I woke this morning at 6.45. Everybody else was up except Arisa. She is on school holidays so got to sleep in until 7.15. After a shower i felt much more refreshed, and then brekkie had me ready to go!

I got some work done and we left the house at 9.00 for Kaoru to get results of her medical checkup. Then we walked to the station and caught the train to Shibuya, where I picked up the JR Pass which i had pre purchased in oz before coming. Based on our plans for this trip, activating it today is the best value for money.

We did some price checks for alcohol to take home, and then went for a hot chocolate/macha latte at the famous Starbucks in Shibuya. I caught up on a few work issues while we were seated, and then was approached about doing a survey. It took 15 minutes or so and the questions were quite difficult to answer as I’m not the usual tourist (things like rating what you want to do, including partying with Japanese people, and asking your budget for the experience). At the end i was given a thank you gift -from Diaso!

It was then time to head off for the day. We seemed to lose a lot of time but weren’t on much of a schedule so it wasn’t a problem. We went to Uniqlo as i wanted a second heat-tec jacket. We looked at another place for alcohol. We did some shopping at Tokyu Hands, including buying a takoyaki top for our single burner butane stove. We had lunch at mos burger as i hadn’t been there yet this trip.

Then we caught the train to Harijuku for the customary walk down Takeshita street, and went to Togo shrine (where we got married) to pray. From there we walked up to Meiji-Jingu shrine as that is another special place of ours and prayed there.

We completed our walk back to the station and caught the next train to Kita-Kamakura, and walked to Kamakura from there. It’s another one of the areas familiar to us. We stopped en-route at a cake place and bought something for Ryu and Naoko as we are seeing them on Sunday.

We walked through the temple where we saw the bride faint one trip, and through the main drag of Kamakutra, stopping for a pork bun to warm up, and macha gelato to cool back down, on the way.

At Kamakura we caught the electric train, which is slower but more scenic, to Fujisawa. We walked to Kaoru’s old apartment to have a look around, especially at the building which was being constructed next door when she was living there. We then went to the supermarket and found the best deal on alcohol so bought a few good bottles. It’s not duty free but the net price is better! Then it was time for dinner.

We were spending the day down this area because we wanted to go to “our restaurant” since we had such fond memories of it. We didn’t know if they would remember us as we hadn’t been there for 3 years (and 2 days!). I waked in and there was a different young girl at the desk. Then Kaoru came in and the owner looked up. Not only did he recognise us but i heard him say “Darryl Hunter”! Now that’s the reason we had come all the way here!

We were given the only table of 2 in the restaurant. This would be the table they always try to keep free for VIPs. We have had it once or twice before. During the night the lady who normally serves us turned up for her shift. I turned around to get and said “konichiwa”. She hesitated for a moment trying to work out why this gaigin was talking to her. She then recognized us and came to have a chat (to Kaoru, obviously). It made Kaoru and I feel justified in making the 2+ hour return trip, and we will certainly make the effort on future trips.

Dinner was, as always, fantastic. After the “welcome dish” we had sashimi, and then tuna in a miso sauce, which I have definitely had before (was it here?), both which came out very quickly. Add the menu was only in japanese and had no pictures (this place isn’t westerner friendly), Kaoru had to order everything and as always it was superb. The only dodgy part, and I’m still not sure if she was just taking the piss, was our last course… Fish testicles. I tried to keep an open mind, but they just didn’t do it for me.

After dinner we bought some flowers for Mio, to say thanks for all she does for us. And then we started the long trip home.

We walked in the door a bit after 10.00. According to my watch I had broken my step record, by reaching 23,500 steps. The most we had done on this trip, and a great day out together, even if we didn’t see anything “new”. Yoichi got back with Arisa from school about 2 minutes later. The 4 of us had a few drinks (ok, Yoichi and I had a few drinks and Kaoru and Mio sat with us and talked) for a while, and then I politely went upstairs for a bath, as they can’t go until I do. I struggled but managed to stay in the bath for nearly 8 minutes. I wanted to give Mio and Yoichi a chance to go to bed, especially as Yoichi has to work tomorrow.

I came downstairs and had another whisky while finalizing today’s blog entry, and was ready to call it a night about midnight.