In which Nikki comes to visit

Two weeks ago I found myself in Tokyo on an early spring afternoon eating at my favourite restaurant (they serve the most amazing honey mustard chicken burger in all of Japan) sipping at my coffee before going to my favourite book store and browsing English title for well over an hour. A most contenting way to spend a Saturday, except it was going to get better! Late into the evening I took the monorail to Haneda Airport and met up with Nikki! I decided then that another contenting way to spend a day is sitting at the arrival gate and watching happy reunion after happy tearful reunion, and it increased my spirits when it was my turn for a happy reunion and I lept forward to hug my best friend! Alright so I have set the stage now for how the rest of the most amazing spring break will unfold.

The weekend in Tokyo was as fun as ever, we met up with Kevin and his visiting friend and went to an anime fair, to see the awesome full-scale gundam in Odaiba, and then up to an observatory to get a glimpse of the Tokyo skyline with its famous Eifel tower replica. We finished the evening with Coco Curry, Nikki's fav food, and headed back to the hostel near Ueno park where the sakura were just beginning to bloom. The next morning we spent only a little time venturing to temples and a bit of shopping before heading home to Otsuki to give a few days to rest.

On Tuesday we went hiking on a struggling sunny, but a little chilly, day at Mt. Takao. It was, as always beautiful, and made for a nice hike, which preceded a coffee at Starbucks and some browsing of the shops in Hachioji!

Wednesday we went looking for shrines in Otsuki and prepared for our big excursion: we were off on one of my famous seishun adventures on Thursday. A seishun adventure is what I call an extremely cheap trip to far off places that take all day because we are only allowed to take local trains. Basically we spent ten hours train hopping all the way to Osaka. But that's up next!