Day 6

We meant to get up early, but there were blackout curtains in the room so we didn't get rolling until 8 or so. The first stop was work, which was fine. Dave was supposed to have had a samurai school class while I was working, but they couldn't do in the morning, so we moved it. After work, we headed across town to see the Trick Art Museum. It was in a really cool area (who knew) but we barely had time due to the samurai time change. We tore through the museum, which was a lot of fun. All of the pictures were trick art, so it looked like they were coming off the wall or of weird proportion. We took some great pictures, but of course they're on the camera, which we can't seem to download.

Next we headed for samurai school. When I say this place was in the middle of nowhere - it was in the middle of nowhere!!! We took the train to a small station and then took a cab to the address. The first cab driver wouldn't even take us since he didn't know where it was. The second guy put it into GPS. We went down this street with mostly residential properties and weren't sure if we were in the right place. We didn't want to get dumped off without knowing, but the taxi driver helped us find the right place. It was behind some of the houses and first you passed a fancy looking porta potty/outhouse (not sure how permanent it is!) and then got to the dojo which was just a large room (with no air conditioning).

The instructor spoke limited English, but started us off with dull katanas to get used to the feel and how to swing the sword. Then he grabbed some wrapped tatami mats that were wet (so essentially several layers of bamboo) and put them on a post in the middle of the room. Dave said that they wet them so that it seems more like human flesh. Then he gave us a super sharp katana and has us cut the bamboo. It was pretty cool how easily it cut through. We did several of these (with me standing on the other side of the room when Dave was swinging), and Dave did not cut off a finger, ear, etc.

After the sword, he brought out ninja throwing stars and had us throw them from varying distances. Also - no one was injured here, although I did find it hard to figure out where to stand to best stay away in case the shot went the wrong way! We did about 9-10 sets of these and then the class was done. We walked a bit down this residential street to find a bus station. We did end up finding it and took it to the train station to head back. We decided to stop in Shinjuku since it was on the way and found a cool place where you grill your own meat at the table. The meat was very flavorful and quite good, so that was a plus.

Once done, we headed back toward the hotel area to go to the bunny cafe! It was right around the corner from the office. They had about 15 different bunnies and 6 or so hedgehogs. They also had an adorable little dog - some kind of tiny goldendoodle it looked like - that jumped right up into my lap. We each got to pick 2 bunnies to snuggle with. I chose a big, fat, fluffy bunny. It was so soft and cute. We gave it some bunny food (looked like a weed or something) and then it cuddled and also licked my hand and arm. The bunny was probably the size of a cat, but didn't weigh all that much. The place was busy and out of bunnies, but they gave Dave one of the ones that was "resting". His was the famous bunny that they dress up in a little sweater and people can take the bunny for a walk around Roppongi for an hour. For a resting bunny, it was quite feisty. Dave was sure that it was going to pee on him (it didn't). My next bunny was a little brown one that was also cute. It also liked licking my hand, but wasn't as sweet as my big bunny. Dave decided to select a bunny by looking at which one was the most chill in its cage. The one he picked wound up jumping all over the place, and then pooped on Dave. (note: they put a blanket and pee pad over you, so no big deal there, and bunny poop is a hard pellet!). Needless to say, Dave was not amused!

Once we gave back our bunnies, we grabbed our luggage and headed to the next hotel near the airport since we had a morning flight to Okinawa the next day.