Well, Tokyo proved itself to be a true city of surprises!
After a day spent exploring and uncovering the secrets of the city, it seems there was still a star attraction that we had missed.
Turns out that Christophe had been cooking up a wee plan with the master grand planner extraordinaire herself – Miss Maxine (otherwise known as the lovely Drew Wade). After her grand tour of her Beijing, she was heading back to Sydney-town, via none other than Tokyo (how convenient for us!)
She made a spectacular entry into our ryokan in a cunning disguise (wearing a mask craftily constructed out of a Tokyo map with the help of a helpful German tourist and some travel scissors…. Tonia Todman would have been very proud!), and dazzled the locals as well as us!
It was an absolute bonanza of a whirlwind, mystery catch-up and a lovely surprise given we had missed each other in Sydney. After a refreshing Jacuzzi (as you do! …had to take advantage of all the facilities at our guesthouse before we hit bucket water territory in India!), we hit the town again so Max could squeeze in some sushi before her flight home. We ploughed through the plates at a heaving Japanese sushi place (with some rather entertaining erratic yelling from the sashimi chef), until we had towering piles of empty plates beside us. We couldn’t fit in another morsel and were finished with fishiness for the day.
After our whirlwind sashimi catch-up, we bid farewell to young Maxine and saw her off on the subway, Sydney-bound. A quick photo-shoot with the local commuters was the perfect send-off to the surprise rendezvous…
PS. The ryokan we have been staying in Tokyo is in Minowa –It is a little tatami-mat heaven: Andon Ryokan!
