30 October 2025
Checking on my future hotel
Soba in Okachimachi
I thought I would feel more tired after my hike. I did not. So I pushed on and now today is a 40k step day. Good times.
I headed north over a hill and ended up in Okachimachi, just south of Ueno. I will stay there when I return to Tokyo at the end of this trip, in a hotel I have stayed at before. And so I checked it was still there, and it was.
Then I had Soba.
I did not take many photos. I predicted as such.
This little side street off a side street still has at least 6 eating places on it.
This is the station I use a lot on this trip, Ochanomizu. It is built over a creek and has had the same excavators parked on the elevated platform for as long as I can remember. My theory is they painted themselves into a corner and do not know how to get them off.
NIGHT SHRINE!
Random hotel and or karaoke bar.
Just a colourful street through Okachimachi.
And so I ticked another of the foods commonly found at train stations off my list, soba with vegetable tempura. I got the hot soba and it was very delicious. I just stick all those vegetables into the soup and let the batter fall off and soak up the soup. I have no idea if this is good or bad etiquette.
Anyway, tomorrow I go to Kobe. I have stayed their once before, a long time ago.