The day has come! It's time for us to go back home. Seems like only yesterday we got off that plane to start our journey in Tokyo. Today we have more free time! Where to go?
First things first. We must check out before heading out. Good thing I packed everything last night. All I needed to pack was whatever we needed to get ready today.
We all meet in the lobby and each of us check out. We need to ask the hotel if they can hold our bags until we have to leave. Of course, they are most happy to accommodate us.
We have the day to ourselves. Well most of the day. We need to get back before 3 P.M. so we can get to the airport. What are we going to do?
Since it's my second time in Tokyo, I ask Scott where he wants to go. Of course he wants to go to Yodobashi. So I tell him that we should go to the one here in Shinjuku and see how it is. The Yodobashi in Shinjuku is separated into sections in different buildings. I thought this was interesting. The other Yodobashi stores I've been to have been massive buildings. In Shinjuku you have to go around the corner or across the street to get to the other sections. Our first stop is the electronic games.
Here I bought my new Nintendo DSi. I thought that America wasn't going to get this color. They usually don't get colors like pink. That was the whole reason for buying it. At first I wanted the red one, but it goes on sale on Friday (2 days from now).
Time to head to another section of Yodobashi-Shinjuku. We look for the DVD section. Scott wants to look for more Kamen Rider stuff. I remember seeing advertisements of the new Decade series volume 1 DVD going on sale during our trip. When we look through the DVD section, I cannot find it. There are other Kamen Rider DVDs but not the Decade one. So we ask the salesperson. They said that it is sold out. I was just amazed that it sold out in just one day! Kamen Rider is much more popular than I thought.
We go to the other sections just to browse briefly. Scott really wants to go back to Akihabara to shop at Yodobashi. So we are going to make the trip to Akihabara. Time to go to Shinjuku Station. Hopefully we can catch the rapid line so we make less stops and get to Akiba faster.
As we head out of Akihabara Station, the same girl from Tokyo Disney is here. Still collecting her donations. It was amazing! She even remembered that we leave today. We just had to take a picture with her.
We are back in Yodabashi. Can't get tired of this place. It's a electronics geek's dream. Of course we head straight for the DVD section. Scott tries to find the Decade DVD, but no luck here either. But he did find out that the blu-rays will work at home on our PS3 since they have not region lock on them (well the regular editions). So Scott ends up buying all the movies on blu-ray (even though he just bought them on DVD). I offer to buy some of them for him since it's something he REALLY wants.
After getting the things Scott wants, it's time for me to do some shopping. All this time in Japan and I really didn't have a chance to shop in Uniqlo. Last year that's all I did. I think last year I went to 5 different Uniqlo shops around the Kansai area. This year I didn't even shop at one. It's time to change that.
I remember seeing a Uniqlo sign in Akiba. I'm glad it's only across the street from Yodobashi. The only thing is figure out how to get to the 3rd floor of the building. Sometimes Japanese buildings can be so confusing. It's not straightforward like in America. In Japan, the up and down escalators are not necessarily by each other. I think they strategically place them so you look around the entire store instead of just by passing things.
I can't believe our free time is over. I guess we spent more time in Yodobashi than I thought. Plus it was so busy in Yodobashi today. I guess summer vacation has started in Japan. All the video gamers were in the gaming section. It's a good thing I didn't have to by anything. I think I would have been stuck in the line for over 30 minutes. It was a madhouse. Maybe there was a release. I don't pay much attention to Japanese releases anymore.
Time to head back to the hotel and meet up with the rest of the group. We get back early. At least it gives us time to get our bags and pack whatever we bought. I can't believe the amount of stuff Scott bought. I think his stuff filled majority of the bags. I think I held back this year because of him.
The airport limousine is coming soon. The time has finally come to leave Tokyo and head over to the airport. As we take the long trip to the airport most try to sleep. I can't even though I am sick. So I take some pictures to pass the time.
We arrive at the airport way ahead of schedule. We have the red eye flight. I think that's the best flight to have when travelling back home. Leave when it's night and arrive home when it's morning. Jayson and Yoko stay with us until it's finally time to go through the security check area. We are in a different area of the airport than the first year. I remember having a shopping area before reaching the gate. This year it's not like that.
As we wait for the plane to board, we exchange contact information with each other. Hopefully we stay in touch like I have with others in the other classes. I think I have made the strongest bonds with the people from the first trip. This year I made bonds with a few but not as many as the first trip.
I realized that during this trip I was supposed to find more Hello Kitty that I may have missed the first year. This year it seems I didn't pay much attention to my search for Hello Kitty than the other two trips. I paid more attention to observing others experiencing Japan for the first time and seeing a little bit of me in each of them as they experienced what I experienced two years ago.
Time to board the plane and relive the day again!
No comments:
Post a Comment