1 February 2009

I was amazed on waking to find that I wasn't suffering the hangover from hell; just fuzzy and dry-mouthed really. The drab weather had been replaced by bright sunshine, and Atami looked very attractive under the blue sky. We went down to breakfast in another huge room with a great view out over the jetty and around the bay, loading up on toast, eggs and coffee. Strangely, I didn't fancy tofu and grilled fish!

The clock was ticking, as I had to get the 10.30 bus back to the station, so we took ourselves off to the other onsen bath. This one was also vast, and had glorious views over the bay. I had to get out after only a minute or two as it was too hot for me and I didn't have time to luxuriate anyway. With only seconds to spare I hurriedly said goodbye and rushed to the bus. The shinkansen took only half an hour back to Shinagawa (a third of the time for the local train on the way, but three times more expensive), and by noon I was walking in the door at home.

Emily did seem to have missed me, though she didn't rush straight to me as I'd hoped. Nick had stayed up until 2am watching an Arsenal game so he was as zonked as me. However, it was far too good a day to wallow indoors. We walked up to Tokyo Tower, which was predictably heaving on such a nice Sunday. To avoid the queues for the lift, and get some exercise into the bargain, we decided to go up via the 600 steps to the main observatory platform. It was surprisingly easy, and we let Emily try her hand at a few flights. There was a howling wind which seemed doubly strong on the outdoor staircase, and I swear I could feel the whole structure swaying a little. On the way up there were posters telling you how many calories you'd burned (about 100 in total).

The observatory was indoor, thankfully, and was packed. Emily happily navigated her way through the forest of legs though. We wouldn't have been able to take her in her crawling phase as it would have been too dangerous to put her on the floor and she'd have been thoroughly fed up being carried the whole time. We took in the fantastic views, including snow-capped Fuji and Tokyo Bay with its artificial islands. Nick's office is the green glass one on the right.

Back at the bottom we bypassed the waxworks and myriad gift shops and went to a second-rate cafe, where we ate more calories than we'd used, then headed for home via a small park.