Tokyo Trip: Day 10 & 11

Tokyo trip

Sun 18.November - Thurs.29.November.2018

DAY 10 Wednesday, 28. November

We had to checkout from the hotel by 11.00 am, so right after breakfast we started packing our suitcases. The weight of my bag had doubled, and I couldn't even make everything fit in my own bag, so mom had to carry some of my stuff in hers. The checkout was easy enough, we just had to drop our room keys in a mail box looking thing in the lobby.

Since we wouldn't be allowed to check-in at the airport hotel before 13.00, we decided to just spend the time at Tokyo Station. We found some coin lockers and stored our bags there for the time being. I went back to the Moomin shop and still considered to buy a mug, but then decided not to. Ironic, since a Moomin mug was one of the things that was on my "to buy"-list before we got here. I thought about it, and decided that since I got the freebie plate from the Moomin café, that would be enough. Besides, my bag was full, there was no room for it. I reluctantly left the shop.

I found a Cinnabon stand on one of the floors we hadn't been to before. We don't have a Cinnabon in Finland so I've always wanted to try it out. I picked Caramel PecanBon, probably needless to say, but it was delicious!

It sure was a good thing that we were in no hurry to get to the airport. We got lost again at the station, or rather, we lost our bags. We couldn't remember in which direction the coin lockers were, where we stored our bags. We must have looked for them for an hour or something. We did find them eventually, when we  realized that we had to go through the ticket gate, as if we would be going somewhere. We had left our bags in the first coin lockers we saw after we got off the train. We got our bags from the lockers and went out the same way we came, but  I guess our Pasmo cards or the gates "knew" that we hadn't actually left the station so we couldn't get through the gates. We had to ask the guy in the cubicle next to the ticket gates to let us through, once we explained that we only picked up our bags from the locker.

Now, with our bags, we went outside to find the stop for the Narita Access bus and bought the tickets directly from the driver. Once we arrived at the airport, we had to find the bus stop for the airport hotel. Of course, we had just missed the hotel bus, and had to wait twenty minutes for the bus to come back. Around us were stops for other hotels and they all seemed to move so much faster. For a long while we were the only ones waiting for our bus, but eventually a few more people did turn up. It's amazing that despite the hotel only being 1 km from the airport it still takes 10-15 minutes to get there because of traffic.

This hotel was huge compared to the one we stayed in Kanda. They had an east and west wing! And down in the lobby, their own convenience store! Our room was huge, or at least felt like it after the tiny hole we had cooped up in for the past week. In the Kanda hotel, there was no choice but to store your luggage under the bed if you wanted any room to move around. Here, you could leave your bag right there on the floor next to the bed, and there was still plenty of room! This room was bigger than an average hotel room in any hotel I've been to in Finland.

We rested for a while and then went down to the convenience store, to get something to eat in the evening and something for tomorrows breakfast. The store had a surprisingly good selection. Besides the food, they also had a small selection of souvenir stuff. I found a few bags of candy that I thought looked good, and bought them so that I could share them with folks back home.

Later, in the evening, I was sitting at the bed watching TV, when I suddenly get the feeling I usually only get on big cruise ships when it's moving up and down on the waves, the "unstable" feeling. First I thought I'm just imagining it, but when it persisted, I turned over to my mom and asked if she could feel it too, and yeah she did. We looked at our water bottles and could see the water move from side to side. I guess we experienced an earthquake! A small and harmless one, but it was a pretty strange feeling. Mom said it happened again, later in the night, but I was sound asleep by then so I didn't notice anything.

DAY 11  & the Flight Home, Thursday, 29. November

Our flight would be leaving today at 11.00 AM. We woke up at 05.30 AM, ate something and then took the free airport bus after checking out from the hotel. At the airport the first thing I did was dropping off our rented Wifi devices in their return envelope at the post office. Finnair's check in didn't open until 08.00 AM so we were stuck dragging our bags for a while. I still had plenty of yens to spend so we took our last drinks from a vending machine. We also had to try some ice creams from a vending machine! I went with cookies & cream while  my mom tried a matcha tea flavoured ice cream. I got to take a small bite out of that one and to my surprise it wasn't that bad.

Downstairs, they had many rows of Gachapon machines, so that's where I spent the rest of my leftover coins. Overall, I'd say here at the airport was the best selection of Gachapons I've seen for the whole trip. There even was a few with Star Wars!

Eventually, we got our bags dropped off and the check-in done. But before we went through passport control I briefly went into the small Pokemon Center they also held here at the airport. I still longed after a few of those adorable plushies, but didn't buy anything from there. After passport control there was this one shop that was kind of split in two. One one side they had all food articles, candies and Mochis and such. On the other side, they had electronics, stationaries and toys. We fell in the same trap like seemingly everybody else at the candy store. They had samples! You could taste the things before actually buying them! It worked wonders, because the line was so long! It's like everybody suddenly needed to do some last minute shopping at this last resort souvenir shop. Even if it took forever, I bought some apple flavoured KitKat bars and some strawberry Mochi balls.  I went over to the electronics side of the shop and looked at their toy section. And there it was, that one Darth Maul figure I had seen plenty of times in various figure shops I've been to during this trip. But it was much cheaper than the others I had seen, and it was the only one left. Heck yeah, I bought it, and with that, it became the most expensive figure I bought from this trip. I had to give it to my mom so she could carry it in her hand luggage, because mine was full.

Alas, I still had some leftover Yen, which I exchanged back to euros pretty much at the last minute. When we found our departure gate, it didn't take more than a few minutes before they started letting people in. We've never been this late to boarding! Because we were almost running late, we had walked at a brisk pace to our gate and when we were finally seated, I was dying of thirst! Thank goodness, that the flight attendants offered a free bottle of spring water to everyone upon entry. That thing was a lifesaver!

The flight back home went far better than the one we arrived with. Mostly because I wasn't feeling sick in my stomach and because I wasn't as tired. It was also fun to actually see the something out of the window. Because the plane left Finland so late in the evening it was already dark outside and you couldn't see anything. Now, the plane took off during daytime so there were plenty of views to enjoy. The landscapes were simply breathtaking once the plane flew over some mountains.

I didn't sleep at all during this flight, so I just kept watching movies after movies. I watched the first Deadpool on our way over, so it was only fitting that I watched Deadpool 2 on our way back. Next, I watched a Norwegian disaster movie "The Wave" (Bølgen), I quite liked it! Lastly, I watched a Swedish drama called "Under the Sun", which was a fine film too.

Japan vs. Finland

Looking out the window once we were in Finland's air space, you could tell it was definitely a lot colder than it was when we left for Japan. It was not full blown winter yet, only light snow on the ground and the temperature a little below freezing. Our problem was, that we were not properly equipped for this cold weather. Fortunately, my dad had come to pick us up, so we didn't have to stay out in the cold waiting for a bus or anything.

leftovers

Finally back home at last, the only hurdle left was adjusting back to Finnish time, which really came down to just trying to stay awake until evening to get back into the rhythm.

Oh yes, then there was also the unpacking of my bags, but more on that later! So next time.... all the things I bought from Tokyo!

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F*ck me. Why did it take me a whole year before I got all this written down?