Don't you hate it when you wake up with a sinking feeling? That's what Saturday was like, as it was to be our last day in Japan. I was up early, but the rest of the family decided to have a sleep in. This gave me time to watch some Saturday morning television with some crazy cartoons on TV Tokyo. I was watching a show called Penguin no Mondai or Penguin's trouble. This show has a penguin called Beckham (I'm not sure if he's robotic or not) but everytime he gets bonked on the head, he changes shape. They were playing a soccer game and this squirrel kept dropping his nuts which hit the penguin on the head, then he changed shape... Very confusing, especially if you didn't understand what they were saying.
Also saw a show called Rescue Force, which had a group of 5 people (3 guys, 2 girls) who are part of the police/fire/ambo's and they fight robotic monsters. Sort of like power rangers style, but it is meant for little kids. I didn't really care about the plot line (I couldn't understand it anyway), but the chick in the red suit was cute. Also, this show must have been sponsored by Nissan or something as the robot CG sequences show both a 350z and an X-trail getting encapsulated into the giant mecha taskforce robot..
About this time, everyone started to awake from their comatic sleep, and we got up and went to Johnathan's for breakfast. Johnathan's is similar to Denny's. Its a 24hr restaurant that serves food.... and beer. I only had a BLT, an OJ and a coffee. Food quality was good, nothing over the top fancy, but tasty and hit the spot.
We then headed towards Takashimaya - a swanky department store about 2 blocks from our hotel. They have doorman waiting to hail taxis for customers outside, De Beers jewellery and other boutique brands on the 1st floor and take up their own city block, as well as a seperate carpark, which in Tokyo means you've either been there for a long time, or you are ritzy and expensive. A little bit of A and B in this case. Having said that, unlike David Jones in Australia, Takashimaya have stuff that you would actually want to buy or give as gifts to people, not just expensive "educational" toys that kids wouldn't touch with in a pink fit.
We spent a little bit of time there before heading towards Tokyo station/Yaesu mall (again). Even though we've walked through this place numerous times on the way home or to the station, we kept find new things we hadn't seen. Also, we wanted to check out the price of Wii remotes. If the exchange rate was higher, they would have been a bargain (3640Y) but when the exchange rate is on the fritz, it ended up being the same price as we get them in Australia for.
Also checked out Daimaru department store, before deciding that we better pick up our stuff from the hotel and head towards the airport. Fortunately this time we had left ourselves with plenty of time to get there and look around, so after the 50min train ride to the Airport, we checked our baggage in (we must have been one of the first for our flight I reckon) and looked around upstairs. They have a wide range of shops at Narita terminal 2. I've never been to Terminal 1 (mostly for european/west bound airlines), but there is enough to look at and eat, at terminal 2 to keep you occupied for a few hours.
We eventually ate some japanese food, followed by a crepe.... gotta love the smell of crepes, chocolate sauce, strawberries and stuff. Did some more shopping then went through customs effortlessly.... Gotta also love jap efficiency.
We still had about an hour and a half til boarding, so we looked around at Duty-free shops. Had some good range, but didn't buy anything as it still requires you to spend money you probably don't have. Got on the flight tired but nearly teary-eyed, and said farewell. I hope its not too long before we go again. Japan is an awesome country and although I do feel a bit like an outsider when I'm there, I think that speaking the language would help that. Otherwise the convenience stores, car places, vending machines, abundance of beer/sake/alcohol and the snow make me want to spend a lot of time there.
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