Friday, April 11, 2014

Thursday 10th April 2014- Time to leave Tokyo

Well we had an early start but the Sat Nav could only take us to an area rather than a specific location as it would know appear that entering the telephone number is fine, but if it is not in the database then the satnav can only take you to the close area. So no problem leaving Tokyo on the Tomei expressway and we headed west via the Shuto and then the Tomei and eventually reached our first turn off as we were heading for the COSTCO Store at Zama which we discovered is  right next door to a major  manufacturing plant for Nissan.

We could not find the store and went in to a 7/11 store and as we started asking it was clear that we were not the first people to ask where to go. Ten minutes later we were there and parking. The store is very large and with an amazing choice of stuff and prices was so very low for many items. We purchased some wine, a Kirkland own brand Malbec from Argentina at just over 1000 yen per bottle or about £ 6.00. It’s usually at least £ 10.00 per bottle in Farnborough. Also the fantastic choice of meat is there no doubt for all the Americans leaving around the bases.
So we bought some wine and cheese and some other items and then turned south to Kamakura and again we had a telephone for the SAT NAV of a very old Hotel but again the Satnav said NO, so we ended up a littler lost but after following our instincts we made to the agreed meeting point on time.
We had a great stay meeting up with ex business colleagues for afternoons of light refreshment on their balcony overlooking the ocean and of course some wine was taken and then an excellent sashimi and sushi dinner before retiring to bed at around 10.30. We both wore ear plugs as the house is between a main road and a railway line but we had no problems sleeping and in fact woke early the next morning.

A really nice day