Tokyo bici

On Monday morning I went to meet Kotaro from ONO Wheel Room near Harajuku. After a doppio at the café near I got sized up for my bike and we took off for a bike tour around Tokyo. We visited the Olympic stadium. The Imperial residence where the emperor receives foreign dignitaries. Then we went to a Shinto shrine which was overshadowed by Tokyo tower. At another Imperial site we rode through the outer gates of the Imperial palace and along the moat which I had visited earlier this trip. We stopped in at a Japanese tea house at the end for some food and beverages. I ordered what I thought was a chicken and bacon sandwich but it turned out to be one of each. Anyway I had been riding all morning so I feel like I earnt it.

We stopped in at a bike shop on the way home and I got a cap as a souvenir. Kotaro said he had raced for Japan in the Junior Men's at Richmond but crashed out early as it was raining and the juniors go full gas from the start. So I looked him up when I got home and here's his race history. https://www.procyclingstats.com/rider/kotaro-ono/2015

It was fun riding around Japan and good to have a local guide especially an ex-pro! The Ono brothers (who the business is named after) restore old bikes. Kotaro's bike was pretty cool, it had some 80s Shimano Dura-Ace on it with down tube shifters. I walked back home after the tour through some neighbourhoods which still had houses in the middle of Tokyo!

When I got home, we went out for lunch, unfortunately it was getting close to 2pm at a lot of the kitchens close then. We found a Chinese place where Willow enjoyed some gyozas and dumplings for the first time without complaining. This opens up a whole new world of eating for us as we can now take her to yum cha! Willow has been relatively adventurous with the eating this holiday. Japan has undone some of the damage to her palate our trip to Portugal's crisps or white carbs did with every meal.

For dinner we went to a local Izakaya style place where you had to take your shoes off and sit in a tiny room on the floor with a cut out for your legs. It was some good eating but we ordered one of the specialties which looked like beef sashimi but turned out to be what we think was cold kidneys sliced up. We only were able to get through about half the plate before it was too strong to continue.

Guest update from Willow for Monday morning:

We went to this very fancy professional stationary store in Ginza. It had a level of like cute and appropriate kids stuff. When I got to that level I went and I looked at the stickers and the washi tape. Mumma wanted to start a new sticker collection because there were soooo many stickers. 

We went to Loft and there was tonnes and tonnes of levels, we went to another department store and also stopped in a Daiso.