Last night Myra decided to open the sleeper sofa so I had the bed to myself. I had trouble falling asleep. I put on the mp3 headphones and I think that helped. I think she got up once during the night. I got up at 6:15 to use the bathroom and then could not go back to sleep. The hair dryer had a night light on it (?) so the room was not as dark as I like it. Eventually I could tell we were both awake so we got up and washed, and ate and got ready for the quilt show. I checked my e-mail to see if Chris had responded. I had to sign in with the hotel password again so I typed it into the open file that I use to prepare my blog. Then I copy-pasted it into the sign-in screen. I deleted a lot of e-mail. I saw that Netflix was suspended, awaiting updated payment info. I looked up the hours of the Tokyo Dome. I saw that next week they are having a Tableware festival. That sounds as boring to me as a quilt festival probably sounds to non-quilters.
I am not sure what time we left the room. At the front desk, we asked how to find the subway station. She marked it on our map. Then we braved the cold weather to walk there. We looked at the ticket machines and figured out how to get instructions in English. But not how to use a credit card. We asked the stationmaster how to buy tickets. We showed him our map and where we wanted to go. He indicated the machine and told us the cost was 200 Yen. So we still did not know how to use a credit card. But knowing we wanted $2 tickets helped. I put a 1000 yen note in and we got our two tickets. We put them in the turnstyle and they popped out the other side. So we held onto them for the line change. The train arrived shortly. We got on and rode the gray line to the red line, M15. We had trouble finding the connecting train platform. We asked several people and finally put our tickets into the turnstyles, thinking it was the right place to go. But we were in the wrong place. The stationmaster let us back into the station and told us where to go. But we ended up right back at the same place. On our next try, we got to the right platform but did not know it right away. We got on the next train and rode it to the M22 station. From there, we went down to the exit. From there we could see the Tokyo Dome. We had to walk across to it and then around to the front entrance. There were two guard searching purses and bags. It gave us the impression that we were not in the right place, but we got in line and found ourselves at the quilt show. The arena stretched out before us. We proceeded down to the main floor. It had only been open for 15 minutes so it wasn't crowded. We were expecting crowds for the display, so we went to wander among the vendors first. It got crowded there too. We saw lots of retro fabrics, and wools, and indigoes, and Kaffe Fasset. Even though the prices were high, I bought some yellows and reds that I thought would work in current projects. When the vendor area got crowded, we turned to the displays. We tried to follow a pattern to make sure we saw everything, but it wasn't set up for that. We saw antique quilts, group quilts, modern quilts, quilts that we weren't sure should be called quilts. Then we looked for water for Myra and did not find any for sale. My legs were starting to ache, so we looked for a place to sit. We walked up into the stands where it wasn't roped off. I ate seed crackers and cookies that I brought with me.
I drank my bottle of water. We could not find any place selling water, so she bought a juice box which looked like it had green tea. It did not taste quite like tea. And she had a Cliff bar. When we had eaten and rested, we continued walking up because foot traffic was tightly controlled and everyone in that lane had to walk up. But it was good since we found restrooms up there. After using the restroom, we came down another lane to the main floor. We finished the display parts that we hadn't seen yet. There was a huge Wizard of Oz exhibit. It included a bunch of quilts made with Kaffe Fasset fabrics. Then we finished viewing the vendor booths. We came across pretty fabrics and kimonos. Mostly we resisted, but Myra got some packets of small coordinating fabrics. It was after 5 when we decided to leave. We walked up to the top where we came in. We went to the right to see if anyone was selling water. No, but we found a restroom. Apparently we could not leave the way we came in, so we kept going to the right. At the official exit, there was a booth selling foot massagers, or at least that was what they appeared to be. We sat down and the man had us put our unclad feet on either side. He turned them on and it felt really good. He handed us the brochure which showed how to use it on almost any part of the body. But the bottom line was the $900 price tag. He showed us how to use it on our calves. It was just what we needed after walking around all day. We thanked him and headed out. It was freezing out, or at least felt like it. We found our way back to the subway and bought tickets to go to the hotel. Once we found the right platform, it was easy. I was worried out the transfer point. But we were able to navigate it. By 6 we were back at the original subway station. Getting out was harder than we thought. But we made it. It was so cold when we got to the street. We stopped at a 7-eleven for water. I got some natto packets. We looked for coconut water but did not see anything that looked like it. Then we walked back to the hotel. We went to our room to dump our stuff. I ate one packet of natto. Then we took the elevator to the second floor to a place called Hero's. She got cheese bread and I ordered a bowl of soup. I saved the plastic spoon for future packets of natto. Back at our room, we changed into our bathing suits. We went to the pool area but saw that the hot tub was full of males. So we started with the sauna. Myra tried to read but the light wasn't good enough. And we got too hot. So we went back to the pool area. The men and boys were still there, but we got in anyway. It felt so good. Soon the men got out and the boys followed them. Myra and I stayed in, having a good chat. Then one man came back with a boy and a girl. We talked to him for quite a while. No, he wasn't here for the quilt show. We left around 9. We went back to the sauna to dry off our suits, but did not stay that long. Then we took off our suits and got dressed. Myra tried putting our suits in the spin dryer but it did not make much difference. Then we went back to our hotel room. I got a bucket of ice. We enjoyed the ice water very much. Myra took a shower while I downloaded my pics and wrote to my blog. She watched TV for a bit then read her book. I kept typing, hoping I wasn't keeping her up. When I finished, I posted to my blog, ready for bed.
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