Saturday, September 15, 2018

Japan Trip Day 7: Last day

Previously my habit is to pick morning/afternoon flight back so there is nothing to be done on the last day except for going to the airport. This time in order to maximise the trip, I chose a 5pm flight. Things did not work out as expected as the Airport Limousine bus from the hotel to the airport was not as frequent as expected. Yup, that is what happens when pre-trip research was not done properly in a correct sequence. I chose the 1210pm bus since the bus journey might take 2 hours+ if there was traffic jam.

My plan for the day was to quickly to go to Diver City to take a picture with Gundam. The photo deck opens at 11am so after taking the photo, I need to quickly go back to hotel. With the shops open from 10am, I get to walk around for an hour. I went for breakfast at 830am and hence I still managed to try the tuna/spicy tuna don that I did not get yesterday. Otherwise the food was the same as yesterday although sadly the takuan (yellow raddish) was absent and they switched the potato tater tots with wedges. I would like to take a second serving of the tuna don but because of the rice (and the other things that I ate), my stomach did not have more space.

After that I checked out, put the luggage at the lobby, and went to Diver City. I bought the Gundam TWC international version and while waiting for 11am, I decided to get the hojicha ice cream from Nana’s Green Tea although I was still full. I have been craving for it since the first day arriving here. Hehe.. I passed by the souvenir shop and saw Tokyo Banana Kit Kat. How could I forget about that!! My luggage was already quite full but I was sure I still could squeeze another 5 boxes of the Kit Kat. After I made payment, I saw the Conan acrylic stands in the same shop. No discount here but at least I could get the Sera that I missed out yesterday as well as Ran. To make up for 5400 JPY to get the tax-free, I also bought Heiji and Akai although they are not from the beach series.

I waited until 1110am and sadly the photo deck was still not open T_T Looks like I had no luck and I could not wait any longer. I had to make my way back to the hotel already. I planned to take a purikura at hotel lobby since it has Disney theme and I already had 500 yen coins prepared. Urrgh.. There was this lady hogging the machine and after that there were people near the machine so I got a bit self-conscious to enter the purikura machine by myself.

The Japanese is known for the timeliness so it was another surprise when the Airport Limousine bus came 20 minutes late. I had plenty of buffer time so I was not worried. The journey to Narita was smooth without traffic jam so I reached just before 2pm and I had time to explore the shopping mall at the airport. Since I did not get the purikura at the hotel, I used my coins for a Narita Airport souvenir medallion and 2 tries of Conan pouch gashapons. I got Conan and Heiji’s design. Thank goodness no duplicate and I did not get the criminal’s design. I felt like a pig during lunch with my ebi furai, vegetable kakiage, and pumpkin tempura to accompany my beef udon while the locals who were eating there did not have so many side dishes to go along.

It was a miracle that I did not buy any more tidbits from the duty shops inside the terminal. I was so tempted with the Potato Farm and despite going in and out so many shops, in the end I convinced myself that I should avoid more tidbits, especially the potato chips kind, if I really want to have my diet start again after this trip.

Good luck did not repeat itself so the flight back was not using Star Wars plane. The journey back was not comfortable as the cabin temperature was warm. It was not only me as other people were also fanning themselves. The snack was quite bad (a dry and hard to swallow bread) although the dinner was quite filling for an airplane meal.

I also chose wrong in-flight entertainment with a My friend “A” which is quite heavy and dark. The next movie My Little Monster (Tonari no Kaibutsu-kun) was better as it fits the high school comedy genre that I like. With those I had no more time for Avengers: Infinity War.

And basically that wraps up my solo trip. I am honestly very proud of myself and very amazed with my achievement. Last year I was damn scared having to spend the first day alone at Osaka and one year later I survived 1 whole week alone at Japan. It feels so refreshing to go on a holiday with nothing to worry about work issues and piling backlogs. Usually I dread the end of holiday as it means returning to the shit hole. I do not feel as dreadful this time as I feel quite excited to experience a new job this Monday.

I am really thankful to God for all the blessings for this holiday. I 'anyhow' chose my hotels simply based on the prices and both hotels turned out to be very accessible and I would say the best options in terms of location among the Disney Partner and Good Neighbor hotels. I had fun during Samurai photo shooting experience (although I can't help my ugly and fat face in the end products) and I am really happy with the good luck at Disneysea and with the Star Wars flight. Looking back, it was quite crazy to take 1 week overseas holiday literally for Disney as I spent the first 2 days going around Disney Stores and then the next 3 days at Tokyo Disney Resort out of a total of 6 days. Haha.. It may not be a perfect holiday but it is a holiday I will not forget. YOLO and I survived a SOLO trip yo ^o^

Time to settle my laundry and sleep soon. Past 3am liao..

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