Last night my parents agreed to take Millie for the day to give us a day off. She went to bed so excited that she woke up at 3am and asked if it was time to go to their room yet. She then cried for 30 minutes before passing out in our bed. When it was finally morning she got dressed, packed her bag, and then waited in the hallway until my mom came to get her.

The report from their day: they played endlessly, ate chocolate croissants for breakfast, took a taxi to the zoo, explored the zoo, ate pancakes for lunch, took the subway home, played more, and ate pizza for dinner. So basically her dream day.

Meanwhile, Nick and I had a day to ourselves.

We got to the hotel breakfast buffet shortly before it closed at 10, and took our time eating without being asked for more cocoa crispies. We came back up to the room and did some planning. I booked trains and rental cars for Japan, and we talked through the order of stops for the next few months.

I showered and was getting dressed when suddenly a window washer appeared outside of our room on the 36th floor. Nick suddenly said “what the fuck?!” And I turned around in my underwear to make eye contact with a man outside. We could not stop laughing.

More TMI incoming: I woke up this morning feeling like I had a UTI. I know these aren’t to be messed with and should take antibiotics ASAP. (This concludes the acronyms) Luckily there is a walk in clinic at the bottom of our hotel and I was able to get meds within an hour. Like my visit to the hospital in Beijing, I was once again amazed by how simple and efficient healthcare can be if we just let it.

At 4 we finally left the hotel. We took a very convoluted subway journey to the Ebisu neighborhood. Our first stop was the Yebisu brewery, which was large and beautiful.

We sat at a tall table and appreciated that we could do so without a tiny person with us who might topple over at any moment. This was our first outing together without Millie in about 5 months and we were grateful for every second of it. We love her, but it turns out we also love talking to each other without censoring ourselves or being interrupted every 30 seconds.

After the above beers we walked to Ebisu Yokocho, which is a small indoor alley of food stalls. We couldn’t decide where to eat, so stopped in at a few and ordered 1-2 small dishes at each. We had anchovy fried potatoes, grilled offal, a couple of different types of gyoza, and shishito peppers.

We drank highballs because that seems to be what everyone does here. It started getting lively as we were leaving.

I loved these beer mug street lamps that ran along the street outside.

We took an Uber back and got to our room just after 8pm. Millie excitedly recounted her entire day to us. My mom exhaustedly walked back to her room. I’m unsure if it was jet lag or the highly energetic almost-5 year old that wiped her out more.