Monday 12th April [Tokyo]

20100412 monday, tokyo

no pictures for today!

sleeping in

My body clock is getting worse and worse, leading to spending half the day sleeping. I think it's from all the walking around. The sound of the rain outside didn't help. Rainy day in Tokyo. Boo.

wandering to ueno park - museums closed!

Gutted. After making it out to Ueno Park and wandering through it to the museums at the far end, they were both closed :( Ended up walking around the back of Ueno Park station in the rain and wondering what to do next.

writing postcards

In the end, I went to the Starbucks connected to the station and wrote out postcards for my mum and my ex. The postcards I found in Asakusa and are both really nice. Silly cat one for mum :) Belated happy birthday one for Anthea.

back to tawaramachi and post office

Stopped off at the post office in Tawaramachi to get some money out and some stamps, staff really helpful! I'm liking the till machines they have which don't have a drawer, but rather spit out the right change. Another tick in the right box. Posted the postcard for my Mum as I haven't committed my ex's address to memory. Sue me.

back to hostel, laundry, working out places to stay in nagoya, nara, kyoto

Walked through the rain back to Sakura Hostel and did some practical things like sorting my laundry out and getting accomodation booked for Nagoya, Nara and Kyoto. Only one night in both Nagoya and Nara but that seemed like enough. Really liking the hostel as all the staff are super friendly.

Cuzn bar, Kaori

I didn't really know what to do that evening, so I figured I should try at least one bar in Asakusa. After a brief look through the Rough Guide, the closest one seemed to be a bar called Cuzn, just a few streets away. Lovely place, very subdued and just a few people in there. It turned out that it was open until 5am! So, I took a seat at the bar, tried some of my very poor Japanese on the barman and tried a local draught. To be honest, it was pretty bad. After that, I tried a Taketsuru, a Japanese whiskey. Very rich, very nice indeed. At this point, the chattering from behind me took form in the shape of the manageress, Miki. A colourful, jazz-addled woman who is one of the most friendly people I've met so far :) We talked about music for a while and then the chef, a woman called Kaori joined us at the bar. Kaori's great :) Really enjoyed talking with her, and I got so drunk that I taught her how to play Shithead. And she won. Grr. Next time, I won't be so nice when playing against her ;) The bar was never very full that night, but along the way there was a Japanese Olympic female wrestling bronze-medallist and friend, a business guy and a cool girl that he was intent on speaking to, a bass player that Miki waxed lyrical about. Really nice people. Now in contact with Kaori and Miki on facebook, so I'm hoping that I'll go there again when I return to Tokyo :)

amazing hangover

You have no idea. I got out of there at about 4.30am, and had to check out at 11am in an absolute state. More on that in the next part.