Today did not start out that well for me. I slept OK but I woke up several times with cramps and each time they got worse. Twice in one foot and once in the other plus both thighs. Each was a separate incident and each woke me up. The thigh cramps were the worst. I still felt OK when I got up.

Breakfast wasn’t so bad. It was at the coffee shop downstairs and we got to pick one of the morning sets. I got there before they opened and waited. I think one of the people was fairly new. I got the scrambled eggs and it came with salad, toast, and coffee.

I’m not sure if I saved any money paying for it with the hotel but the cost wasn’t very different.

After that it was off to Tokyo station to get my East Tohoku Area pass. It’s pretty cheap for five days of travel in Tohoku. Because of the pandemic, most of the travel offices don’t open until 10AM and the one in Tokyo Station is the only one I found that opens earlier, at 8AM.

Actually, that early the trains weren’t that crowded. I think everyone gets to the office around 9AM.

The next stop was the post office to mail the seven packages my sister gave me. The post office at Narita used to be the easiest to deal with. They were familiar with foreign tourists and would take all sorts of nonsense in the to and from address fields. I had to go to a regular post office and hoped they’d be just as forgiving but no such luck. I had to deal with Japanese bureaucracy.

The first step was to try to sign up for the Japanese app so I could fill the addresses in by copying and pasting. That took an HOUR with all sorts of complicated Japanese and none of the fields would let me copy them into Google Translate. After I finally signed up we found out that they only took Japanese credit cards and my usual workaround, to use American Express, didn’t work because they didn’t take American Express at all. So it was back to filling out the forms by hand. Then I realized that my eyesight has gotten so bad that I can’t see all the strokes in the tiny kanji characters on my iPhone, and I also couldn’t figure out how to get the magnifier setting to work. Since I haven’t had to write any kanji since I left Japan in 1991, I can’t remember how to write hardly any of them. I finally got them to let me write it all in hiragana, which is phonetic. I’m sure my cousin is going to let me have it about that. Anyway, that took another hour and a half. So that’s two and half hours I’ll never get back. Good thing the woman at the travel bureau convinced me not to buy the ticket until I got out of the post office.

Anyway, I planned to take the 10AM train but ended up on the 12PM train to Mito. I knew lunch could be difficult that late (a lot of restaurants close between lunch and dinner here) so I got an ekiben. Not only that, but I got one of the “limited edition” ekiben which was Japanese fried chicken. It helped a bit with my headache.

I got to Mito around 1PM and was confused about how to get to my hotel. Then I realized it was part of the huge building that was the train station.

I dropped off my bags and headed for the tourist information center and then went on the walk they suggested. First was down the river to the lake.

And then it was up a hill to the famous garden. I am my father’s son after all.

There was a cedar forest and a bunch of cherry trees (way out of season for cherry blossoms). Then I headed for a big main street for a different route back to the station. The first thing I headed towards was the art tower and I’m not sure of its purpose.

I also saw quite a few interesting stores, including a vacuum tube radio store for audio snobs and a giant department store. I also noticed there’s a lot of kids around. Later in the day the crowds at the station were pretty big, but even thought its Monday I guess it’s Halloween. Less than a quarter of the kids were wearing costumes and there were a LOT of kids out.

I did head out for dinner and the guy at the front desk told me I should have ankou (monkfish). The other specialty of the area is natto. I went to an izakaya which is dangerous because I never make it out of one for less than ¥5000. I guess I was just under today. That used to be $50 but with the weak yen it’s more like $32.

I even had a coupon for a free beer.

Then I had tempura of natto wrapped in shiso leaves. Actually I had it twice because it was so good.

Then I ordered the ankou, which is a monkfish hot pot.

I googled monkfish and people call it poor man’s lobster. I found it rubbery like poorly prepared lobster. It’s also quite bony.

So for round two I got the second order of the tempura and also anko karaage because I wondered if some of the rubberiness was because I overcooked it in the hot pot.

It was still a little rubbery at times but much better. You can tell I liked it because I’ve already eaten 4 of 6 before I remembered to take this picture.

I made my way through the crowd of kids and got back to the hotel. And now I’m about to pass out. At least it’s closer to 9:30pm, a normal-ish time to go to bed. Tomorrow I’m off to Utsunomiya. I wonder what I’ll find there. I also wonder how loud it will be tonight. I hear a lot of hooting along with trains and loud exhausts.

