Alarm at 0800… got up and made coffee, breakfasting on ham, cheese and toast, before walking down to Shinagawa train station. Caught a Yamanote Line train to Shinjuku then changed for a line out into the northwestern suburbs where we were met by Chiaki and Yoshi, who were to drive us out into the countryside in search of some early flowering cherry blossom. It turned out to be an hour and a half’s drive, and I soon nodded off on the back seat, propped up by Kath and Aki.
We stopped in Ashigara for lunch at a little farmer’s cafe which specialised in seasonal fare. I had the meat dish, Aki had the vegetarian, and the others had the fish…it was tasty honestly cooking…the beef in ginger was particularly good. We were then driven to a river bank lined with small flowering cherry trees…pretty but not particularly dramatic, though we stumbled upon a little shrine to the founder of FujiFilm who came from this town and a large FujiFilm factory still dominates today…the fellow died in 2000 aged 101.
We were dropped off at Odawara rail station by our kind hosts, where we bade them farewell and caught a local train direct to Shinagawa. Bought some bits and pieces in the concourse shop to have for dinner back at the flat…our final evening in Japan. Did some packing ahead of the early start tomorrow morning, and plumped for an early night! Woken at midnight by another apnoea episode…went on for maybe 20 seconds, unable to breath, though it always feels terrifyingly longer! It certainly woke the girls up!!!
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