The first day started with an alarm. Toms to be precise. I turned it off the first time, Tom the second. He forgot to remove it after having to get up for five to get to the airport. Safe to say, we were not pleased would be an understatement.

Now awake and feeling bored, I went for an early morning wander by myself. It was refreshing and it was nice to see a bit of Tokyo without it being busy. There is a shrine at the end of the street which was closed but had a cat resting on it. I was going to take a picture but I felt a little unnerved so...yer.

Returning to the hostel, people started stirring but Chantelle was dead to the world. Leaving her be, we went and had breakfast from the local convenience store. All choosing uncertainly. Tom has some onigiri, Coral went for a Panini with something strange in it. I went for a safer fruit salad.

Once we returned, we prodded and poked Chantelle until finally she woke up and we proceed out for a wander around Asakusa. In the rain. But luckily we were able to borrow umbrellas for free from the hostel.

First we headed to Kaminarimon gate where we posed for several pictures. Some guys came, trying to sell trips riding around Asakusa, namely by calling Coral 'Cloud' from the final fantasy games and comparing me to Aerth. Coral was very proud of being likened to Cloud, can't say the same as I have no idea who Aerth is. We went through Kaminarimon gate and wandered down a lovely street filled with tourist souvenir stalls. Some sole sweets and other foods with made it smell delicious.

At the end of the street was Hozomon gate which led into Sensoji temple. Sensoji temple is the oldest in the city and is claimed to have been built in 628AD.

In the temple grounds Coral, Tom and I when and had our fortunes told. This is called mikuji. It involves shaking a tin before taking a wooden stick with a number on. You then take a sheet of paper from the corresponding draw.

Both Coral and I received good fortunes. Coral having no bad things in her way, while I had potentially someone bad but it could be fixed. Coral's soulmate is going to appear late but mine should hopefully coming a little sooner.

Then there was Tom's. Tom received a bad fortune, warning of tough times to come. And never would met his soul mate. A little worried, we went up to the temple and threw some money in the altar to hopefully appease the gods and let Toms luck improve.

Afterwards we walked in the general direction of the Tokyo Skytree but after a while the rain got to us and we headed back to the nice dry hostel to chill for a bit. Which featured watching Issie sort her bag out, smelling various clothes to see if her shampoo had reached them and her opening various hidden gifts from her mum. Tom trying the toilet buttons and being traumatised for life. And Chantelle. Again.

Eventually we collapsed and ended up sleeping for a good four/five/seven hours. Basically Jet lag. Giggling once we were up at how long we were asleep, we decided to go get some dinner.

Leaving the hostel we discovered that while we were asleep it had started to pour it down instead of just raining. Sheltering under the borrowed umbrellas, we headed down the alleyway to a place which looked hopeful. There was much debate as to what to have and in the end I went for some soba. Chantelle had a plate of sweetpeas. Whilst Issie, Tom and Coral went for what we were hoping to be chicken curry. It was actually tofu. Very spicy Tofu. Both Tom and Issie made good process into it, whilst Coral ate around the tofu. Even so all of them were very red because of the spice.

Full and happy after our first proper Japanese meal, we headed over to eleven seven to grab some drinks before heading back to the hostel for the night. Plotting for the next day.