Well, I made it Japan for the first time in three years. They finally opened the borders for non-Japanese travelers. Unfortunately, some of the conveniences aren’t back and I had to travel through Seattle instead of getting a direct flight from Portland. That meant I had to get up at 4AM and right now I’ve been up for 23½ hours after a restless night of sleep.

It took me a bit to get going and to find an Uber at 4:30AM (the only one available was in Vancouver), but I made it with plenty of time to spare. The weird thing is that the TSA PreCheck line only had 13 people ahead of me while the regular checkin line looked like it had at least 300 people in it. It wound around two separate rooms. When I got in, I went to the Delta SkyClub and had some breakfast.

Then it was a quick flight to Seattle and we arrived so early that we had to sit on an active taxiway for a while. I had hours to wait in Seattle, so I signed up for Clear and checked out two different lounges, Delta’s and the Priority Plus lounge. Then it was a ten hour flight on an Airbus. The movies seemed older, but I found a few I hadn’t seen yet. Spiderman: No Way Home, Everything Everywhere All at Once, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The flight was pretty uneventful, but I made the mistake of drinking lots of coffee to stay awake and it kind of bothered my stomach. I felt a little queasy on landing, and then the crazy taxi ride to my hotel made me feel a little carsick. Oh, the airport post offices used to be open on the weekends but now they’re only open regular post office hours (M-F 9-5). I found that out after taking a bus between terminals and hauling my suitcase and a heavy duffel bag full of presents around. Oh even after walking what seemed like a mile, I breezed through immigrations and had to wait for a long time for my bags.

Anyway, I made it my hotel and sat around for a bit.

Then it was dinnertime. My stomach still didn’t feel great, and I didn’t feel like a 40 minute trip to my favorite brewery, so I asked the front desk where to go. They suggested Ameyoko which looked far on the map but turned out just to be around the corner.

I kind of did what I thought I’d do, which is walking around for an hour and then just eating at the cafe on the first floor of the hotel. I asked what was good and I got the katsu curry with extra rice. It wasn’t big but it was tasty. I sure missed eating Japanese food in Japan.

I wanted something fizzy to drink so I had a nice lemon squash and it was tasty as well.

In any case, I’m trying to stay up because going bed at 7PM would mean I wake up ridiculously early and who needs that?

Say this friend got an email from a Japanese cell phone company with the line, in Japanese, “If you do not recognize this e-mail, please let us know at the telephone number below.” Say he’d also been out to Xmas dinner and had a couple of drinks there and at home, and perhaps something else that’s legal in the State of Oregon. Should he try calling said Japanese cell phone company and informing them of the mistaken email?

And if this friend did, would you think poorly of him for using his pretty-fluent-but-not-up-on-cell-phone-business-lingo skills to converse with said cell phone company for fifteen minutes (much of it on hold)?

The friend needs a new hobby, right?

I can understand why my barber is moving and it probably follows from this statement I’ve heard from people I consider friends and I’m repeating this like the racist Asian that I am. “There aren’t any black people in Portland.” That’s all I’ll say about that other than I wish him and his family well up in the hated Seattle.

But I’m old and I don’t like change. I’ve only ever had one dentist in my life. He just retired at 90. My last two barbers have moved to Denver and Seattle and that’s a little too far to go to get my hair cut. And (the big one) my mom died a year and a half ago and I’m still thinking about that.

I just got back to work and I now have a new manager, and a new second level manager. Who knows what’s going on?! (I’m being dramatic, the new manager is someone I don’t have any problems with.) The teams I work with have all reorganized and they don’t even know who is in charge of what. And the common high-pressure work situations continue and I DON’T KNOW WHO I’M SUPPOSED TO ASK FOR HELP. (More drama, the people I used to ask may not be who I’m supposed to ask but they’re going to help me as much as they can.)

It really doesn’t help that I’ve switched back to Skogg Kettlebell Gym and I haven’t been there for a year but I still think I can pick up the heavy weights I used to. I know I shouldn’t be trying to hard since I’ve been away for a while and I’m OLD but I’ve still not any brighter and I’m still going to try to lift the weight I used to. How did everything get heavier while I was gone?

Oh, and someone I used to worthlessly flirt with (I know I don’t have to explain that) has moved away and her job and is no longer anywhere nearby.

Goddammit I hope that new Star Wars movie isn’t disappointing. I can’t handle much more disappointment.

