Thailand to Tokyo

I bought a new phone in Thailand before I left with the help of my brother’s girlfriend translating for me. It’s the Nokia c5-03 in white and lime. Not that flash, but I needed a new phone and it can roam in Japan and other countries, so that should be good for any further travels too.

I also tried out those fish that nibble on your feet as a beauty treatment. They were actually pretty good, I had to try really hard not to think about how it was a group of animals feeding off me. It was really really ticklish, and I found it pretty creepy. It was like wearing fish shoes, or like being one of those sea creature pirates from Pirates of the Caribbean. Some of them almost climbed out of the water up my ankles to eat more! But I would go again.

It was really lovely to spend time with my brother and his girlfriend, and I won’t stay with them when I go back, but I will visit. His girlfriend was so helpful ordering my 3am taxi to the airport and giving directions for the taxi driver when he couldn’t find their place.

I met up with Mingaling at Narita airport yesterday and we just headed to our hotel and relaxed, had instant noodles for dinner and caught up on gossip. Ming had a surprisingly tasty lychee and salt drink too.

Today we decided to take it pretty easy, so that meant we went to Akihabara and checked out the ‘electric town’. It was cool. I bought an extra battery for my camera and we had a lot of fun checking out some of the collectable toy shops and the cosplay costumes.

We had a really yummy lunch at a restaurant there, but we had to order the specials because they had photos and we couldn’t read the menus. It was still super yummy.

Then we looked at some more stores and went back to the hotel to chill out for a bit and plan the evening. We decided to head to a Yakitori place that we had read good reviews for online. It was called Ganchan and half way between the Roppongi and Azabu Juban subway stations. We had the special course menu.. It wasn’t cheap, but it was sooooooo worth it! Delicious! We also had some plum liquor, although the label said it was Japanese-apricot liquor made with subsoil (I think that meant ‘mineral’ or ‘underground spring’) water.

On our adventure to find Ganchan we also walked into a 100 yen store and bought some little souvenirs. We quite enjoy just walking around and looking at stuff.