We came back OK from Mt Fuji on Monday afternoon. My lips are sunburnt and my quadriceps femoris were hurting yesterday. I don't think I will climb Mt Fuji again, but I can say that I seriously enjoyed climbing it. I was worried about altitude sickness, but I didn't suffer from it. I can't believe that the weather was nice all the time and that we could see the beautiful sunrise from the summit. And that we managed to climb down on our own (we didn't need to ask for help from horses). Maybe it helped me that I've been swimming 2km a day these days. On the day before our Fuji trip, C found Fuji beer in a shop and he was happy to drink it, but I didn't drink it. I was very excited to climb Fuji, and also very nervous at the same time.

I've always been planning to go there one day: the Ramen Kazuki (in Japanese) noodle shop, Keanu Reaves' favourite ramen shop! When we were doing shopping for our mountain climbing trip, we decided to go to this shop for lunch. I ordered "spicy miso ramen", it was very spicy and hot, so it's hard to describe the flavour. But their straight type noodle was very good. I will probably try salt flavour next time. I forgot my digital camera, so I used my mobile phone to take a photo.

My friend showed me his ballpoint pen SIERRA, which is made by a Japanese company called SLIP-ON, and he strongly recommended the pen to me. It looked like a propelling pencil but it is a ballpoint pen. I like that the body part is made of a classic pencil's wood. The pen thickness is only 0.2mm, and it is so smooth. There are lots of colour variations for body parts (ink is black only) and also shorter version. His pen seemed like he had been using for a long time, but he gave it to me. Thanks.

Last night I went to see our friend K at an izakaya in Nakameguro. K ordered 'Tonsaki' without knowing what it is, and we found out that it was a boiled pig's stomach! It was sliced and served cold, with lots of sliced onion, and ponzu soy sauce. I didn't want to try it, but once I had the first bite, I ate quite a lot! K and I talked about climing Mount Fuji for almost four hours. We decided that we will climb the mountain on Sunday if the weather is great. I can't believe how brave we are!

On Saturday, we went the Azabu Juban summer night festival, but there were too many people and I didn't feel comfortable. On the shopping street, there were lots of food stalls, so everyone (including me) was distracted by the food and it was impossible to walk along the street. I was also wearing sandals, so I was worried that someone might step on my bare toes. We decided to check the Bon Dance in a small park before eating, people were dancing in a tiny circle. We joined the circle and danced for one song, then left to find food.

We went to an izakaya in Azabu Juban, where our friend R works, to celebrate our drinking friends' birthdays. I realised that we are all getting old! It surprised me to know their real ages. What had also surprised me was R' handmade birthday cake. He is so sweet and nice, just like his cake!

The last few weeks have been very very hot in Tokyo. Do I sweat a lot because I drink a lot? Or vice versa? This is like the chicken and egg question! Anyway I take lots of liquids, usually two cups of coffee and about two liters of water every day (plus some beer sometimes). I drink tap water from Brita with lots of ice cubes, or nice refreshing sparkling water.

Since our bamix broke, C wanted to buy an Osterizer (now called Oster) blender and I found a good one on an auction.

On Sunday, we visited the Nakameguro Summer Festival, where 23 teams were taking part in a Yosakoi dance competition. I didn't know much about Yosakoi dance, apparently there are only three main rules: Each team has to have less than 150 dancers. While dancing, each team has to move forward and keep the Naruko Castagnettes in their hands. Each team can arrange their music, but they must use the Yosakoi Naruko Dancing Theme. At the end of August, there will be a festival called the Harajuku Omote-sando Genki Festival Super Yosakoi. That sounds crazy.

On Saturday, we went to Isshiki Beach in Hayama with our friends family. We are usually very lazy on the weekend, especially in the morning, but we were at JR Zushi station at 11am! After about a 20 minute bus ride from Zushi, we arrived at Isshiki Beach. There was a blue sky and (brownish) blue sea! It's a nice Summer feeling! I'm quite good at swimming but I easily feel seasick from the waves, so I just enjoyed being at the beach in the sizzling heat. I put sun cream on, but somehow my feet and arms got sunburnt. I have stupid t-shirt and short pants lines! My legs go amazingly red and I have itchy skin!

I visited a photographer friend's exhibition at Ginza. Before going there, I went to SAKE SHOP FUKUMITSU YA and chose a present for him. I also had Sake-kasu Icecream at the bar in the shop. I wanted to try the soft cream version which I saw in Tamagawa-Takashimaya branch, but the Ginza branch didn't have it. The sauce which came with the ice cream was seven years matured Kuro-Mirin (Black Mirin). The flavour was very complex and hard to describe, but very nice. I think the concept is kind of similar to using balsamic vinegar as a sauce for fruits or ice cream. I bought sake wrapped with a Japanese kitchen cloth (tenugui) as a present for my friends and they were very happy. Yeah!

Oh dear, I went to a good-bye party at our friends' nice hotel apartment and we ended up singing karaoke until 3:30 in the morning. Everybody went a bit crazy, including me I guess. I realised how nice it is to be in a non-smoking karaoke room and we even had a window!

We saw the Sumida River fireworks last year, but we were quite far away. So this year we tried to see the Jingu Gaien Firework Festival (in Japanese) properly. We arrived at Gaienmae station around 6:30pm, there were so many people. It was annoying that a man shouting with a megaphone shouted 'Please, do not stop here! Keep moving!'. He was the only one who was super noisy and it was not necessary at all. Do not put a loud speaker next to our ears! We walked to Aoyama, and there were lots of people at CI Plaza Square. We decided to sit with them, but after the fireworks started we realised that it wasn't a good spot. Lots of people tried to find a place with a better view, but we stayed and chatted and drank beer while watching the top half of the fireworks. Maybe next year I want to see it from inside the Jingu stadium.

On Sunday late afternoon, I told my friend that we will make frozen margarita with our new blender, and our friends turned up with fresh pineapples and kiwis . C has been making quite a lot of frozen margaritas these days, but he never made one with pineapples. So it wasn't a perfect frozen margarita unfortunately... I guess we should use less pineapples next time. After drinking at our place, we moved to a local Yakitori (grilled chicken on skewer) izakaya. I've been hearing that their Tomato-maki (tomato wrapped in pork) is so good, and it was actually tasty, but Shiitake mushroom-maki (left on photo) was even more delicious!