Had a good long 9 hours worth of sleep after a heavy dinner last night with food I got from the supermarket. Was thoroughly exhausted from the events of the past 2 days, of cycling too much, and training. While having breakfast, the news were reporting the 3% hike in taxes (from 5% to 8%), which was announced by the Japanese prime minister. Breakfast was mentaiko pasta, sandwich, coffee, fruit juice and another tub of yoghurt. Packed up my stuffs while the news went on to rattle about the typhoon no. 22 and no.23, which led to the gloomy rainy weather in Tokyo today.
Checked out and had no choice but to buy an umbrella from the front counter because it was raining heavily. Walked to the train station with the staffs from Chicago and Hong Kong. We took the 8.15am train to Haneda, and it was crazily packed! Been some time since I last got onto a train this packed! Felt like a fat sardine being squished and forced into a can unwillingly. Reached our destination in one piece though. Went to buy my bus ticket to Narita first, and picked the 6.25pm bus, since our training ends at 5.45pm, crossing fingers that I’ll make it.
It was still raining heavily when we took the feeder bus to our training center, so all of us made a mad dash for the building when we alighted from the bus. Among the chaos, I left my umbrella in the bus! Argh!!
Today’s training was more on posture, our sitting style, walking and bowing practice. We also had to learn specific words to use when speaking to customers and the likes of that. Our instructors then brought us to a mock-up for further practice, and it went on till lunch time.
Once the day-long training ended, we quickly changed because we wanted to catch the 6pm feeder bus back to Haneda. Lily was already gone by the time we got back, as she had left earlier on feet to the nearby monorail station. Bade farewell to the other two staffs and took the bus to Narita. Checked in my hotel before using their feeder service to get to Narita city to meet up with an ex-colleague who had returned to Japan a month ago after having some visa problems back here.
We decided on kushikatsu for dinner, Osaka-style food, and had a nice long chat over dinner. My favourite was the cheese mochi which was terribly delicious! The raw squid with potato was a little putting off though. The server also noticed that we liked the cheese mochi very much, cause we kept placing additional orders for it to his amusement. We had much more to talk about, but since the shop was closing at 10pm, we had no choice but to leave.
Saw my friend off at the station, while I went to Lawson to buy some breakfast. Ended up buying dessert instead of a proper breakfast, but their premium roll is to die for!
Back at the hotel, contacted another friend which had agreed to meet me right before I depart back to Malaysia at the airport to arrange our meeting time. The last I met her was in June, after my Kumamoto trip. Ended the day with a nice soak in the hot bath with some bathing salts I got from the convenience shop.
この長い旅で 