…

P.S. BTW, the latest Hellboy was AWESOME from my Hellboy fanboy point of view.

P.P.S. AND I bought a lottery ticket.

I didn’t sleep that well, and it wasn’t due to all the beer I had. I had tiny beers. Probably some apprehension about FINALLY GOING HOME after 73 days here. I started packing and it was mostly a lot of flailing. And then just piling things in and making sure the suitcase shut, which it did. Then it was off to Pronto for my last morning set for a while.

And then it was downstairs for a 10:15am bus to the airport. Lots of opportunity for napping, but I didn’t take much of it. The leftmost suitcase and the leftmost purple duffel, are mine after 2 ½ months. The middle suitcase, and the red duffel, are my sister’s after two weeks. Sadie, who was there for five days, has that giant suitcase and we also had to go get her that Nike duffel.

Of course, we went back to Fujiya for our outgoing lunch. Lots of food on my plate and I wasn’t that hungry. I finished the whole thing.

And that’s about it. I’m back home and I finally remembered to upload the last few photos. I’ve been trying to dig my way out of two and a half months of mail (mostly recycling, but not all). I had to sort a bunch of ham radio cards and now that I think of it I have to sign up for some more volunteer stuff. I already spent an hour and a half with banking. I better make a list.

I was out late having “one or two last beers” so the comments will have to wait. In fact, these photos are probably all disorganized as well. I met a couple guys from Baton Rouge and we just talked a bunch and I was out a little later than I expected.

Started out the day slowly. I wasn’t feeling great. I think it’s because I’m finally going home and I must be anxious because I’m not sleeping that well. Also, my allergies appear to be flaring up. But we went to Pronto for breakfast.

We went to another museum to see one of my sister’s favorite artists – Yayoi Kusama. We got to her museum and my sister had printed out the wrong tickets. She had tickets for two different days and printed out the wrong ones. She was pretty stressed out, but I knew we could solve things by just taking a taxi back to the hotel so I wasn’t worried. But they just looked us up at the front counter and let us in anyway.

The museum is a little small and doesn’t have a whole lot of her works, but it was fun nevertheless. You get a 90 minute window to go in. If you show up a little later in the window, I think most of the people would’ve cleared out. The current installation doesn’t take the whole time to enjoy.

You’re not supposed to touch this pumpkin.

After that it was another death march, I mean SHOPPING TRIP. We had to buy a cheap duffel for all of Sadie’s new purchases and went to the cheap bag stores in Ameyoko. Found a nice Nike bag (or maybe not so nice) for ¥3000. Then we were off to Akihabara to see the stuff I usually avoid – the anime/manga stuff. Fortunately I know where some of it is located.

Lunch was at an udon shop and I think I was hungry. I didn’t stop to take a picture until I was done.

After Akiba we went to get some sweets. It wasn’t great, but it had ice cream.

Dinner was at Shake Shack. No picture. You know what a burger looks like. The Shinjuku Shake Shack was still pretty full at dinnertime and we had to hover to get a table. Not like Osaka where it’s pretty empty at dinnertime and packed at lunch.

Then, while my sister and Sadie went to buy some last-minute items, I went to have my last one or two beers. Or so I thought.

A nice session IPA from Isekadoya.

Kolsch taste from Loco brewing (I had a half-pint later) and I can’t remember where the hazy is from Uchu (who I seem to follow on Instagram.) OK for a hazy, I suppose.

And finally the guys from Baton Rouge broke out some of the favorites that they brought for the bar. It was a really nicely balanced hazy. Gotta go to Lafayette, LA to get it, apparently. I’d say it would be worth the trip.

Apparently everyone is afraid of Crabby now. Actually, it’s probably a combination of a limited breakfast set menu at Hoshino Coffee plus Crabby’s crabbiness, but we tried Cafe Veloce today. It was much better than I expected and the Kaiser roll wasn’t the tasteless lump that I remember from Boston where they called it a bulkie roll.

Sadie surprised us by saying she wanted to go back to Shibuya 109. Inwardly I was kind of panicking and thinking I was going back to my room to hide but my sister was able to convince her to make the trip solo. Shibuya can be a confusing place (and too full of people taking pictures in the g*dd*mn Shibuya Scramble which is just a f*cking crosswalk you stupid tourist f*cks) but if you go out the right exit the Shibuya 109 is straight ahead. Phew.

