I didn’t do all that much today. Yesterday I moved rooms and things were going pretty well. There were noises from upstairs but not nearly as much as the last room. But I couldn’t tell too much since I started getting a stomach ache in the middle of the night and wasn’t thinking of much else.

I spent most of the morning in the room. It gave me time to do some more online banking and some laundry. I kept seeing the people from “Thriller” going to the laundry room as well. It was supposed to rain this morning and then get hot, so I think people adjusted their plans accordingly. It turned out to be mostly just a nice day.

One of the biggest sounds is the train going by, which is actually kind of calming.

Sometime in the afternoon I decided to take a walk to Otomeyama Park, which is only about a mile-and-a-half away. Right behind the hotel, in a direction I don’t ever go, was another smaller park on the way, Hyakunin-cho Fureai Park.

There was also a small post office where I got out another ¥20,000. I’ve been doing that every day since I wanted to get out ¥50,000 or ¥100,000 but ¥20,000 is all my bank allows. All the post offices have ATMs that allow overseas withdrawals and this one was the least busy of all the ones I’ve been to.

Somewhere on the way I found a shrine that’s not on my maps.

I got a sandwich at a Seven-Eleven, thinking I could eat in a park. The only park I found was closed for construction of some sort. So I just pushed on to Otomeyama Park which the map said was, “By far the best healing spot in Shinjuku City, surrounded by the tranquil residential areas.” I only found a tiny pond with a few turtles.

I sat on a bench and ate my sandwich but ended up cramming the second half into my mouth as fast as I could when I noticed a dozen mosquitoes on my leg.

The nearby Higashiyama Fuji Inari Jinja shrine was also tiny.

This is also part of the same shrine, crammed in between houses.

I was incredibly uncomfortable from the mosquito bites. I knew that not scratching the mosquito bites was the best way to get them to go away quickly, but man were they itchy. There were about a dozen bites on my calves and a few on my arms. I walked back feeling, well, just off.

The walk back took me past the neighborhood fire station where they were drilling again. Usually in Portland I see the firemen playing street hockey or soccer.

When I got back and checked the map I’d left in the room, I realized I was only seeing a small part of the park. Not that I was in any mood to do anything but walk back, forcing myself not to scratch.

Dinner was at the udon shop downstairs. The special today was tsukemen, where you dip the udon into the sauce

I got a picture of the udon noodle-making machine. The noodles are coming out between the two plates. It’s kind of hard to see, but if you look to the top of the green and red buttons, then to the left, you’ll see the noodles in the slot. I’m not sure how the machine works.

So, there was my day. Taking it easy, taking a nap, doing some laundry, and then getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. My theory appears to have been correct and the bites have gone away. Hooray for small victories!