OMG - 91,000 steps.....

 I arrived on the 20th, with Joanna meeting me at Haneda Airport.  Ziwei met us at the Imperial Hotel after check-in and we had a sushi/tempura dinner before I got to soak in a bath that night.......I soaked each night here as we do not have a tub at home....such is life.....

And then we walked......4 straight 15,000 step days.  Ziwei joined us in Tokyo for 3 nights and we the three of us spent the weekend together - Saturday in Kanagawa and Sunday in Shinjuku where, after getting some watercolor paints from a seven-floor art supply house, tiredness caught up with me and I slept for 13 hours.

Monday the 26th - we did Blue Note-Tokyo.   How wonderfully nice to have a 6pm dinner show with world-class jazz and surprisingly reasonably priced good food!!!   I could easily adapt myself to a couple of shows a month were I to live here.....this was great!!!

On Tuesday the 27th, we went to Jingu Stadium to watch the Swallows vs the Dragons in a pitcher's battle as the weather got cold.  We left after 2-1/2 hours and the game still in the 6th inning....the Swallows were ahead 1-0 and I have no idea who won.....nor did I really care........regardless, after four 15,000 step days, I did 2 days of 9,000 steps and yesterday, the 28th, I did 10,000.......~91,000 steps in 9 days.......we walked our asses off!

Last night, Ziwei joined us as Joanna and I returned to Baden Baden, a German Restaurant underneath the Yamanote Line tracks in Hibiya where, in addition to reasonably priced good food, they have Tomato beer - half tomato juice/half lager.  I first had this in 1964 at Hardy's Ham House in Glendale, Arizona, while at Thunderbird and later, in Petaluma, at a local bar where I 'introduced' tomato beer to the bar.

If I knew how to get pictures from my iPhone to my Windows computer, I'd include them here.....including the sketching/painting I've been doing every afternoon.  Regardless,  this has been a great time for me - being with Joanna and Ziwei who are happy to be here in Japan - this is their future........and it is peace of mind to know this!

Will I try for 100,000 steps next trip?  Hell no!  I'd be out of my mind to try.......I'll shuffle along as well I can - for as long as I can......taking pictures, drawing, perhaps playing some music and living life.  True, this was an expensive trip but hey, you only live once - seize the moment and do things to their fullest!

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