Bert arrives

I had a real workout getting to Ueno First City Hotel to meet Bert. It took about 90 minutes, with all the train shenanigans - always looking up the next station's name again, asking about train platforms and company line running the train and the direction of the train, and express/stopping and tickets.. Plus the lugging of the luggage up and down stairs and along the city streets of Ueno, while struggling with directions. It's a lovely thing to know where you're going.

It was great to see Bert. I'd forgotten his belly-laugh-inducing sense of humour.

The room feels vaguely 60s, in Japanese style with white walls and wood-panelling dividers and borders, futons on the floor with soba (buckwheat) husk pillows like beanbags, a little basket for your shoes, and a woven tatami floor.

We went for a long walk looking for food that excited. The signs advertising many businesses on each floor are becoming a familiar sight in Japan. When we went in, I thought they said "We have cable upstairs" but it was actually "We have table upstairs" - much less exciting :oD We had eel with spicy cabbage and bean shoots in a black stone meal-warmer, and a rice-and-cooked-things dish which Bert quickly mixed together, so I'm not really sure what was in it. It sat on browning cooked rice, and kind of tasted like a sauceless casserole.


We went into a bottom-end department store called Don Quijote and browsed for so long. There was a locked cabinet of second hand Louis Vuitton (and other fancy brands) bags. I bought a bad English tshirt.

Adult products are everywhere in Japan. This pretty Kmarty department store has a kinky outfit section next to the Calvin Klein undies.







Then we went to stare amazedly at a convenience store's wares, and made some "experiential" food selections. Dried carp horns, dried swordfish strips, bean buns, apple tea, dark chocolate and jellybeans. The dried fish stuff really felt like eating pet treats!