March 22

We decided to spend our last full day in japan back in Kawagoe. Jill had a purse she regretted not buying, and we figure the traditional candy would be the best way to round out our gifts for those back home.

We wandered around for a while, trying to take different roads than last time.

Mitzi also wanted to go out for ramen for lunch, but after passing a dozen or so right out of the station, we couldn’t find one with suitable seats (easier to contain kids in booths or tables than bars) Eventually we gave up and took the next one that came along. Turned out to be really good. It was an 8 seat restaurant specializing in the original style of ramen. It had a TV playing, so the girls were little zombies for the whole meal. The building was a little less than 2 m wide, so my back was against the door as we ate. Awesome!

We got back to the station, only to find Miwa had left her water bottle in the restaurant, we were going to carry on but she was so upset that I carried Ru on my shoulders for a quick trip there and back. Still took 20 minutes.