UFO catchers OWNED.

Trip Start Dec 22, 2008
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Trip End Jan 06, 2009


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Flag of Japan  , Kanto,
Saturday, January 3, 2009

Last morning in Kyoto. Thankfully the rest yesterday worked wonders on my knee - I could actually get up without being in agony - a very good thing when you are sleeping on a futon! I had Frosties for breakfast, haven't had them since I was a little tacker, and we tried to eat as much food as we could so we didn't have to carry it back to Tokyo. Nat did her best to empty out the fridge, I think she's caught a tape worm since we've been here - never seen someone eat as much or as often!

We tidied up as best we could, packed up, made sure it was all lights off and locked up, shoved the key through the letter box and off we headed headed to the Tokyo Station to try to get the next Hikari Shinkansen back to Tokyo. We missed the one we wanted by about 3 minutes, so we just waited for the next one - hmmmm long wait of a whole 15 minutes. Longest wait for a train since being in Japan!

We managed to ALL score window seats in separate aisles - happy days! David went straight to sleep, and Nat had her ear plugs in so I sat quite happily and devoured the scenery and my bento box. We passed through Miraba and there was SOOOO much snow on the ground. I was tempted to get everyone off of the Shinkansen and go and get up close and personal with the snow, mainly because Nat hasn't seen snow before and because I've only seen it once, but decided that it was safer to stay on the shinkansen and keep heading to Tokyo.

Was a great trip, not many people on until we got closer to Tokyo and then it PACKED IN. All seats full, including the ones near us. I had a bit of a nap, only woken up each time another shinkansen shot past us, which made the most incredible 'whoooomp!' as it shot by. Got to Tokyo, change trains to the local line and then back to Nishi-Ogikubo station - quick walk through the super-market (oh how I've missed you!) and back to the apartment.

We had a wee celebratory welcome home drink and then Nat and I got changed and went back out, heading to Ikebukuro to get to the stores before they closed - it was about 3pm... nearly dark if you can believe it! No such thing as daylight savings here! Ikebukuro was full of life and we cashed in our 1,000 Yen notes to get loads of 100 Yen coins to play UFO arm catcher machines. Of course, we owned it and got loads and loads of adorable little unameable squishy toys. I got a really cute big platypus type thing and Nat got a kitty that we have called Pachinko (the name I'm going to call the little dog that David has said I can get - yay!). We went to the Hello Kitty! store and looked at the Happy Bags (new year bags that you get bargains in... and loads of crap that the store wants to get rid of). We had a brilliant dinner of ricey bean shooty sesame seed bacony goodness and then off again to hit the UFO machines.

We then got down into the subway system and then back to the JR lines and home. Ah, we have kind of worked out how the subway and rail network runs and it's oh so easy to get around. Although still confusing at times... but goooood.

Ah, back to our beds, tiny apartment and drinks. mmmmmmm Most excitement as we're planning on going to Tokyo Disneyland tomorrow yay! mmmmmm bedtimey.
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