Fri Sept 30, Back to Tokyo

Woke up at our business hotel in Nagoya and went down for the free breakfast. Then we left and got in line for getting our shinkansen tickets back to Tokyo. There was an old lady just behind us in line that kept standing really close to us and I felt like maybe she was quietly trying to slip past us in line, so I kept making sure to stand in front of her. Chika laughed and said I'm becoming more Japanese, because everyone here pushes into any empty space so you have to be careful not to lose your place in line or a place to sit, etc.

Once we got on the train, Chika found a public phone at the end of the train car we were in and took the tickets to tell her parents when we'd be getting in. While she was still on the phone, a guy came around to check tickets, and just before he got to our row, I got up and left =\ I was going to try to find Chika to get our tickets, but by the time I saw her, the guy had left.

When we got to Tokyo station, we had to change trains quickly for the shinkansen to Omiya, then we got on a local train for the last bit to Higashi Omiya, where Chika's parents picked us up. We went straight to Hanaichi Ichiba and had various seafood (kaki, ebi, kani). Then we went home and started laundry and uploading pictures, and Chika's mom brought out some old photo albums of Chika and we looked through those a little bit.

Chika and her mom and I went to Ikebukuro to wander around a little and go to Tokyu Hands. Tokyu Hands is a really interesting store. They've got a little of everything, but the best part was that they have lots of electronic parts, chemistry equipment, wood for building things, and even a section for how to do melted / blown glass stuff. If we had a store like that in America I'd probably want to do a lot more DIY stuff.



Then we went to a Lotteria to have something to drink and sit and watch all the people getting off of work and heading out for a fun Friday night.

When we got home again, the souvenirs from Kyuushuu had gotten there and we had ika from Yobuko and satsuma age for dinner, and we looked at more photo albums, watched TV and just generally relaxed.