We woke up this morning and headed to Tokyo Tower.
On the way there, we saw an interesting way to transport multiple children outside of what we thought was a daycare center
Almost there
Ooh..sparkly
We went all the way to the top. Sometimes the elevator was a little creaky which freaked the other girls out but didn't bother me
They had a glass floor at a couple of spots
We also did some souveneir shopping. I got breakfast at Pink dot. I copied Cori and got waffles with bananas, chocolate syrup, vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and cocoa flakes cereal. It was sooo good!
The girls headed back to the hotel to finish packing but I was done so I stayed on the subway to go back to 100% Chocolate Cafe to get the disbride who had reccommended the store to me a hot chocolate mix. I had to get myself a pack too! I thought I was going to really be pushing it on time but I ended up having plenty of time.
All of our luggage!
Schayenne and her mom came to the hotel to say goodbye. So nice! Then we took a bus to the airport. It was so much more convenient than trying to take the subway with all of our luggage. At the airport I ate what I thought were some yummy sushi (and took some to go) and pot stickers. I forgot to take a picture of the food. It was soooo crowded at the airport. I have never seen an airport so busy before. At the gates, there were so many people that everyone was sitting on the floor and you could barely walk around!
Then once we got on the plane, just after we had pulled back from the gate, they discovered a drainage problem so they had to pull back into the gate and we had to sit on the plane while they fixed it. It was an hour delay. I decided to finish my sushi but I couldn't eat all of it so I shared with the guy in our row.
I wasn't too hungry when they served our first meal but I ate a teeny bit of it. There was a beef and rice dish, salad, couscous with shrimp, roll, and strawberry cake.
Well, something I ate at the airport gave me food poisoning (we're thinking the pot stickers since Cori had the same waffle thing as me at Tokyo Tower and I shared the sushi with the guy in my row and he was fine). I spent most of the 12 hour flight in the bathroom. I was so mortified and disgusted. The worst plane ride of my life and probably one of the worst times of my life. I hate plane bathrooms anyways and hardly ever use them. So to have to be in them for most of 12 hours, sick, was horrifying.
And we were worried about making our connecting flight becuase of the delay because we only had an hour and 50 minute layover and would then only have 50 minutes to get through Immigration, get our bags, go through Customs, re-check our bags, and get to the gate. All while trying not to be sick. Luckily that flight was delayed too (although Rebecca wasn't so lucky and missed her flight again--remember, she missed the one out to Hong Kong too!) Then that flight of ours got stuck on the runway for an hour with no air. I managed not to be sick while we were stuck there but as soon as the sign went off so I could unfasten my seat belt, I was right back in the bathroom. Blah!
Kory met me in the airport to help with luggage, thankfully (he had no idea I was so sick). I came home, took a shower and cuddled with my family. I had a blast but it was so nice to be home. I only wish I didn't have such a horrible ending!
Oh yeah, here's a list of unusual things we noticed in Japan
1) It is almost impossible to find a trashcan. They are hardly anywhere. But the city is sooooo clean! And when you do find one, you have to sort your trash by paper, plastic, aluminum, and other
2) They have these yellow raised paths and we assume they are for blind people on the sidewalks. They were everywhere and we saw quite a large number of blind people compared to what we see here. I think that was such a neat thing that they had.
3) The toilets... A lot are "Eastern" ones..which are just holes in the grounds! It was a big shock for us when we opened the stall door! But the "Western" ones like we are used to are so high tech! They have bidets, flushing noises, and deoderizers! But in some public bathrooms, they don't have toilet paper at all (not like they just ran out but there is never any) so we learned to take tissues with us everywhere!
Overall, our trip was a blast! We had sooooo much fun and made so many memories. I hope that I get to visit Tokyo again some day in the future!