{"id":11096,"date":"2024-04-22T05:53:09","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T12:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=11096"},"modified":"2024-04-22T05:53:09","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T12:53:09","slug":"japan-2024-day-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=11096","title":{"rendered":"Japan 2024: Day 7"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Unfortunately our sushi dinner last night didn\u2019t agree with one of the group and Bill was having troubles from 2am-4am. It was also Kevin\u2019s big day to have pictures taken with the Doshu at the Aikido Hombudojo (basically, the big cheese). I suggested we take it easy and head out of central Tokyo to the Tonogayato Teien in Kokubunji. It\u2019s a beautiful little garden I\u2019ve been to before and only cost \u00a5140 to enter. Bill wanted to see a bamboo grove as well, and this garden has one.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"IMG_0557.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/IMG_0557.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"IMG_0554.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/IMG_0554.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"IMG_0558.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/IMG_0558.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At times there were only four of us in the park but for a lot of it we were the only ones there. It was a welcome change from being in Tokyo. For lunch we just went into a soba store on the street and while it wasn\u2019t the best soba I\u2019ve had (I\u2019m spoiled by a restaurant I went to in rural Okayama last year) it was very tasty.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"IMG_0559.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/IMG_0559.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>On the way back we went to Nakano Broadway where Kevin actually bought some figurines. They\u2019re for gifts, but I would\u2019ve never thought he would buy something like that.<\/p>\n<p>We got back to the hotel and rested. Bill and I went to Don Quijote to buy candy and the one in Shinjuku was packed with tourists and were out of most of the Kit Kats. I knew there was one on the other side of the hotel in Okubo so we tried that one. It was nearly empty of people (comparatively) and of course everything was fully stocked.<\/p>\n<p>Kevin was meeting a business associate for dinner and we were to head for Omoide Yokocho (Memory Lane) which is more coarsely called Shomben Yokocho (Piss Alley). I\u2019ve had enough of crowds and I no longer drink because it bothers my stomach so I didn\u2019t go with them. I decided to walk across Shinjuku to see the Projection on the Tokyo Metropolitan Building. I had to ask someone where to go because I am bad at researching this sort of thing but I made it! Tokyo is supposed to be a place no one talks to you but I\u2019m a chatty idiot so I talked to a German, Italian kids, and three little old ladies from Tokyo. The show at 7pm lasted about 15 minutes and the show at 7:30pm lasted about 10 minutes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"IMG_0561.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/IMG_0561.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I was finally hungry on the way back, and I had decided to go to Royal Host. It\u2019s more Japanese western food and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve been to a Royal Host in 35 years! (No, I did not go to the Sizzler, and it\u2019s closed all of 2024 through the spring of 2025).<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"IMG_0571.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/IMG_0571.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"600\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I got the \u201cset\u201d which included unlimited drinks (I had two) and a salad,<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"IMG_0572.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/IMG_0572.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>French Onion soup,<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"IMG_0573.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/IMG_0573.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And a \u201ccosmopolitan\u201d doria which had shrimp and chestnuts.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"IMG_0574.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/IMG_0574.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I also had the strawberry matcha parfait for dessert.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;\" title=\"IMG_0575.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/IMG_0575-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" border=\"0\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And that\u2019s about it for today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unfortunately our sushi dinner last night didn\u2019t agree with one of the group and Bill was having troubles from 2am-4am. It was also Kevin\u2019s big day to have pictures taken with the Doshu at the Aikido Hombudojo (basically, the big cheese). I suggested we take it easy and head out of central Tokyo to the Tonogayato Teien in Kokubunji. It\u2019s a beautiful little garden I\u2019ve been to before and only cost \u00a5140 to enter. Bill wanted to see a bamboo grove as well, and this garden has one. At times there were only four of us in the park but for a lot of it we were the only ones &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=11096\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Japan 2024: Day 7<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11096"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11097,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11096\/revisions\/11097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}