I woke up before Kaoru (for a change), and had to wake her at 5.45. We put on our yukata’s and raced upstairs to the bath to watch the sunrise. Unfortunately once we got there, it was cloudy, and even a little bit of rain. We were lucky though – there was a gap in the clouds and we got to watch the sun rise through that.
We were both pretty tired, so after our bath, we went back to sleep, and then got up around 7.30 for breakfast. Once again, an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord, with “tamago gohan” (raw egg rice) to cap it off. We were quite full after that, so returned to our room and went for showers. There aren’t showers in the room – we had to go to the public bath, and use the “pre-bath” showers.
We packed what little we had at the hotel (most of our stuff was back at Okaasan and Ottosan’s house), checked out, and made our way to the house, around 9.00. There we had some tea and chatted for a while, leaving the house around 11.15 to go for lunch. Ottosan was happy for me to be driving us all, although we did make a wrong turn, since navigation was coming from Okaasan in the back seat, through Kaoru, to me. Kaoru was getting stressed but I just said no problem.
My last *real* meal in Japan was tempura-don. The tempura sauce on the rice made it delicious! So we had a great last lunch together. Then it was in to Kurioso, to the pharmacy to by some tissues. The (good) Japanese ones are coated in lanoline, so whilst I don’t like to use daily, when you have a cold they are the bees knees! I had room for 3 boxes in my suitcase, and they sold a 3-pack, so made for it. It was then just a short drive to the station, where we said goodbye. Ottosan was happy with my driving and said any time we come I can use his car. So an international driving license is on my preparation list from now on. He had to pay about $40 for one month to have me a nominated driver on his insurance, but it was well worth it as Kaoru doesn’t trust his driving.
The train from Kurioso was just leaving as we got to the gate. But we had planned for the one after so it was no problem – we went in to the waiting area and packed the tissues into my second suitcase, and passed the time until our train came to take us to Nasushiobara; there we waited for about half an hour for our Shinkansen to Tokyo. It is such a nice way to travel!
Once we arrived at Tokyo station, we got some money out from the bank. Today was the best day exchange rate for the whole trip! 101.5yen to the dollar! So Kaoru withdrew $1000 worth from my account, and also from hers. It’s always a gamble with exchange rates, but I figure it’s not going to get much better, but will get worse, so we may as well use cash, and put leftover money into Kaoru’s bank account.
After buying my Narita Express ticket, we still had some time to kill, so went in to a coffee shop to have a (last) iced mocca latte, and a piece of cake. We headed downstairs to the Narita Express track about 10 minutes early. As expected the train ran on time, to take me to the airport.
Check in was easy, and I had dinner in the lounge. Boarding was smooth (love business class checking in!). I went to sleep after some dinner.
Flight was uneventful. Melbourne immigration is a disgrace. It wasn’t any better than when I travelled in August last year. Very few kiosks, a slow process, and no direction of where to go. For example, once you’ve been to a kiosk, you don’t need to go through the “ePassport holders” line further up, as that just funnels you to kiosks. With a few kiosks down, and a few flights coming in, at 1 minute per person and I reckon maybe 15 operational kiosks, it’s going to be slow.
Customs was easy – they took one look at the piece of paper Kaoru had prepared documenting what was in the suitcase, looked at me, believed it and sent me through the green lane! I was expecting him to say “too hard” and put me through the red lane for them to look at it. So that was my one win.
This trip was no where near as hectic as our last trip to Japan; the weather was much better (cooler); we got to see Mai (for the first time in Japan!), Kenichi, Yukari, Minami, Mio, Mikiko and Yoshi, Okaasan and Ottosan, plus Kaoru’s friends from our wedding. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see Kozue this trip (Kaoru is going to her house now for the night), Youichi or Arisa. I drove for the first time (unless you include Mario Kart, in which case it’s the second time). No bad hangovers, or late night parties. We did more craft breweries than we’ve done on other trips, and enjoyed that, as well as a few Oktoberfests. A few new areas of Tokyo, and also the usual haunts.