This morning we took it easy, sleeping in and having a leisurely breakfast before checking out at 11 am. We made our way to the station across the road and deposited ourselves in the Shinkansen waiting room, with all the Japanese passengers. The weather has turned wet and cool, thank heavens. I had not brought summer clothes with me. The locals are all dressed up in thick coats and scarves, but I get hot and covered in sweat! So we caught our Shinkansen to Tokyo - very quiet trip - it rained all the way. When w arrived at Tokyo we found we didn't even walk outside to get to our hotel! The hotel is wonderful. The room is bigger than what we had in Kyoto, but not as comfortable as the Hilton. The chandelier however, is definitely to my taste! We just had time to freshen up before heading off to one station down the line, Yurakucho, for our night food tour. We were met by a lovely young Japanese lady and joined by 9 others - a couple from Brisbane, a fellow from Melbourne, a couple from San Francisco ( but formerly Washington) and a couple from New York/Florida and their son and daughter in law. First off we walked through an really narrow alleyway, Yakitori Alley, with eateries on either side and our guide explained the different specialities. We ended up in a restaurant where we had various forms of chicken on skewers with different sauces, as well as veggies (asparagus, ginkgo nuts), washed down with cold sake for me, beer for Tom. We then walked on to Ginza where various upmarket stores were pointed out, and we all chose a dessert each from the speciality store - I chose the apricot sweet which has apricot surrounded by sweet red bean paste, covered in a sweet rice paste. Tom's was the same but with a strawberry. Apparently these are really popular, often bought on their way home from work. We had to get ours before our second savoury course, before they ran out. After that we caught the train to another restaurant on a man-made island, Tsukishima, where we did our own cooking of monjayaki - sort of like a different version of okonomiyaki, but with cabbage and pork. Washed down with another bottle of sake, and beer for Tom. Then they made a crepe with chocolate in it! 'twas great fun, everyone was interesting and great company. Trivialities: yesterday I observed to our tour guide that so many of the young ladies still wear traditional dress. She told us that no, the wealthy kimono merchants were dismayed to see their businesses failing so they invented the "hire a kimono" business. Young girls can hire the outfit, be dressed in it by someone who knows the ways of draping it correctly, and even have their hair done traditionally, and do their sightseeing or shopping for the day, returning it at the end of the day. Hence the groups of teenage girls getting around in kimonos. I asked our guide about the people with face masks, whether they already had colds or were trying to avoid them. She said both, but also trying to avoid allergies as they come into spring with lots of pollen, especially Cyprus pollen. And the toilet!! I was bending to look at the controls with the one in this new hotel ........ And the lid raised itself!! Every time you walk close to it, it raises its lid! And automatically flushes!