Last night I asked reception if they could open one of the windows in my room. They said no- for health and safety reasons. I argued that I needed to be able to open it for health and safety reasons, as air conditioning gave me asthma. Now you and I know that’s not true, but they do not. Anyway, I wouldn’t take no for an answer and promised them that throughout fifty years of staying in hotels, and during at least thirty of those spending many nights unaccompanied by another responsible adult, I have never fallen out of a window by accident and I was very sure I was not in the mood to jump… this evening… Finally, the poor young girl went to get the manager who said of course Madam could have a key to open the window if Madam would like to sign a disclaimer… so that is what Madam did. By the time she got back to her room she felt she really deserved that ciggy.
Did not want to get up this morning. But I did and made it to breakfast for 8.30. Once I’d consumed a large plate of scrambled eggs and toast and three mugs of tea I felt a little more awake.
We worked in our room for the morning planning a couple of ranges for Tesco. Nice. We’ve decided we know exactly our target demographic- Babies who lunch…
Set off for the airport at 12pm. We have almost missed so many flights to Tokyo from Hong Kong we were determined to be on time. This country if too hot to have to rush around in. On our last trip we caught the flight by the skin of our teeth and had to run with the air hostess all the way to the gate. I don’t do running. It nearly killed me.
This time we strolled through calmly and spent a lovely couple of hours in the lounge. The flight was packed and the seats had NO legroom whatsoever but I managed to sleep and read a little. The food was disgusting and the sandwiches I’d parcelled together from the complimentary buffet in the lounge were also hideous so I ate two cream crackers and some laughing cow! The time passed soon enough though and we landed at 8.30pm, only half an hour late.
The taxi to our hotel was a different story. We had a hilarious taxi driver who either didn’t or couldn’t understand or trust his sat nav and kept talking loudly on the phone to someone about how to get to our hotel. He looked like the mad scientist in Back to the Future. We drove round the centre of Tokyo over and over, so many times, becoming very familiar with certain streets and eventually we spotted the hotel ourselves. Hoorah, only took two hours! (Should take Ih 15m)
Checked in, dumped the bags, in dire need of a drink and something to eat so we went exploring. Directly below our hotel was a bar which looked busy and very much open. It was so near and it was so late we decided it would be fine. We walked in and were shocked to find ourselves in the oldiest worldiest most Englishest pub ever, Radiohead, Cat Power, Echo and the Bunnymen, New order playing over the speakers. We both had a pint of cider, a plate of hummus and pitta bread and a bowl of excellent chips. Just what the doctor ordered I think.
The Mermaid, more English than England
Finally fell into bed at 2.30 after phoning home- Fergus has ten wonderful GCSE’s to his name- what a proud Mum I am!
