Japan 2019 - Day 16 - The final Day

Caroline and I had planned on getting up early and going to see if we could watch some Sumo Wrestling training. Unfortunately a crap night’s sleep meant that we opted for a bit of a sleep in instead.

Other than getting to the airport on time, we had committed to a final trip to find the shoulder-riding Evie for Emily and then we wanted to head to the Senso-ji shrine and the markets around it for some final souvenirs and gifts.

 Emily, Caroline and I went Evie hunting and left the boys to finalise their packing and to meet us at the market. We navigated our way back to the Tokyo Skytree where the Pokémon centre is and found three Evies remaining on the shelf. We quickly snagged one and personally I think we deserve some sort of parental award for the effort! There was one very excited squeal of glee and two parental sighs of relief.

The last two times that we’ve been to Tokyo we’ve talked about dressing Emily up in a Kimono, but time has always seemed to get away from us and we haven’t managed to do so. The market adjacent Senso-ji is a prime place for such activity and as we entered we saw plenty of girls walking around in them. 

Seeing other people wearing kimonos was one thing, working out where to hire one was quite another, but we were actually successful. We may not have got full value out of it given Emily was only dressed in it for an hour or so when she could have had it to the end of the day, but I think by the time she was out of it, she was more than happy with how long she’d worn it. Apparently correct posture wasn’t optional, but enforced by the constraints of the clothing.

We found what we were looking for and then swung by the hotel before picking up our luggage and heading for the airport. Unlike our last trip when Jetstar cancelled our flight, things went a lot more smoothly. There was no smashed alcohol in our luggage, the plane left on time and other than the occasional bout of pain from my arm preventing me from sleeping, we transited home safely.

Now that we’re back I’m already missing the toilets. Especially given this one was off the lobby of the hotel we stayed in in Tokyo.

If that was one of the hotel’s highlights, the pillows were one of its low-lights. Because when I say pillow, I really mean more of a bag of soggy newspapers than an actual pillow. Caroline was good enough to snag a second one for me but between the ongoing pain from my crash and the lack of any comfort from those pillows, sleep was a precious commodity that wasn’t well distributed.

One last thing from our trip. About half way through, Sam mentioned Tinder and the matches that he was getting around Matsumoto. Talk about surprised. Of all the boys, Sam was the last one that I expected to have Tinder on his phone, let alone to be actively using it. Turns out he was using it to connect with girls that he could then practice conversing in Japanese with! Only Sam …

And then we were home ...