My sister and I did some very gentle shopping (old people shopping) in Shinjuku and even had lunch in the Keio Department store, where the rest of the customers on the restaurant floor probably had 20 years on us. And I’m not young. I was going to get the same thing I had once before (gratin & Croque Monsieur) then I saw beef stroganoff on the menu. My mom used to make Japanese beef stroganoff and so that’s what I got.

In the afternoon it was off to Team Lab Borderless to meet our friend Chico who my sister knew from high school. I don’t know if my sister got the picture right but there were lots of people getting their picture taken on the top of this rise. Many of them were women who would look over their shoulders and give a slutty look. I tried making faces but I think she missed it.

A lot of it was kind of dumb and amazing. Dumb was the mirrored room full of hanging lamps that would change colors in waves. After waiting for 40 minutes and finally making it inside, my heart sank because it just looked like the showroom of Globe Lighting in my neighborhood, where I can go for free.

Lots of people taking pictures or just looking at their phones. My sister took another picture of me in the LED light room which was one of the amazing rooms.

Team Lab Borderless is in Odaiba, which is an artificial island. We decided to go to dinner on the island and it was a long slog. A lot of the malls had awful food and our first try at finding an udon restaurant was a bust because at night they switched to an izakaya with a different menu.

We finally decided to go to Bills, an Australian chain, and that was pretty good.

We got back late. If we keep this up I’m going to need a long vacation from my vacation.

Oh boy, I’m too old for a full day of shopping, but that’s what we did. I think I may ditch my sister and Sadie and hide somewhere tomorrow. I know that won’t happen but I can dream, can’t I?

I also didn’t sleep well. Neither did my sister. I think the tiramisu we both ate had a bunch of strong coffee in it, but that’s just my guess.

We went back to see Crabby at Hoshino Coffee and my sister confirmed that she is not only crabby but Sadie said she was kind of frightening as well. I was happy to find out that I wasn’t just imagining things.

After that it was off to Shibuya to the Loft, and then I suggested Sadie go to the Shibuya 109 because it’s meant for young girls and not for creepy old dudes like me. I refused to go in. I’ve heard even dads feel uncomfortable with their daughters there and they just wait somewhere else rather than go in. Later I was told by someone much younger than me that you probably have to be in your early 20’s at the oldest (and female) to shop there. Sadie never made it to all the floors and went back after lunch.

Lunch was at Harbs, a restaurant/cake store where my sister and I got so much sugar that we felt sick afterwards. Fortunately, the lunch set only came with a half-slice of cake. We didn’t get much of a choice, either. Everybody but me got the rare cheesecake. Everybody but me go the bacon, spinach, and tomato pasta. I had chicken and mushrooms and some sort of cake that was more fluff than anything.

A tiny piece as well.

Sadie went back to Shibuya 109, as I said, and we went to Don Quixote where my sister found special Q-Tips. Or should I say “cotton swabs” since they weren’t the Q-Tip brand. Then my sister and I went to a bookstore and both dragged around and waited for death. I mean we waited for Sadie to finish shopping.

For dinner we went to Eggslut and I had the something-something 20 burger again. I forgot what it’s really called. My sister had the slut and a salad. It was as tasty as I remember.

And that’s it for today. I may pass out soon, but I really want to finish watching Mission: Impossible 4. I’ll have to find some sort of compromise.

So much for getting up on time. I drank a bunch of Japanese beer last night and slept quite well. Got up a couple of times to go to the bathroom, but I don’t think I drank too much because I didn’t have the usual tossing and turning and felt quite good in the morning. However, my Bose Sleepbuds cut out in the middle of the night so I didn’t get an alarm. Then the alarm clock in the room didn’t go off so I ended up oversleeping. I heard my phone buzzing and wondered why in the heck it wasn’t muted since it was the middle of the night but no, it was 7:25am, almost an hour after when I planned to get up!

I was still able to pack all my crap up (we gained a bit in Okayama, including some fabric my sister told me would be heavy to carry home) and get on the road just after 8am. We stopped in the same coffee shop that I went to in Okayama Station.

Then it was the Shinkansen for the four-hour trip to Tokyo.

As soon as we got to the hotel, we met our friend’s daughter Sadie who had flown in from Portland and we all went to have lunch. The lunch was so filling I only ate snacks for dinner (some Jagabee potato sticks I bought a couple of days ago and that I’ve been carrying around with me).

