Today started with breakfast in the hotel. Kaoru had seen the restaurant within the hotel and heard good things about it, so wanted to do that at least once. We got to pick a main, and then it was “serve yourself” for a range of smaller dishes. I was able to have a raw egg, amongst several other small nibbles.

After cleaning teeth and freshening up, we met at 9.40 to start the days adventures. And faced with writing up the day, I’m thinking “how can I possibly give today justice”. Breakfast was amazing, but not even the tip of the iceberg…so here goes….

We started with a little bit of a walk. Kaoru and I knew where we were going, but we were playing dumb for as long as possible. We got to the Nissan Headquarters before they opened at 10.00am. There, they have a showroom, where you can organise test drives of a number of their cars. We couldn’t arrange that (unfortunately – as I had an international license so would have been fine to drive). But Paul pulled out photos to the lady who showed us the first car, of his 1977 260Z Datsun. She grabbed her manager and he absolutely loved it. And from then on, we were given the “extra special treatment”, which meant we were allowed to sit in the cars that other people could only look at. I’m not the car enthusiast that Paul (or other people) are, but I certainly enjoyed the experience. Especially when we were given a couple of books in a bag which don’t go to normal visitors either – we assumed they were only given to potential buyers. Originally only one copy was given – they assumed we were a family. But when Kaoru told them we are friends showing them around, I was given a set too! They also opened the bonnet of the cars for us, which most people didn’t get to see – we basically had our own guide for most of our experience.

I also bought a couple of T-shirts, and Paul got some trinkets. The bags were getting a little heavy, so I took them back to our hotel, while Kaoru stayed with Paul and Lyn looking around a bit longer. That was the first surprise of what we call “Nissan day”. If only it was the 23rd and not the 22nd (2=Ni, 3=San – that would have been the icing on the cake!) We met back near Yokohama station, and then caught a train for a while to a remote town station. Paul and Lyn knew where we were headed, but we had some time for lunch, and Kaoru had found a perfect place which was only 3 bus stops away…

This place also had an amazing craft beer selection…

For lunch they had Taco Rice, so I couldn’t pass the opportunity. In reality, Kaoru’s is much better, but a great meal to go with the day, and a fantastic beer to go with it. We ended up being a bit rushed, especially as there was only one girl working at the place, who had to make our meals, pour our drinks, etc…and not knowing that at the start, we dawdled a bit. In the end we were a little rushed, but they called a taxi for us which was fantastic, as our original plan was to catch a bus back to the station.

Then it was on to what we all knew was happening – the Nissan Heritage Collection. Kaoru had gone through hell organising this, as tickets open the month before, you don’t know (until the day) what days will be available (not even the day of the week!), and it’s “first in, first served”, so she got the tickets over a month ago at 5.00 in the morning. We met Kenichi and Youichi there – since Kaoru was organising it anyway, we invited them to come along, and they were both wrapped at the opportunity.

Uncle Owen, I was thinking of you while walking through here! I think it was 300 cars in this garage.

We organised a taxi to get us back to the train station, and then after stopping in a cafe for an iced macha latte, we caught a train to Fujisawa. We looked around the Uniqlo as a “recon mission” – there is a sale on tomorrow and we want to buy some things, so thought we should get an idea of sizes. We then walked to “our restaurant” in Fujisawa as I wanted to go there. Unfortunately they were closed for the day. So we wandered around and eventually found a tap room which also served food, had a couple of pints and some food.

We walked back to the station and straight on to a train going to Yokohama – perfect timing! On our way back to the hotel we walked through the food court and bought some dessert / breakfast. Then it was back to the Yokohama Bay Brewery (in the hotel building) for the DDH DIPA I had seen when we were there a few days ago and wanted to try. We had a look through Lyn’s photos of their trip, which were great. Some beautiful countryside!

We dropped things in our room, and joined Paul and Lyn in theirs for dessert / sake, and then went back to our room. I filled the bath to the top and then hopped in, letting the water overflow in the wet room. Such luxury! Ottosan would be proud of me, as he had told me how royal it feels to do that. After a long day, it was time for bed.