Japan Day 19: Time To Go Home
Well, all good things must come to an end and today is my last day in Japan. I really wanted to make it back to Narita-San temple, which I went to on day 2, with my good camera so I decided to get up fairly early and head over there. I utilized the hotels free shuttle once again to get me over there. I ended up taking bucket loads of pictures (anyone have any idea how many is bucket load?). It is a really cool place and I am glad I was able to make it back with the good camera. Anyway, on with the bucket load.
Phew, you still with me? That’s a whole lot of pictures.
I was pretty starving after the temple so I went hunting for food. The road leading up to the temple is lined with all sorts of shops and restaurants so I figured I would be able to find something along there. I was hoping to find a place that had pictures on the menu so I could just point. While there are tons of places to eat along the way nothing was tickling my fancy. At the end of the road though, right by the train station, is a McDonalds. I went ahead and ate there, I figured it would be easy to order and I definitely wouldn’t end up eating chicken knuckles again. I am not a big fan of ketchup though and I didn’t even bother trying to order my burger without it. Of course because of this I ended up getting ketchup all over my jacket. Heh, oh well.
Here are a couple of pictures of the road leading to the temple, it’s a really cool street with lots of neat and interesting shops.
After McDonalds I took the shuttle back to the hotel. I of course missed the shuttle by minutes but that actually didn’t bother me. The entire trip I have been taking picture of cool, interesting and weird japanese cars but I never found the time to go out and do this with that specific task in mind, I was always just taking the pictures when I happened upon a cool thing and it was convenient. I had a half hour to kill so I went on a car picture taking walk. It didn’t take long before I was just sitting at the corner of a busy intersection and taking pictures of some of the cars that drove by. I am putting all the car pictures that I took on a seperate page so take a look at them there. A funny thing happened while I was sitting at the corner. I was sitting there with my camera up in my face and all of a sudden I start hearing “camera, camera”. I look up and there are three young japanese guys (I think, the one on the left may be a chick) on bikes who want me to take their picture. I was happy to oblige and it was a nice little moment. They of course flashed the piece sign which seems to be the cool thing to do.
From their I took the hotel shuttle back to the hotel, picked up my bags and headed to the airport. I got there around 4:00PM for my 7:00PM flight which is a bit early but I didn’t have anywhere else to go and airports are great for people watching.
My flight home was pretty uneventful. I was able to switch seats to the exit row again so I had lots of leg room, I actually sat in the same exact seat that I sat in on the way out, seat 30J on a 777 for all you travellers out there. When I sat down there was a man sitting next to me but he had already asked the stewardess to find him a seat on the aisle that had an empty seat next to it. He and I both got lucky in that there was one. So on the way home, like on the way out, I had the whole exit row to myself. Nice. They showed Little Miss Sunshine on the plane too. I had seen it before and I think it is one of the best movies to come out this year and I happily watched it again. During the little girls performance at the end of the movie, several people were laughing loudly on the plane, it was fun.
I got home about nine hours before I took off which is really bizarre. I made myself stay up till 10 that night, which meant I had been awake for roughly 30 hours, before I finally passed out. I woke up the next day at 12:30 🙂
I have been back for almost two weeks now and I am still having a hard time adjusting to the time difference. I had a much easier time adjusting there.
The trip was amazing and I am very glad I did it. I would go back in a heartbeat. There is so much of Japan I haven’t seen. Hell, there is so much of Tokyo I haven’t seen. A HUGE thanks to Scott Milanovich and Susan for giving me a place to stay, you guys are the best. Thank you again.
For those of you wondering, the entire trip including airfare cost me right around $3,000. It was a bit more than I was hoping to spend but it was still quite good. Of course the only reason this was possible was because I had a free place to stay the majority of the trip, thanks once again S&S.
I think that just about does it, I hope you all enjoyed reading about my trip.
Filed Under Japan | Questions & Comments |
Comments & Questions
If you would like to make a comment, or ask me a question, please fill out the form below.
If you want a personalized image to appear with your comment you need a Gravatar.
Sign up for a Gravatar today. It's free and easy