Once again Kaoru was up with the sparrows and in the bath. \u00a0I got up about 7.00 and had a shower, and then decided a 5 minute soak wouldn’t go astray. \u00a0We met Michael and Leila for breakfast at 7.30, which was the usual feast.<\/p>\n
We went to our room and packed up, and met again just before 9, to catch the free shuttle to Nikko town at 9.05. \u00a0In town we walked around the (open) shops for a bit, and then made our way down to the train station to catch a 9.40 train out of Nikko. \u00a0We had a 16 minute changeover en-route, and were then on our way back to Shinjuku. Had a call from Dave along the way – a problem with his DNS entries that I had changed on my way out the door on Friday to come to Japan. \u00a0So a lot of the trip was passed by me trying to fix that.<\/p>\n
Once we arrived in Shinjuku we walked to Michael and Leila’s “house” for the next 10 (or so) days. \u00a0It was a nice little apartment in Shinjuku, and close to the station, as well as our hotel. \u00a0They got their bearings, and then we went for lunch. \u00a0Kaoru had found a “taco rice” place in Shinjuku, which was the other side of the Washington Hotel (where we were staying, and all our bags were, so gave Michael and Leila a good sense of direction). \u00a0Lunch was really nice – it was kind of like a taco, but with rice instead of a shell. \u00a0It looked large but went down very easily.<\/p>\n
We walked back to the Washington Hotel, and Kaoru and I checked in, and got all our bags out of storage. \u00a0Michael and Leila then walked backto their house, and Kaoru and I went to our room. \u00a0I had some work to do (setting up email on a temporary computer for Brett, as his decided to shit itself), and the hour we had went very quickly. \u00a0We then had to leave to meet up with Michael and Leila for our next activity – massages!<\/p>\n
Kaoru had found a place and booked us for a 4.00 massage, for an hour. \u00a0So we turned up and filled in the forms, and went with our masseuses. \u00a0I have had a few massages in Tokyo before but none quite like this! \u00a0There was a lot of manipulation, and moving me around throughout. \u00a0It wasn’t as relaxing as previous ones. \u00a0But after all the walking we had been doing the last couple of days, I was happy to see what it does.<\/p>\n
After the massage Kaoru and Leila went to buy some items from the chemist. \u00a0I’m seeing things through new eyes having Michael and Leila there, as they are noticing things that used to surprise me – like how noisy the chemist is! \u00a0We then walked in to the Pachinko parlour “for the experience”. \u00a0As expected, it was extremely noisy, and smokey. \u00a0We walked around in awe for about 5 minutes, and then left.<\/p>\n
It was only 5.45, but we started looking for an Izakaya for dinner. \u00a0We needed an early night as tomorrow will be an early start. \u00a0Eventually we found one, which had touch screen ordering from the tables. \u00a0The drinks were going down too well, and the food was nice and simple, in small serves. \u00a0So we stayed for a while, but eventually had to call it a night.<\/p>\n
On the way home, we stopped at a convenience store and got dessert. \u00a0We said good night, and went our separate ways for the night. \u00a0Kaoru and I re-packed our bags, and called it a night about 9.30….with an alarm set for 2.45…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Once again Kaoru was up with the sparrows and in the bath. \u00a0I got up about 7.00 and had a shower, and then decided a 5 minute soak wouldn’t go astray. \u00a0We met Michael and Leila for breakfast at 7.30, which was the usual feast. We went to our room and packed up, and met … Continue reading