Yesterday I finally discovered what Pachinkos are all about. They're essentially a version of one-armed bandits but with a little bit of skill thrown in, so you can, to some degree, influence your chances of winning. Also, we've been going to a really cool Italian-style cafe that has excellent tiramisu and capuccinos. It does cost an arm and a leg, but it's totally worth it (on a tourist mindset, anyway).
The highlights of the day were the Imperial Palace, and the very impressive Shogun Castle (can't recall the name right now, though). By lunchtime, we were starving and went into a cheap ramen joint, the only thing open - and it turned out to be pretty good. Then some temple sight-seeing, getting a new hotel for tomorrow (Saturday), and finished by walking around the fun district and having some excellent dish that tasted like smoked herring with noodles (again, I know, but it was totally worth it). Some funny anecdotes about toobrushes will probably be inserted here in the future :-)
Now I'm back at the hostel, blogging and trying to cope with a really, really slow connection to my webmail. I'll try setting up Outlook Express and see how that goes.
Bad times? My skin is pretty red in places, and my feet are killing me.
Very very good balance, all in all :-)