After that we checked into our rooms and immediately went shopping. Not so much for me, but Sadie’s only here for a week so I didn’t get much down time. And it was raining in Tokyo again!

Fortunately my sister and Sadie had an appointment at the manicurist (the place where I had to go and confirm the reservations for them on my previous stay in Tokyo) and I got to sit in my room for a while while they went. I think I’m still kind of tired from not waking up normally. Fortunately, the Sun Route in Shinjuku has comfortable rooms and if it’s the same quiet place as last year.

Another day with very few pictures. My sister was running part of the Okayama Marathon today so I woke up early thinking about how I could try to get her a taxi using the Japan Taxi app. Unfortunately everyone takes their own taxi to the start of the marathon and the app did nothing useful. But I got up early to start fiddling with the app. My sister just rode with another random guy who was taking a cab to the start.

I went back to my room and eventually made it downstairs to have breakfast. It was underwhelming. I kept seeing opportunities to buy APA curry, and the curry in the APA hotel wasn’t great. It wasn’t bad either but not good enough to buy more of. 

I got on a train to Senoo, and then caught a cab for our usual cheering spot. The cab driver made the same mistake my friend AJ made and couldn’t make it through the marathon. I told him how to get to where we needed to go (the long way around) and we got there with time to spare. We missed seeing the fastest people, but we did see friends running. I’ve been here enough times during the marathon to meet a bunch of the runners.

My sister bailed out at the 25km mark and I think our cheering spot is at the 26km mark. Instead of taking the bus back she caught a cab with us to the Senoo station and then we took a train and a cab to the end of the marathon so she could pick up her bag of stuff. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering back (eating this lunch below) and shopping.

I spent a lot of money. Another watch and the fancy jean jacket I said I wouldn’t buy.

In the evening we went to the usual after-race party with our friends. I just showed up to eat and drink, of course, not being a runner.

I’m pretty tired and I can hardly remember what’s going on. It’s only 8PM but I had a rotten nights sleep last night. My sister will probably tell you it’s because we were just at dinner at a friend’s house and our friend’s dad was giving me “tastes” of sake and shochu. However the walls at Toyoko Inn, where we stayed last night, are VERY thin and people just going in and out of the rooms make sounds like they’re pounding on the walls. Oh well, the place is pretty nice otherwise and the women running it are great. I’m guessing the place was full last night and lots of people were coming and going.

We had their free breakfast, which was not bad.

Then it was off to meet our friend so she and my sister could pick up their marathon packets. This is just the volunteers at the train station giving directions to the athletic stadium.

There was the usual fair outside the stadium, and I got some sticks of meat. No spectacular cuts of beef like last year, but still good.

We spent the rest of the day walking around Okayama. Our friend got her leg taped up by her chiropractor, and we also had some matcha ice cream.

Later we had dinner at our friend’s house and it was no joke. I think I had enough shellfish for a while now. I think we also had steamed fish and some roasted fugu. And, as I mentioned before, I had some tastes of saké and shochu. Woo.

Tomorrow my sister runs part of the Okayama Marathon. She doesn’t want to beat herself up, so she’s planning to get on the bus after about halfway through. Should be a hot day for a marathon!

Now I remember why I don’t stay in Toyoko Inn more often. The rooms are large but the walls are paper-thin. It’s the opposite of the weird old hotel we stayed in last night. It used to be quiet except for the ambulances going to the Hikari City Hospital, but they moved the hospital closer to my cousin’s house and away from the hotel. We also heard there was no breakfast at the hotel but they had breakfast sets! Other than the weird tasting fruit, it was pretty good.

We got on the old country train and went to the shinkansen station. Didn’t see much on the Shinkansen (it’s mostly tunnels on this stretch) so I slept through the trip to Okayama.

My sister is running part of the marathon in a couple of days and so we just took it easy today. Lunch was at a crazy café where you could sit at a table or eat in a bed. I’m not sure what the point of eating in a bed is, really.

Most of the day was just wandering around the station. My sister tried to bully me into buying an expensive jean jacket, but so far I’m holding out. We had dinner at a tonkatsu place, the same place I went to last year when I was in Okayama. I think there’s two major chains I like, Katsukura and KYK. This one is a KYK.

After dinner I went down to get some local craft beers. There’s a taproom IN THE MALL. Well, I should have a better memory because this is the third time I’ve come and the beers are not that great. Too sweet/malty.

And that’s it for today!