke to me in English. I replied to him in Japanese and we had a bit of a chat, which was good practice for me.

I took a couple of photos in the capsule to try to give an idea of size. It was larger than my swag, in both width and height. It had a tv, headphones, a clock and a power point in it. Unfortunately it didn’t really have any cooling, so with the door closed (and I use the term loosely – it was basically a roller-blind) it got quite warm in the room. Great experience.