We headed to the train station for 8am (after having an early morning bath in the onsen of course, that should be expected by now). We took the train to Kobe then from Kobe to Tokyo. On the first train we were all seated separately, but as I went to sit, a lady and her son were in my spot.. My anxiety had been pushed a lot that morning, so I didn’t even try to fix the situation, I went off in search of the non reserve car. Eventually Jives came and found me. The lady had switched seats with Jives to be with her family, and now Jives and I could sit together. Finally some good news. 

At Kobe we had a brief stop and switched trains. We all sat together in a row for the final train back to Tokyo. Jives was having a lot of difficulty managing pain from his wisdom teeth (which he then had removed two months later). 

We arrived in Tokyo at 1:42pm and took the Yamanote line from Tokyo station to Akihabara, from there we took the Tsuba line to Asakusa station and walked to our accommodation. The streets around our hotel were so busy. They seemed to have closed them off to traffic for Sunday and there were booths everywhere. Foodstalls, drinks, clothing, everything. We arrived at our hotel at 2:35pm which was a bit early for check in at 3pm, but they eventually let us check in a bit early. We had a room separate from Harith. We sat in our room briefly before heading out to Shinjuku. The room was lovely, bigger than most of the rooms we had stayed in on this trip, with tatami floors and two little seats. 

We headed out towards Shinjuku. On the way to the metro we stopped at a sake brewery booth on the pedestrian street and tried a dry sake after which we tried a small flight with three sakes; dry, sweet and a plum one. The guys at the booth were super nice. The one guy had stayed in Toronto for a year on a working visa to learn English. The other guy had a Canadian girlfriend. We said our goodbyes after savouring or sake samples and took the yellow JR line to Shinjuku. 

In Shinjuku we walked to the godzilla head to film a rap take for Jives and then we walked to a Genki sushi in Korea town. We had been in Japan for two weeks and hadn’t had any sushi yet! We were seated at a table together and ordered beer as well as our favourite sushi; the seared salmon, seared tuna and some new favorites. The total came to just over 5500Yen ($55). We paid at the self-serve machine and then walked to the godzilla light display at the Tokyo Metropolitan building. 

The show was excellent! It was a huge projection on the side of the building, totally worth the walk! 

We then went to a record shop in Shinjuku where Jives found quite a few records and I took a chance on four Japanese albums. The guy at the cash was super sweet and asked if I liked Japanese music. 

We then went to Tokyu Hands where we found my favourite notebooks for travel as well as some washi tape, pens for drawing and stickers. We then took the train back to Asakusa and went to the 711 for some drinks on the way to the room. 

I had a quick onsen soak before bed. The onsen was one of my favourites! The wash area was against one wall and behind a stained glass wall with images of kimonoed women. The water was super dark with minerals. It was difficult seeing into the bath, but I liked the fact that the water was dark as it hid my tiny tattoo. I sat in the main bath for a long while and then went outside to try the barrel baths. The barrel bath was super hot!! 

Back in the room, poor Jives as in so much tooth pain. It was a rough sleepless night…