I woke up feeling quite refreshed at about 8.00 – surprising really. I went to the coffee shop for breakfast and went back to my room to tidy it up. I put boxes in the hallway for the cleaners to take, cleared clothes, and it actually looked quite clean! At 10.00 I went downstairs and met Kaoru. She spoke very good English (from her time in London) so communicating was very easy.

We caught a train to Shibuya, which she explained was where the young people go. We walked around a shopping centre there which was just full of girls clothing stores. The shopping centres are very different to what I’m used to – they were small and went up several stories. We then walked around for a while, before arriving at the Meiji Shrine – the largest shrine in Tokyo. It was in the middle of a large park ground, so we had a nice walk through the trees and away from the noise of the traffic. There was a flower exhibition, which included some Bonsai trees.

November is a religious month for the Japanese and girls aged 3 and 7, and boys aged 5, put on their traditional clothes to go to the Shrine. We saw many of these, and I was lucky enough to get some photos with them.

Once at the Shrine I was shown how to cleanse before praying. Travelling with a local really enhances the experience! Thanks Kaoru, and Sharky for putting me in touch with her! We then went and said a prayer – again with the proper ritual. Walking out we got a little lost, and had to ask for directions, which meant we had to go back through the park to get out the correct way. But it was a beautiful day for walking, and I was enjoying the location and fresh air.
Lunch was had near the train station. After that Kaoru had to go to work, and I needed to go shopping.

I got the train to Akihabara, where I had a frustrating shopping experience. I only had a few things to get – a 25 metre power extension cord, a universal power plug adapter, and some HDMI cables. The HDMI cables weren’t too hard to find. Unfortunately when it came to installing them at the stadium, they didn’t carry audio(????). The power lead, I was on the verge of buying a length of power lead and the plugs and making it myself! Instead I decided to give it a miss, and figured a local could find it for us tomorrow. The power plug adapter (to convert Australian to Japanese) I couldn’t find anywhere. When I had given up, I found it in the shop nearest the train station! So I got it in the end. For laughs, I went in to the Adult Megastore. What an experience *that* was! The less written about that, the better 🙂

I got back to the hotel and caught up with Brett to see what sort of success he had had. We had dinner at a small restaurant around the corner, and then caught the train out to NishiFunabishi. This was their first “live” night, and we had planned to be there for at least the first few games. So this is where we found the audio wasn’t going through the HDMI cable. Originally we had put in 2 metre cables, but shorter ones would have looked better, which is why I bought 1 metre ones.

Brett and I trained the umpires on how to use the remotes. They took to them like a duck to water. Given they spoke very little English, and we spoke no Japanese, we think this is a real testimony to the “ease of use” of the system. By pressing buttons and getting them to look at the scoreboards, we were able to teach them how to use it.

After 3 games we decided there isn’t much more we could do, so we left. Back at the hotel, we went up to the 39th floor for a drink (Top of Shinigawa). It was a fantastic view of Tokyo at night. But we were both pretty tired from a lot of long days, so we only had a couple and then called it a night. I still had things I wanted to do (like start writing my Japan blog!) so stayed up for a while. We had agreed I would call Brett about 8.30 for breakfast.