November 21, 2023

Tuesday - Warm and sunny

I’m back!  I had a great time in Yokohama, and it was quite simple to get to Yokohama as well. I Google-Mapped it and it got me to a bus stop next to the hotel, so that was really cool.

The convention was really well done and Yokohama was a great place to have it. The hotel was fine…I didn’t like the bathroom, it was tiny and there was a high step to get into it. Not my favourite thing. Apart from that, the room I had was big, the bed was comfortable, and I really didn’t have many problems.

On the last day, we all checked out and then had a panel discussion. A bit later, we walked to Chinatown and had a dim sum lunch at a restaurant. The convention organizer knew the owners and got us a great price. 

After lunch, I walked back to the hotel, picked up two of my bags and then walked to a train station. I caught a train to Yokohama station and then transferred to a train going to Tokyo. I found Yokohama station to be insanely confusing. It wasn’t well marked and I had no idea where I was going. 

I got myself on a train to Tokyo station. It might not have been the best option, but it was fine. I got a seat all the way, so that was good! Tokyo Station was easy to get around and it is very well marked. I found the Shinkansen area easily and bought my tickets up to Niigata. I had a bit of time before my shinkansen was going to leave, so I grabbed a couple of bentos. I was starving! I’m not even sure why. 

I got on the shinkansen and for the first couple of stations I didn’t have a person sitting next to me so I gobbled up my bentos. My seatmate got on and we had a quiet ride to Niigata. 

In Niigata, I checked into my hotel and it was a lovely experience. Last year, a different hotel, that I often stayed at, gave me a terrible time and was extremely rude to me. In both cases, I had joined the hotel’s membership so they had my address in Japan. Basically, if you are a foreigner who is a resident of Japan, you don’t need to ask for ID. Last year’s hotel accused me of being an illegal alien and was so rude when I checked in. This year, a different hotel and no ID. The hotel was much nicer, the only downside was that it was a few hundred meters down the road from the station. 

I went out to grab some dinner, I went over to Royal Host which is a place I often go by myself. I had a nice pasta dinner and then walked back to the hotel and had a quiet evening. I watched a bit of YouTube and fell asleep. I woke up at 5:30 am on top of my bed and ended up going to bed properly then. Although I could get a free breakfast at the hotel in the morning, I decided to just sleep in. I had put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door so I got to sleep in. Yay!

A little after noon, I went out. This was Monday. I went over to the Aeon Mall and did a little shopping and wandering around. I didn’t buy too much, although I found a Twinnings Tea Advent calendar that I got for myself. I had lunch in the mall too, that was nice and quite good. I ended up leaving the mall a bit earlier than I had planned. I got back to the station and did a little shopping and picked up a tea at Starbucks. I grabbed a bento and went back to the hotel. I also somewhere along the way bought my ticket back to Tsuruoka on Tuesday.

Back at the hotel, I bought myself a movie card and then went upstairs, talked to F and then watched a movie. I stayed up a bit late but did get up and went down for breakfast this morning.

After breakfast, I took a shower and finished packing my suitcase. I checked out at 11am and left my backpack and my suitcase at the hotel.

I walked over to the Bandai area of the city and went for a decaf coffee in LoveLa2. I wasn’t feeling too great today, unfortunately. I checked the movie schedule and realized that I could go to a movie in a couple of hours and then I could relax and sit down for a while. That’s what I did. I went to see The Marvels again and quite enjoyed it. 

After the movie was over, I walked back towards the station. I stopped to have a light lunch at a food court and then made it back to the hotel. I grabbed my stuff and walked to the station. I was quite early, which was nice as I didn’t need to rush or panic.

I had decided to treat myself to the Green Car on the train. It’s like first class. It was a bit expensive, but the seat was nice and comfy and the car was very quiet. There was space for my suitcase on the floor behind my seat and I just really enjoyed myself.

F picked me up a few minutes after I arrived and we went to Cocos for dinner. He got his birthday dessert…his birthday is on Thursday but we have plans…and after dinner we went over to Pal shopping area and I bought a few groceries for tomorrow. I hope it goes well!

We came back to the house and two things happened. North Korea apparently sent a missile over Japan again, so F wanted to see the updates on the TV, and my DVR stopped working entirely. I assumed the batteries were dead in the remote, but when I hit the buttons on the machine itself, nothing happened. Despite my asking F to look at it, he got angry and refused. He told me there was too much stuff in front of the machine. Yes, there is a lot, but right now I don’t have the energy to move everything. I asked him if he had done anything to the machine while I was gone. Apparently not. I was gone for 4 days, how would I know what he’s done?

Anyway, I have an idea of what to try tomorrow and I’ll see if I can get it working again. Unfortunately, I missed my show tonight but that’s okay. 

This is terribly long, sorry about that. Are you still with me?

Come back later if you like and hear all about my Wednesday. Until tomorrow….