Shopping!

Silly me. Was wondering why the organiser was late till Bien mentioned that class starts at 9.30am today. Wasted half an hour waiting.

Largely uneventful day. Shared cab with two delegates from up north. Discovered one of them knows Cathy (it's a small world after all). Had healthy bento lunch. Wish there's the normal type of Jap food I am familiar with.

After class went to Tokyo Midtown to look for kitkat and other food stuffs. Didn't buy anything. Had better luck at Don Quijote (pronounced as don ki). Found the pilot frixion pens. There was even an advertisement playing at the display counter. Had a very patient staff to verified if the refillable I was looking at is a match for the pens I am getting. Even got him to show me how to refill :)

Dined at a yaki soba restaurant. The Filipino patron helped us to translate our order. Lucky day indeed. Had a most delicious tempura soba ever. The tempura was so fresh and juicy.

Dropped by a pet shop on the way back after spotting a humongous poodle. Apparently, it's a normal sized poodle. I am not sure what the tv has been feeding me now if that is considered normal.

Retired to bed early.

Back to fishland

It felt almost surreal to be back again after 6 years.

The flight was rather turbulence this time. I don't remember it being so in the last two times. Got a bit plane sick after that. Skipped supper as I really wanted to sleep. Unfortunately seat was not comfy despite being business. Legs felt cramp trying to adjust.

Passing immigration was a breeze. Probably due to the early morning arrival. Forgot to read the instruction email from JIMS. Felt a bit panicky. Luckily spotted KK's name in a list held by one lady. My name was not there. Imagine if I didn't know anyone in the list. I would have been really lost. We waited for the other passengers a bit. First person I strike up a conversation with was from Uzbekistan. Spotted KK shortly after but he doesn't seem to recognise me. Decided to say hi while we were lining up for the bus and he did remember. Probably I looked different with long hair now.

Ride to hotel was about 1.5 hours. Stopover at ANA to take a cab. Chose not to check in early to avoid paying the ¥10,000 extra.

After some surfing, decided to visit Ueno Park which I missed the last time. It was a nice but windy walk. Brrr. Decided to drop by the zoo and had a pleasant surprise. Flash your passport and you get 20% off! So, I only paid ¥480 instead of ¥600. First thing I saw was...Giant Panda! There were a lot of oohs and ahhs over shin shin and ri ri. Gotta say they are not as impressive in real life.

It was really fun looking at animals not found back home - penguins, kangaroos, Japanese salamander (nope, I don't think it's kawaii), ant eater (weird nose), aye aye (kawaii!). Was almost lost when I decided to back track to look for the kangaroos, the one animal I missed. Frankly, my favourite place is the warm houses for tropical animals. Temperature just nice for me. Also, I might have chose the wrong time for visiting open air places. Wind was just too strong and chilly.

Dropped by Ameyocho to find an eatery. Ended up in a shop called Aji something claiming to have no 1 ramen. I tried the miso ramen. Ok la. Still can't beat the tonkotsu ramen I had in LA.

Went back early to escape the chill. It was close to 6pm. Had to go out again when hotel informed me they ran out of adapter. Also coz I brought the wrong adapter. Sigh. Was directed to Don Quijote (??), a popular discount shop about 15 min away. Normally I don't mind walking but not with the wind. Arghh.

Retired to bed at 10pm.

Today, 6.30am (morning call)

Was down around 7.45 am for breakfast. Simple spread of salmon, rice, miso soup, scrambled eggs, croissant, bun, yogurt. A bit boring but I guess healthy and sufficient.

JIMS arranged for us to take taxi together. It was a short ride. But appreciated nonetheless given the windy day. Morning session went well with plenty of questions. Lunch was good with wonderful choice of fresh sushi. Yummy. A bit funny when speaker proposed a toast and no one had any drinks with them :P

Course ended slightly after 4pm. Discovered later that an earthquake hit honshu. Good thing I didn't feel it. Had it not been my friends asking out of concern, I wouldn't have found out.

Dined at a yaki-niku basement restaurant. Not bad.

As of today, I have 3 cuts on my right hand, two band aids. Should get prettier looking band aids. One was rather deep as I remembered seeing blood while in the subway yesterday. It became a bit unbearable before I decided to protect the wound.

http://tvnz.co.nz/world-news/magnitude-6-2-quake-jolts-japan-5353233