Tuesday, June 03, 2014

APAC Training Trip 2014 Day 11 - Japan Day 11

I met Han downstairs a bit early as I needed to recharge my PASMO card so I could continue to ride the train without having to buy tickets.  We got to the station and ended up on the same train as we had been taking. It was notable that it was late by about 2 minutes. I wonder if someone was fired for that? There is small wait built in at the Yashio stop and we appeared to correct there because we didn't wait long.  We made it to the office at basically the same time as any other day and I was able to get information that resolved the problem we finished with the day before. We then began the day's presentations and finished those about an hour before lunch where we should spend the rest of the day in the lab. Which is exactly what we did.  We broke for lunch at about 12:15 and restarted at about 1.  The rest of the day was work in the lab that lasted until 5:20 or so.  From there we got back to the hotel with the same switch of trains at Yashio to speed up the process. When I arrived at the room Daniela was not there, nor was there a note though she had left me a text that she was having a small lunch over 2 hours before. I checked the restaurant of the hotel and then came back up to the room to watch TV and wait for her.  Fortunately she showed up only a few minutes later.

We headed out quickly and our intention was to get to the Sky Tree and go up to the top. But I was starving and we decided we would get food on the way and then go in. We walked across the bridge over the Sumida River and right next to the Asahi headquarters building. The building with the big yam on top of it.  We found the Sumida River Brewing Company Restaurant right next door and decided to try to eat there. They had an English language menu but it didn't have everything they serve on it we are sure. We each had some of their craft beers. I had an ale which name escapes me and Daniela had the Sumidagawa Weizen. Both were very good and we had a couple before the night was done. Daniela ordered a large salad that had a lot of avocado and I had spicy fries and the sausages assortment as this place turned out to be a beer garden in concept. They were playing German folk music in the background the whole time.  Unfortunately it is more a bar than a restaurant so we got stuck next to the only party in the place that was smokers.  And they were chain smokers too.  I know that is very Japanese but it was a little rough at times before we finished our last beer the place had emptied out some and I requested if we could be moved to an empty table further away and the wait staff let us.

I had to check on my phone what time the Sky Tree observatories shut down and it was 10pm so we ended up taking too long and couldn't go. We did walk that way anyway and got very close to the tower but we basically ended up taking the Sobu line back to Asakusa instead of walking back once we got there.  The ride was quick as it is only one stop over the river.  Then we walked back to the hotel and called it a night.

The pictures from Japan day 11 can be found here.

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