Tokyo - Final Day

-- 10/13/2016 - Written on the plane to Manila --

We got up and I packed. And packed. And packed. It wasn't as rough as the night I spent packing in my parent's house before I left, but it was still difficult to put everything back where it belonged. I reluctantly said goodbye to Alex when I was only about halfway done. We agreed he should come visit me in Auckland sometime, maybe January, and that I'd go to him the next January so we could go skiing/snowboarding up at Zao Onsen. 

I thought I'd go walk around the grounds of the Ghibli Museum, which is in walking distance of Alex's apartment, but I took too long packing and preparing for the New Zealand bio-security screenings. I also didn't get enough time to mail a gift off to Jess, and decided I'd just have to take care of it at the airport, or in New Zealand if possible.

Eight days was far too short a visit for seeing Japan. It felt long enough to see Tokyo, though there are plenty of corners I haven't explored yet. I wouldn't necessarily want to go into all of those without friends to share the experience with, though. Really, I felt the best parts of the trip were spent up in Yamagata, and I definitely want to spend as much time as possible outside of the big cities next time I am in the country.

I took my bags on the train with me all the way the airport. I was much better this time about putting them all up on the luggage rack so that they weren't in anyone's way. There were multiple trains stopping at the same platform as the Haneda airport express, where all the train destinations were only displayed in Japanese kanji, and I very nearly got on the wrong train. Next time I'll know to keep an eye out for the train with a little airplane by its name. 

All that time in Japan, and I almost didn't have any ramen. I stopped briefly for lunch in the airport at a ramen shop though, and got a spicy ramen that had a handful of tiny dried shirmps floating on top of the broth. I felt super fishy the whole way to the Philippines.