Monday 23rd April
Not having the best nights sleep (more on that later), now breakfast. Blue Mountain has a fridge and a hot water tap for noodles as well as its bar & resturuant grub. It has no kitchen to cook hot food in, so porridge and banana ordered for me, whilst Frank opted to finish off our bread and ordered a coffee. Out on the metro to Shanghai Railway station to buy our onward tickets and we walked along the main road back to the hostel - a fair trot it was
indeed. Then it rained. So we hung around the hostel for a little longer. We tried to get online and check our accounts. We managed that much, but the frustration of being cut off from communicating with family took its toll on me and a few tears of frustrated relief came out after successfully checking our bank account and sending some emails - a small victory.

Knowing there was very little to do inside we decided to venture forth in said rain. It was a proper downpour too. 'Heavy' couldn't come near to this delugue. Onwards, we bought some more fruit, as it was so much cheaper than in Japan (and a luxury by that comparrison) and some other nibbles too. Twiddling of thumbs and a wondering what on earth do you do in Shanghai when it rains, we merely strolled up the nieghbouring street. Peeking inside the little shops with all sorts of produce on offer. There were some shops with boxes full of water and live fish, shrimp, lobster, crayfish and other wonders of the deep, wriggling and writhing around. Vegetables, spring onions the length of your arm, several others things we didn't recognise, that fowl smell again (Frank likened it to baby sick) and chickens feet in packs - for sale as a snack. With our appietie whetted (and then withdrawn, then whetted again) we hopped into a diner for a light lunch...or rather for the roof which kept us dry, really. In taking my seat and removing my coat I promptly knocked another mans noodle dish all over the floor  - 'Hello Shanghai, I've arrived!' - I mouthed sorry (several times) to anyone near, the guy waved his hand as if to say not to worry, he soon left. It was here we got our first dumplings. Delicious. The soup in the middle was hot enough to scald your tongue. Frank had beef noodle soup. Yum.
In order to kill time, keep dry and amused we headed for 'The Bund Sightseeing Tunnel'. Its essentially a cable car on rails' that goes under the river to The Bund. It has a weird light show to watch while you travel. Bit of a rip off really, but something to do out of the rain. Back to the hostel thoroughly drowned. We waited for the rain to abate (it didn't) before we headed back to the same place for dinner again. We took our ponchos this time as our coats were sodden. It was much colder outside - to the point of shivering.
For dinner, greens again, a chicken dish and beef again and a couple of cold beers - which we found you get charged extra for. We bought a few tins of beer (a small perk finding some for ¥3.60 (34p) per can!) to drink in the hostel,  They had a film on when we were leaving, but it had finished by the time we got back. Many people were out on the decking drinking, smoking and playing pool into the night. Soon after our beers we shuffled off to sleep.