At breakfast I have an amazing caffeine free chai tea with free range ‘happy’ eggs. Andy sits across from me, for his breakfast he has a hangover. Incense is lit and a hangover cure is delivered in the form of a tiny bottle. One drop before and one drop after is all you need, or so the bottle states. From his initial reaction it doesn’t look good.

After breakfast Andy checks the time, it is quarter to eleven. He suggests going for beer. Hangover cure confirmed to work. We take the train to Odaiba, and head for the Gundam. We arrive and there is a huge crowd of people, they are here for more than just a robot. At the Gundam there are about one thousand girls, each with an umbrella. A man with a megaphone makes an announcement in Japanese and the girls begin to scream with excitement.

Members of a Korean hip-hop boy band are shown on a large television screen, there are seven of them in total. Jungkook being the youngest member at 16, Jin and Suga are the oldest at 21. The best named member is Rap Monster. The band are called Bangtan Boys, often abbreviated to BTS. The name of the band literally translates to Bulletproof Boy Scouts.

BTS play their debut release, No More Dream, much to the delight of the one thousand screaming fans. The band then talk on the microphones for about twenty minutes before jumping into their second song, Rise of Bangtan. It features a heavy backing track and some lyrics in English. “Cuz we got fire fire fire, Get higher higher higher.” Andy and I stay for about half an hour. The Gundam is underwhelming in comparison to the music.

Back in Asakusa, Matt joins us for a bit of English teaching and free beer. Kaes, a Canadian friend of Andy’s, joins us, and eventually, two English women we met earlier at the hostel, Steffi and Heather, join us too. After last orders, we head out to a late-night bar for some food.

At the restaurant we have to take our shoes off before entering the seating area. At the table I eat ¥450 seared mackerel sashimi, ¥450 fried fish cutlet bites served with a delicious but unrecognisable dip, and a nice big ¥481 beer. Probably one of my favourite meals I’ve had on this trip.

After the meal it’s back to the hostel for some card games via a Seven Eleven. I pay for my goods, totalling ¥212, with a ten-thousand Yen note, the equivalent would be paying with a £60 note in England. It goes unquestioned and I receive my ¥9788 change without any fuss. Paying for things with a £10 note in England is sometimes met with a frown or sarcastic comment.

At the hostel, the English women have sake with them—three bottles, to be precise. I’ve tried hot sake on my trip, but I didn’t really enjoy it. This will be my first time trying it cold. Once again, I find it somewhat unsatisfactory. Finally, I’ve discovered something in Japan that I don’t like.