Tokyo dinner and 115m big wheel!

Victoria was looking forwards to seeing the Oban Lantern Parade in Asakua.  However, to have a chance of seeing it you had to be on the bridges for about 18:15. At 17:00 we were sat in the hotel room watching the rain hammer down, but at about half past the rain stopped so we decided to make a break for it, it was about 35 minutes by public transport.

We arrived at Diaba monorail station and they were queuing out of the door to buy tickets. Bugger, not a chance of making it. So, we reverted to plan B.

Over the road from the hotel is the Aqua Park a huge shopping complex with loads of resturants, and strangely outside is a replica Statue of Liberty. We made our way in and started browsing the shops.

There are dozens of shpos, both local and international brands as Diaba is a resort town that attracts visitors from all over. The Disney Store here is great, loads of stuff you cannot get at home, Victoria was in here element. She also loved all the Totoro and Hello Kitty stuff you can buy.

I realised I had left something in the hotel room so arranged to meet Victoria in a specific shop in about 20 minutes. Usually, when looking for Victoria it is dead easy to find her, lookacross the aisles for somebody about 5'4" with dark straight hair. Have you any idea how difficult that becomes in Japan!

Victoria had found the 100¥ store, very much like our Pound Store but only about 65p. Loads and loads of great stuff like Washi Tape and such like.

After I eventually located her we decide that we would like to eat at the Gonpachi, a Japanese resturant that took our fancy as they seemed to have a lot of veggie dishes.

We kicked off our shoes and were seated at a low table, oh dear thinks I expecting to have to sit crossed legged. However, it is a cheat, your feet fit nicely in a concealed well under the table.

Our waitress was super helpful and spoke excellent English. She helped us decide what to eat. I started by ordering a big bottle of Kirin lager, while Victoria had a Yuza lime tea with honey, that was very nice.

To eat we had a dish of lotus root, kamatsura and seaweed dredd with sesame seeds, a bowl of edamme beans. A skewer each of mushrooms and Ginnann ginko nuts.  Tempura vegetables on rice and a Yaki Onigiri, grilled rice and a bowl of miso soup

We finished off with piping hot rice tea - Genmaicha.

It was lovely and we were both stuffed when it was done. The whole thing only came to 3500¥ (about £25.00) and our server was reluctant to take our tip, but she really deserved it as she had been super helpful.

After our dinner we checked out a few more stores and then walked the 20 minutes or so to the Giant Sky Wheel in nearby Pallet Town.

Again, this is great value, only 920¥ each for the 16 minute ride that takes you 115m high into the sky above Tokyo Bay with great views of Tokyo skyline. It was very dark as we got there so the views of tht Tokyo skyline were ace.

We finally made it back to the hotel room at about 10PM, pretty tired and with sore feet we were soon asleep. We have a trip to Mount Fuji in the morning.