Rainy season

After another pretty good night's sleep, except for some coughing from Tom, we awoke to thick clouds, rain and almost no visibility from our 21st floor "superior" room. I also noticed a distinct chill in the air when I nipped out to get breakfast, but I suppose it is only February.

Rather than our little corridor bit, we're actually having to hide in the bathroom this morning as Tom has discovered that he can see us in the mirror if he stands up in his cot. Anyone who's stayed in a Japanese hotel will know that 2 people in the bathroom simultaneously is a cosy affair. It might even be easier for one of us to actually have a bath.

Forgot to mention it yesterday, but Nik was particularly delighted with yesterday's dinner, namely nabeyaki udon, a big pot of noodle stew with every type of ingredient imaginable floating round in it. I have a feeling we'll be looking for it again.

This morning we're off to Roppongi to meet Kuroda San, a customer of mine who runs a little shop selling expensive British gardening accessories & apparel. He and his wife are taking us out for lunch, so we need His Nibs to be on his best behaviour.

Well, we're back from lunch and Tom was impeccably behaved, sitting in a high chair for over an hour as we ate our way through 6 courses at a wonderful restaurant just round the corner from the Kurodas' shop. That was Tom's first ever business lunch, and I'd have to give him a perfect 10 really. He was starting to look a bit sleepy though, so we made our excuses and came back to Ikebukuro, just managing to keep Tom awake until we got back to the room. He then apparently took half an hour to drop off in his cot, but by then I'd gone out on a shopping trip to a local electrical hypermarket; a truly extraordinary place that makes anything in the West look dreadfully small and shoddy. I could have spent all day (and my entire bank balance) in there, but was very restrained and only bought a clever screen protector for my iPhone and some hiragana and katakana wallcharts for Tom, as I think I'll teach him a bit of Japanese when he's ready. I came out of the store to a uniquely Japanese sight: about 2 million people between me and the subway entrance I needed to go down. I somehow managed and came back to the room about 10 mins before matey woke up. He probably needs a bit of crawling time now as it may be a slightly late night again as we're meeting up with a British friend of mine at 7:00.



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Location:Tokyo