Day 13

As we walked back to the hotel yesterday, we spied a Starbucks that was well away from the Shibuya crossing and I said to the group - maybe we could try there for breakfast today. At which point Kieren awoke from his usual quietness and said “of course we can” so it was decided

When we got there this morning I asked what he wanted had he said “eenie, meenie, miney doughnut” - made me laugh out loud

Then, we were off to the zoo

Every time we do a particularly long walk, it’s either pouring with rain or boiling hot. Today was the latter and so whilst we saw many, many animals, we also had to put a shirt on Kieren’s head to stop him burning - they didn’t sell hats…

It was a little bitter sweet as it was nice to see the animals but some of the conditions looked grim and a lot of animals looked bored - I’m not sure animal rights mean a lot here

After that we went for lunch in Ueno

We found a Japanese place and ordered. I went for the 5 chicken thigh skewers, Joss the pork stew, Hattie the 5 squid skewers and Kieren had fried chicken and chips

While we were waiting, the drinks arrived - no complaints here

Then they brought over 5 bowls of what looked like green chillies, a bowl of meat with veg and a battered piece of fish

She’d told us about the table charge so we thought this was free stuff to try

We were wrong

We all 3 tried the meat dish but it tasted like liver so I didn’t have more than a little

I also tried the green chillies but they were soaked in a colourless jelly and although it didn’t taste of much, I didn’t like the feel of it so left that

I let Joss and Hattie share the fish

Kieren’s meal turned up and he wolfed it down

Then my meal came and instead of 5 skewers there were 6 and not all of them looked like thighs

The first one was thigh and the last one was breast but I gamely tried each of the others and hated them

Then we worked out that I’d ordered the set meal thinking I could choose what they were but in fact all I’d done was choose a thigh one to go on top of the rest

The 4 inedible ones we more than likely skin, intestines, cartilage and heart

It was like a bloody bush tucker trial and neither Joss nor Hattie were stupid enough to have a go

When I pushed it away the waitress came over and asked what was the problem and I explained what I thought I was ordering wasn’t this so she said she’d take it off the bill and cook me 4 more thigh skewers

I ate them ravenously  

Hattie’s and Joss’ meal hadn’t turned up so I waved her over and asked what was the problem

Turns out the meat dish we’d all tried WAS Joss’ and she’d written that Hattie only wanted 1 not 5 skewers and that was the one she’d shared !!!

They agreed to cook her 4 more and we agreed that tonight we were going to have something we understood 🤣

We then did some shopping and Kieren bought himself a hat

Such a shame he wants the beard removed when we get back

The kids went back to the hotel and we stopped off at the Oslo bar but once I read the prices (£12 per pint) we ran off back to the darts pub where they served me a small beer instead of the pint I wanted

I was sad

Not sad enough to not book a table for the night though - we had promised Kieren a pizza after all….

So back there we went - I had the teriyaki chicken pizza, Kieren the margarita, Joss had spaghetti and Hattie the rice/omelette thing

I recorded it to show how hot it was 

Again they brought each meal out separately with 5 minutes at least between them as they expected us to share the food - but Gullis’ don’t share so we ate our meals one at a time

This did give Kieren great opportunity to do his new favourite thing - bowing. Every time he says thank you in Japanese he bows extravagantly as he says the phrase - he loves it and has started bowing even when he’s not saying anything!!

The noise that wound me up was the noise the waitress’ make when they guide new people to their table

They shout it loud enough to be heard throughout the room but in a loud high pitched unnecessarily nasal voice - nothing like they really sound

I attempted to mimic this as follows

and Joss and Hattie dived under the table mostly in embarrassment but also laughing quite hard

I must have actually got something right because they brought us over some complimentary Doritos shortly after ….

Another long, tiring but brilliant day - another beer and I might make it to sleep ….