I hate not having a clock in the room.  I know I need to wake up early because, well, everybody wakes up early in Japan.  But when you don’t know the time, you don’t know if it’s too early, or how long you can go back to sleep for…I think it was about 8.00 that I came downstairs for breakfast.  I had a shower, and then had a few hours work to deal with while Mio went out to have her hair done.  I finished around lunch time, which is when Mio got home, so the 3 of us went out for lunch at a Sushi resetaurant – we had to return the trays from last nights sushi anyway, so staying for lunch just seemed like the right thing to do :).

After lunch Mio dropped us off at the train station, and we went to Harijuku, so we could go to Meiji Jingu shrine – as this was the first place Kaoru ever took me in Japan, it’s somewhere I always like to return to.  After the usual lap, we got back out, and noticed that the big pedestrian overpass was no longer there!  I had noticed something different when we arrived, and didn’t have my bearings at first, and this was why.  Amazing how things change.  I wonder what would cause them to take down an overpass, so everybody has to cross on the level of the road?

We then caught a train to Shinjuku.  We were on the “other side” of town so didn’t see our hotel or our meeting place from the wedding trip.  But we went to a place to get a 1 hour massage.  The guy who did me was too rough so it wasn’t as relaxing as I like them to be.  I find it hard to be relaxed when pain is being inflicted!  After the massage we found a bar to sit down and have a drink, and then caught the train to Kozue’s.  We called when we arrived at the station and Kozue came and picked us up.

It was only about a 5 minute drive to their house from the station.  I had never been there before so it was nice seeing something new.  Minami was sick and asleep on the couch.  Yukari had made us gioza for dinner, and Yukari and Kozue were both still folding them while we talked, and enjoyed a beer and some nibbles.  Kenichi came home about half an hour later, and then we went outside to eat.  Their outside area was quite small (in Australian terms) but it was a beautiful evening to be sitting outside and we had a lovely, informal evening.

After dinner Kozue drove us back to Mio’s – we were expecting to get the train or a taxi, but it turned out only being about 15 minutes away.  So that was very helpful.  Mio’s bar was open for last drinks, and then I had a bath before bed.