Tokyo Adventure Final Day and Farewell Japan
23:00
Day 6:
"Woke up feeling rubbish and as if I had been swimming in a very chlorinated pool. Seems like I have caught a cold from the previous hostel, the dangers of shared bedrooms! Got up and went to get some breakfast from the convenience store a short distance from the Hostel. Afterwards we decided to head to the Imperial Palace. I was hoping to see the grad palace, or at least the gardens, but to my disappointment, all you got to see was the moat and wall. I highly recommend avoid this place in Tokyo, especially on a hot day as there is no place to hide from the sun. There is a nice garden with a very small museum of the emperor in it (a room basically) to visit, but that is it.
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| The Imperial Moat |
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| An Imperial Gate |
We then headed to a recommended park called Shinjuku Gyoen. It was stunning! A traditional Japanese garden. In total, it cost 600 yen (£3.40) to get in and was definitely worth it. I would love to visit in the spring when the cherry blossoms are out, and also the Autumn when the leaves are turning red and golden.
After walking around the park all afternoon, we decided to have another traditional matcha and a sweet. Delicious again but not a proper traditional ceremony like the other day. Charlie and I barely talked all day as we were both hot and tired from the constant heat and the fast pace we kept up when site seeing. The conversation therefore was lacking. Not that I'm complaining as the peace and quiet was well received by both.
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| Me in the Shinjuku Gyoen Park |
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| Hot Matcha and a traditional sweet |
We then decided to head to the Sony building as we still had time in the day. Amazing! Especially the 3D games and the headphones. Visit here if you love your technology.
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| Taking a selfie on a camcorder.. inception? |
We then wondered the streets and people watched. I also bought a shirt. We then returned to the hostel, freshened up and ate and drank there again, before retiring to bed.
I'm sad to be leaving Tokyo... It's been amazing."
Leaving:
"So I found out a couple of days ago my flight was delayed by at least 4 hours, going from 10:50am to at least 15:30 now. I decided to get then train to the airport around 10:30ish and ended up going from Kurame to Oshiego to Narita Terminal 2 via the Sky Access express. Such a miracle it cost me 2240 yen and I had 2250 yen left on my Pasmo card... result!
I turned up and arrived at my check in point, got given free candy and then shown to the correct desk. I was greeted by a very lovely BA Japanese lady who apologised for the delayed flight, upgraded my seat to a row by myself further forward in the place, as the flight wasn't full. I was then given a food voucher for 1500yen (~£10) and then shown the area where food was. Bought some meds for my cold (joys of joy) and then sat down and ate a grilled BBQ chicken sandwich and fries for free that was also very tasty.
I turned up and arrived at my check in point, got given free candy and then shown to the correct desk. I was greeted by a very lovely BA Japanese lady who apologised for the delayed flight, upgraded my seat to a row by myself further forward in the place, as the flight wasn't full. I was then given a food voucher for 1500yen (~£10) and then shown the area where food was. Bought some meds for my cold (joys of joy) and then sat down and ate a grilled BBQ chicken sandwich and fries for free that was also very tasty.
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| Airport food |
So Jake Bugg was on my flight and I'm was like 3 seats away from him in the departure lounge. Very weird. Didn't say hi properly in the end because I don't like to bother people. I was also watching the Japanese baseball at the time. I then got on the plane, had a whole row to myself that allowed me to sleep across it. Had copious amounts of food and gin and tonics before reaching England. The journey was quite bumpy, but overall was fine otherwise."
Final message:
I was so lucky to finally get to visit a place of my dreams. It was definitely what I expected and more. Even though my flight was delayed, I managed to secure a refund of £520 (basically the cost of the flight back). I will definitely return again. I hope you have enjoyed reading this mini-series.
Zoe x
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