Sleep till my alarm goes off at 7:30. I promised one of the carpenter's, and fellow motorcycle enthusiast, Rob that we'd go down to 'Motorcycle Street' before our bus call at 12:30pm. Grab breakfast at McD's, I know, I know. Read in the paper that yesterday was an all-time high temp wise in Tokyo. 103 degrees, ouch. I notice another odd thing about the Japanese, no one wears sunglasses. And it is plenty bright! No shorts, no sunglasses, weird.

Meet Rob at 10 and we take the JR train to Ueno. We arrive and start looking around for our 'street'. Man, this station is huge. We walk around outside and finally spot a cycle shop, this must be the place! We head down the alley and it opens up to a big street lined on both sides with bike shops. It's still before 11, so not all are open. We hit the open ones, these shops have more helmets, gloves, jackets, etc. than I've ever seen in one place. Awesome! Also, some shops are all high-performance parts of every description, but few Ducati parts :( Oh well, there are alot of used bikes for sale on the sidewalk of the shops too. Some great deals on some cool bikes. Just don't think they'll fit in my suitcase. As it turns out the biggest store is closed on Wednesdays. Bummer. We walk around looking in the shops till it's time to head back to the hotel for lobby call. Neither of us buys anything, but we just know what we want is in those closed stores. May have to train it back on Friday and check it out again.

Back at the hotel, we checkout and wait for the buses. I get down in time to get on the second bus. It takes almost 45min. for it to arrive, but it gives everyone plenty of time to chat with the crew members who are heading home today (they're not needed for the festivals). Bus arrives, we depart for Yokohama. I sleep most of the way, being hot and tired after our morning of walking around.

Check into the hotel in Yokohama, it is a 43 story round building. I'm on the 28th floor and have a cool view of the city. Outside my window is also the bullet train tracks, and one goes speeding by every few minutes. Head out for lunch and find a quaint little noodle shop. They even have one English menu with pictures. Order gyozas and chinese bumplings (actually dumpling, but that's how it was spelled on the menu). Delicious. Best gyozas yet. May have to hit it for dinner too. Run into the 7-11 for provisions and back to the hotel to chill. looks like rain anyways.

After posting on this weblog, fall asleep till around 7:30pm. One of the guys calls and we decide to go out to dinner. Run into one of our regular sound guys, Fumi, who happens to be Japanese, and head out to find some grub. We pass the place we stopped for lunch, but decide to search around some more, especially since Fumi can at least read the signs and we don't have to resort to pictures or plastic food displays. End up back at the same place we stopped for lunch, it is now packed and there's a line out the door. Well, it must be THE place then. Put our name on the list, and shortly we have a table. Order Ramen with shrimp and chicken wontons, it is amazing. Everyone agrees this is the best Ramen so far. Turns out this is a small family owned place going back three generations. It's even open till 4am, bet they get great after hours business.

Back to the room, watch a few DVD's, write some emails, etc. then go to sleep.