2/23 Laying low in Tokyo

2/23/2013: I slept in for the first time on this trip. I decided I'd have a down day and try to beat the head cold, so I laid low in the hostel and did some work for most of the day. I went to a Japanese fast-food place called Sukiya that has rice/meat/curry bowls which was pretty tasty. While finishing up work, I started talking to a British guy named Jim at the hostel. He had been living in Chiang Mai for 3 months with his girlfriend. They had come to Japan for a few weeks, but his girlfriend got a "once in a lifetime" type job offer and quickly returned home, leaving him on his own for another 5 weeks before returning to the UK. He seemed to be still adjusting to traveling solo, and was set on fulfilling his duty of photographing landmarks for his girlfriend. We spent some time looking at the map of Chiang Mai and he told me about where the nice spots are to live, how to get a bike, etc. Feeling like I was past the worst part of my cold, I went out looking for a tempura restaurant, but I think it was closed, so I ended up at an Indian restaurant and talked to the Nepalese chef for a little bit. I got chicken tikka masala, which was pretty good, but very small portion. Luckily I got a table-sized piece of naan, which filled me up and helped me scoop up the sauce from the masala since I had only been given chopsticks. I spent the evening trying to plan out my next day, wanting to make the most of it since I hadn't done anything special in Tokyo yet.