Day 4 – 01.04: “Wait, you’ve never drunk sake?”

Though I was well rested, my shoulders were still aching badly, but I had to keep moving. I gave myself some time to actually wake up, after which I started to plan a little bit.

During all this planning I contacted Brendan, a friend of mine who had come to work in Japan just a week before I came in to the country. We went through the details on his availability and all that good stuff. When finished, I took my stuff and went downstairs to pay for my stay before my departure for Shimotsuma (下妻).

I got downstairs with all of my stuff, exchanging greetings with my lovely innkeeper, and asking how much the whole thing costed. If there is one thing that I can manage in Japanese, it’s asking how much something is. So at least I didn’t screw that up. I paid my dues with a 10000 yen note, and was surprised when the innkeeper came back with green tea, strawberries and the change I was owed. All of it was for me. I like this place.

Before leaving, there was some conversation – or rather, the woman trying to explain things, but me not understanding most of what she said – and then she decided to show me the ocean.

During that conversation earlier, she had told me that Mount Fuji could be seen from the beach. It was a shame that today just wasn’t the day to see it, as it was obscured by fog. I said my good byes to the lady, and went on to take some pictures.

Having walked towards the station for a few minutes, I heard someone call “Niko-sama, Niko-sama!” from behind me. I turned around and saw a familiar figure on a bike with my umbrella – a thing that I always barely remember to take with me. I thanked her, and she asked me once more if I was okay. I said everything was fine, and we parted ways once again.

The train rides up till Chiba (千葉) had no issues, just the regular passing out. Once in Chiba (千葉), I decided it was time for some lunch, so I departed from the station on a quest to go for McDonalds. I had to walk through the labyrinth that was the city of Chiba (千葉) for some half an hour before I reached my destination.

When there, I got a meal and started planning how I walk back. I decided that I should go through the Chiba park (千葉公園). On my way there I took some pictures of murals and the streets in general.

Everything was fairly normal until I reached the park. I saw the most adorable reaction to tulips from a little girl whom was coming from the park: “Yay, it’s my favourite flowers, tulips!” She reminded me of Rin from Usagi Drop – the feels.

Usagi Drop - Rin

In the park, I walked onwards, taking pictures of things as I went, until I got to the little lake they had in the park. The lake had some big fish, some of them I recognised to be koi, but the rest I was unsure of. Of course, I took pictures of those as well. After all these distractions, I decided to continue my journey.

I got to Toride (取手) eventually, and bought a ticket for Shimotsuma (下妻). Buying of the ticket was easy: You just insert the cash in and select from the destinations on screen. All of the choices are in kanji, of course.

Brendan was there to pick me up, so we went to his apartment first. From there, we went out for a bowl of ramen and getting drunk off of a bottle of 25% sake. Good times were had. After finishing, we went and bought ourselves more alcohol and chatted at his house until we at one point just went to sleep.

Oh, right, almost forgot. Brendan made a video when he was drunk. I wonder if he’ll upload it to the internets.

This is where the fourth day ends.

Withdrew: 0,000

Spent: 8,411

Remaining cash: 24,780

10 was earned at some point, don’t ask me how.

Breakdown:

Inn – 3,500

McDonalds – 0,565

VM – 0,270

Kanto ticket – 1,210

Ramen + Sake – 4,546 (My portion: 2354 )

Kirin – 0,306

Not-Pringles – 0,206

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