My last train trip was a long one back to Tokyo from Kagoshima, passing Mt Fuji on the way.  I got to my hotel about 5pm and left almost immediately to meet Momo for dinner.  We went to a restaurant in some multi-storey block in Ginza.  The restaurant was very busy and we had to wait a bit before getting a table, though it wasn't in fact a table it was two adjacent spaces at a counter looking out over the city.  We sat on a sort of two person bench.

Often in Japanese restaurants you get menus with pictures of the food that's available.  Here they'd gone a step further and provided a tablet with illustrations of all their food and drink and which you used to place your order.  I'm not very sure what I had.  It was similarly presented to many others I've had.  A big bowl of liquid containing noodles and stuff.  I'd asked for seafood stuff and although it was all very tasty apart from prawns I couldn't name what else was in it.  The noodles in this case were thick udon and the liquid was reminiscent of a cream soup.  It was mushroom in colour if not in taste.  Udon are white wheat flour noodles and come in both thick and thin versions.  As I said I had thick ones and I had a side-dish of deep fried shrimp.  For drinks I stuck to beer but Momo had some fancy concoction.

She poor woman was giving an online lesson at 10pm so we left the restaurant around 9 for her to get home and get ready.  It had been fun to see her again even though she's a hard taskmaster when it comes to my struggles with Japanese.

I just went back to the hotel and more or less straight to bed.  I'd had to use the dreaded Otemachi station but in contrast to my previous and bitter experience, using it to move between two different subway lines was very straightforward.

This morning I was up bright and early for the Imperial Palace tour that I'd booked at 5am JST on 1st September.  This time I fell foul of the fact that Tokyo has two underground systems.  I bought a ticket from a machine but when I tried to go through the gate alarm bells sounded and the gate slammed shut in front of me.  There's this so called Fare Adjustment booth next to the gates where the guy informed me that I'd bought a Toei system ticket which I had attempted to use to get through a Tokyo Metro gate.  I had to go and buy a ticket from a different machine.  I put the first one in my purse determined to use it later in the day.

Equipped with the right ticket I got on the wrong train, that's to say the right line but going in the opposite direction.  No problem, jump off at the next station, cross to the opposite platform and go back on my tracks.  I've done it before.

Not quite so straightforward on this occasion.  Instead of both platforms being within the same domain as it were I had to exit, buy a new ticket and re-enter at a different point.  Annoying and time consuming but eventually I got to the palace gates psychologically intact.

Building in palace grounds and explanation

The tour was a bit underwhelming.  I knew it was only the grounds and that we wouldn't get into any buildings (with the exception of a holding pen prior to starting the walk about) but the grounds or at least those parts we were shepherded through were not very attractive.  I visited two gardens later in the day that were more enjoyable to walk around in.

There were a great many visitors and we marched off in four language groups each led by a guide who described what we were seeing and filled in bits of history and so on.  That was all very interesting in fact.  I went round in the French group because there were only a couple of dozen in comparison to the English one's God knows how many so I was able to get close to the guide and get the benefit of her commentary.  There was a large Chinese group as well and their guide had her public address thing turned up to the proverbial 11.  I suppose our group had one as well but it wasn't at all intrusive. In addition I'd downloaded an app that provided a commentary at different spots having worked out from your phone where you were.  I turned that off after a while because all these commentaries were just blocking one another out.

Going in

A bit of the palace

As well as the guides there were various busybodies scurrying around waving light wand like things that traffic policemen and suchlike have.  Their job seemed to be to keep people from straying and make sure you obeyed invisible and pointless rules and clear the way for various dignitaries in large flashy cars.

End of tour

Part of the Imperial Palace grounds is a public park where you can wander at your leisure.  I'd have liked that but unlike most public parks they close the gates two days a week Friday being one of them.  So I didn't do that.  I spent some time pottering about before heading back to my part of town.  I had to go there at some time to get my luggage from the hotel.

I would use a combination of Tokyo Metro and Toei for the journey utilising the Toei ticket I'd conserved from earlier.  I bought a Tokyo Metro ticket and got to within one station of my destination where I would change to a Toei line.  I fed my unused Toei ticket into the gate and flash bang wallop, no joy.  I presented myself to the Fare Adjustment man full of righteous indignation and puzzlement.  He examined my two tickets, asked where I was going, fiddled with his screens and said that'll be 110 yen then.  I attempted to put my case re the unused ticket but 99.9% due to my inability to express such a complicated matter in Japanese and 0.1% to his indifference got nowhere and had to stump up.

When I got to Kiyosumi-shirakawa I headed for a garden that looked the perfect place to recover my sangfroid.  I stopped en route for lunch.  Again I believed I was ordering seafood.  No helpful pictures nor tablets in this little place.  I was putting my faith in Google lens and translate.    

That's a raw egg in the middle, some wasabi near the top of the bowl, a bit of a lemon, little flecks of a green veg/herb and a bed of rice.  Not a lot of seafood there.  The little orange spheres are probably fish roe and the brown bits must be seafoody.  Didn't taste of anything in particular to me, but you know my tastebuds lack sensitivity.  The little bowl on the right by the way is thin udon in a tasty broth and I'd already polished off a bowl of dressed lettuce.

After that I went to the garden where being over 65 I was allowed entry for 70 yen instead of the standard 150.  Here as elsewhere I had to produce my passport to permit verification of my being over 65.  Scout's honour not acceptable and visual inspection of my face and body clearly being inconclusive.

It's a lovely garden.  On a little island were several heron

After a while there I fetched my luggage from the hotel and braved the dual metro sytem once again to get me to the point where I intended to catch the monorail to the airport.  Happily there was another pretty garden there for me to rest my weary legs and watch the reflection of the sun make its way slowly down the face of a skyscraper.  When I judged it was far enough down I went to the airport where I've written this, my last post from Japan, for this trip at least.    

A short coda:  My flight was scheduled for 00:10 subsequently put back to 00:35 but no matter.  When I checked in they told me that they would not be serving a meal during the flight.  Quite sensible given the hour you'd agree.  Instead I was welcome after passing through security to eat in their lounge.  I did so, and drank a very agreeable Austrian Gruner Veltliner as well.  Absolutely the best airline meal I've ever had and in the most comfortable surroundings.