Chiba was something I was secretly looking forward to since I got to Tokyo. I got everything prepared beforehand, including my card, the envelope and my gift for Aiba-kun.

After taking a nap at hotel, we went back out and headed for Chiba. It wasn’t extremely complicated to get to Chiba. We took the yellow Sobu Line which took a little less than an hour before arriving at Makuharihongo Station. Coming out of the station, it was almost exactly as it looked in the pictures. The streets were fairly quiet and it was nice walking down the bridge. We crossed at the crosswalk and it took another two minutes before we saw the front of Keikarou.

There were already people waiting in the reception area, so we made our way to the front where the reservation desk was. I wasn’t really paying attention when the lady at the counter asked my sister to leave her name. Since she said it in Japanese, my sister was clueless as to what ‘onamae wa’ meant, so I stepped in and wrote my name down on the clipboard in katakana. We sat out on the chairs while waiting for our table. Right beside the chair was a little notebook so I took liberty of writing a little note to Aiba. Shortly afterwards, we were called for our table.

The actual eating area was quite small. There was room for maybe 8-9 tables of four. We were seated in the centre right by the window. It was actually quite hilarious looking across the room, because all the seats were completely occupied by women under the age of 30. There was one group of girls by the corner who looked like they had been staking out there all morning, plus another table of girls who spoke Mandarin, so I assumed they were from overseas too.

We were having a little bit of trouble ordering off the menu since it was entirely in Japanese. After a few minutes of comtemplating our options, the waitress came over so we just ordered two items off the set lunch menu. It took a little while for our food to come, but it looked really good when the waitresses came over to set the trays down. I think I was probably a little dumbstruck, cause I’m almost 100% sure that the waitress that gave me my food was actually Aiba”s okaasan! (This was done through a process of elimination, since there were only three women managing the restaurant and she looked the most like Aiba.)

Kyaa!!!

The food itself wasn’t the greatest…actually I think Manchu Wok probably has better sweet and sour pork than Keikarou. But the trip wasn’t really for the food, it was to support Aiba’s family business. Hence I ate everything on my plate!

We didn’t see Aiba or any of his other family members. I knew it was impossible to run into Aiba, but it was still kind of nice to be in an environment surrounded by his ‘presence’. I know it’s probably such a fangirl thing to say, but it’s true! There were still people waiting outside, so we paid our bill shortly afterwards. We took a few more pictures in the reception area and I left my gift for Aiba at the front right. I hope he gets it!

*****

Chiba was a really nice side trip. I definitely can see why Aiba loves the city so much. I’m not sure if I’ll ever visit Keikarou again if I have future trips to Tokyo, but I’m glad I got to see it for myself. Now if only Aiba would reply to my card, it’ll make the trip all the more worthwhile!