I took the train from Kichijoji to Shinjuku to activate my rail pass and secure seats on the trains I will be taking. From Shinjuku I headed to Shimo-Kitazawa which is a cool little neighborhood with lots of small shops and restaurants- a bit like Kichijoji but not as upscale. I had a little time to wander around until Kuniko met up with me to have lunch. I found a cool small mens boutique clothing store…the tricky thing here is that I pretty much don’t fit in 99% of clothes here. I had a blast attempting to communicate with the 2 guys running the shop who spoke very little English- it’s amazing how creative you can get in attempting to communicate. They had some really cool T-shirts with funky designs- I found one I liked, however, Kuniko vetoed it because she felt it was too Yakuza-ish. We agreed on another one that is really cool. We then headed for lunch at this Indonesian curry place. The restaurant is really trippy- lots of bright colors, Buddhist paintings, hanging beads. The cool thing is you can pick the level of spiciness you want your curry.
We headed back to Kichijoji so Kuniko could finish packing and catch her bus to the airport. She boarded her bus and then I headed back to her parent’s house for dinner. Her mom made Japanese style curry with pork and shrimp- really good. I then had the task of packing for my 2 week backpacking trip. My goal was to only carry by medium sized backpack. It proved to be a challenge but I was able to fit my clothes, one extra pair of shoes, and my laptop into the backpack. I went to bed pretty early as I had to wake up at 6 and head to Tokyo station to take the bullet train to Matsuyama.
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