Moving day again! Back to Tokyo.
March 2 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C
Well, getting down to our last couple of days. I figure if I can get a few more thoughts in, this may be the first time I actually finish the blog during a trip!!! I will say, while this trip has been busy and full of a lot of things to do, I’ve enjoyed it as there has also been downtime, allowing me to get my thoughts down, opportunities to re-energize, and just chances to enjoy the things around me!
Tuesday started off early, and with the daily mantra of coffee, potty and food, we headed to the train station early! I’ve learned that the train stations usually give me a head start to keep the little lady happy, and today, we finally broke down and went in for some McD’s breakfast. For those of you who know Denise, she is a big egg McMuffin girl and I’ve always heard about how great McD’s is in Japan, clean and friendly service. Well, it’s no longer rumor for me, it’s exactly as claimed! Still batting 1.000 on food over here!
After our daily early morning routine (☕️🚽🍱), we headed upstairs to catch our last Shinkansen! A two hour journey back to Tokyo, where I paid extra for seats on the side to view Mt Fuji! And yes, as expected, it was raining and cloudy and no Mt Fuji for me! So B, you still have one up on old Dad, but maybe I’ll get another chance some day. Or I can just go get your phone and hope you got off Pokémon long enough to grab some pictures while you were there!
Needless to say, we spent the time doing what we do - me typing and catching up, Denise reading, me bothering Denise, Denise trying to read, me bothering her some more, Denise giving me the “knock it off” look, and back to typing while Denise kept reading. All in all, it was another smooth, quiet journey! Just no Mt Fuji 😭.
Once back in Tokyo - Tokyo station to be exact - the first order of business was to find our way through that labyrinth to get to the train we needed back to Darren’s apartment. They aren’t kidding on Instagram when they say some of these stations were built to see how many foreigners the Japanese could trap. It’s like the old beetle traps dad would set out when I was kid! Fortunately, we did find our way through, but I’ll admit, it took me longer than I would have liked.
After a quick 10 minute walk through the rain, we were back at home base! Thanks again Darren and Wendy! Now came the fun part, at least for Denise. She may not have taken part in laying down her thoughts for the blog, but she absolutely makes up for it when it comes to packing! For the 5 days of skiing and Kyoto, she got us through on a single carryon and two backpacks! Now of course, she needed to get us and all our trinkets packed and ready for a flight!
Of course, after a few looks at what needed to go where, Denise just smiled and said, not done yet, let’s go out for some air - code for we need to buy more stuff! So off we trekked back out into the rain, but with umbrellas this time! Thanks again Darren and Wendy! She had a couple targets in mind - treats from Muji which Darren had turned us onto, a Hard Rock Cafe pin, a pair of Tigers! And finally, a new family friend - aka 🧳!
I laid out a route for us and off we went. I think the best part of the journey, was when we got to the Muji store to buy our treats, I got a bag of the chocolate infused apples - Denise’s target - and turned to her and said “do you want one or two?” Denise just smiled and grabbed a basket and started shoving snacks into it! 🙄. Of course, once spades had been played, I figured I better hop aboard! So we took our haul, and I mean haul (we had a new suitcase to fill after all) and headed for the NCR register! The lady checking us out asked if we wanted tax free, to which we replied - why yes! What we didn’t realize was that if you buy the snacks tax free, you can’t open them and eat them until after you’ve left Japan - hahahahah talk about one unhappy wife! The good news was that it allowed me to suggest stopping by a 7-11 to grab another egg sandwich! Those things really are yummy.
The second fun part was getting the suitcase. Since we needed to get an extra one, we were trying to figure out where to buy it. The location around Darren is pretty nice and I figured we weren’t going to get a “deal” there. So what to do? In the “old” days, I would tell mom to GTS it (IYKYK). Nowadays though, I just hit up my buddy Gemini and wait for the results. In this case, it suggested Ginza Karen. Apparently it’s a small suitcase store that sells suitcases at a flat rate - 7000 yen for a medium and 7700 for a medium large. That’s about $50!!! I was in! Of course, it included a 20 minute train ride - EACH WAY! In the end though, Denise found her soul mate and now we are ready to pack!!!Read more