Woke up early today to catch the bus to Gotenba. Took JR. Reached Tokyo station at 8:00am. Bought tix for 8:50AM and not a direct bus to the Premium Outlet Stores. It's been sold out. Then began our 4 hour trip on a jam-filled highway- this is the end of their Golden Week and thousands are leaving Tokyo- how lucky we are.
Reached Gotenba by 12:30pm We shopped selectively and looking only for things we think we want to buy. It is very crowded- Japanese really know how to shop- everyone has a dog and kids in tow. The Outlets are quite good in comparison to US ones. Em bought a handbag, a pair of shoes, a dress and a watch- me a Beams shirt. Success!!!! Imagine the long journey without any loot. We didn't even stopped for lunch- we bought hotdogs to munch. We decided to start our journey back coz we are now afraid that we may be jammed back to Tokyo. So at 4pm- we made our journey back. But we forfeited our bus- didn't like the idea of being stuck in a stuffy bus for hours again and we bought train tix back.
2 trains later, after about 2 hours- we are back in Shimbashi Station- alas and hungry- so we head towards Yamasana Beef that we passed by everyday. Ate in record time of maybe 15 minutes- so hungry.
