My usual quest to stay awake on the first day in Japan is being greatly aided by my book of walking tours. I took one that was near the capsule hotel and it did keep me awake, although it wasn't all that interesting. I went from one of the old gates of the Akasaka palace past the national theatre, then the forbidding high court and the much nicer Diet building. The walk looped around several other uninspired government buildings, but did give different views on the Diet. It was ultimately far better for people-watching (including police-watching) than for points of interest. After all that and a nice lunch I checked in to my tiny deluxe capsule hotel room!
I showered, repacked a bit, briefly thought I'd lost the key to the shoe locker at the front door, then went out to dinner with a friend and ended up in the same place I had lunch! I had the Okinawan staple goya chanpuru, stir-fried bitter gourd with tofu and egg and in this case spam that was so salty I could barely eat it, accompanied by some delicious Japanese-style plain omelette and pineapple juice and finished with black sugar pudding. And in another coincidence, the very nice Swedish tour guide I sat beside on the flight was there too with her tour group! (She turned out to have a daughter working in Zurich and a son working in banking in London, so we had lots to talk about.)
Unfortunately the photos from the new phone are too large to post several at once, so they will follow!
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