Tuesday, January 2, 2024

• Fukubukuru day, take two!
• Headed straight back to Shinjuku and Sekaido, which was actually open this time.
• My wife was able to secure her ideal lucky bag, which contained a range of art supplies. It also came with a portable artist’s chair, complete with pockets for storing supplies while out in the field. While very cool, it also added a fair amount of weight and bulk to the bag. As they had both twine handles and some weight, carrying it around all day did a number on my fingers and palms. It took wayy too long to realise I could grip it through the sleeve of my coat to negate the worst of it.
• Unfortunately, my wife had a rough night’s sleep and started having some knee pain, so our planned adventures were cut a little short.

• We stopped in a well-loved coffee chain from previous trips, Hoshino’s Coffee, for some lunch. Going for lunch didn’t really allow Hoshino’s best points to shine, but they did a good beef curry and draught beer, so no complaints from us!
• Did some light shopping on our way back to JR Shinjuku, picking up:
  • A tape measure from Muji, which we’d managed to forget to pack
  • My wife won her first Kuromi plushie from a UFO catcher, which would become a trend throughout the rest of the trip
  • She also found a Kuromi fukubukuru at Kinokuniya, a great chain book/music/DVD/stuff store. While she wasn’t looking, I ducked around to buy her a Kuromi nendroid figure as part of our Christmas present pact – more on this later.
• Made it back to JR Shinjuku station, where we made the discovery that it has way more stairs than an injured knee was happy with. After doing a lap of the building looking for elevators or escalators, we had to bite the bullet and hobble on our way to the platform.
• On the train home, I realised that my ancient Fitbit had finally decided that holding a charge all day was too much for it. Unlucky timing, but luckily finding a replacement probably wouldn’t be too difficult in Tokyo.
• We decided to stay close to home for dinner, heading back into Ameyoko and finding an izakaya. It wasn’t until we’d sat down that we realised it was the exact same place we’d had dinner the night before.
• We settled for an entree and some drinks each, then later found a kushikatsu (delicious fried things on skewers) restaurant. It was surprisingly lively, with a table of Japanese wannabe rock stars (or possibly actual rock stars? We weren’t in a position to judge) smashing drinks and ploughing through a stack of skewers, while a nearby table of Japanese students (I assume?) cheered them on and tried to get themselves invited to join the cool table. A fun atmosphere, helped out by the omakase (chef’s selection) skewer platter and the enormous draught beers I ordered.

• Back at the hotel, noticed that my thigh was feeling pretty sore, and lay down for a good night’s sleep to give us the chance to heal up.