We have drifted sideways into Tokyo for our last night. We left Osaka this morning on the Nozomi Shinkansen which cut 30 mins of normal Shinkansen journeys. It did feel faster even though the train was still an N700. I was hoping for the green Nozomi in the film bullet train but you can’t win them all.
I am sitting here writing this on the window seat in our 30th floor room at the Park Hotel. Another amazing choice I would say. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the view is stunning.
We have the train station to our left and the monorail and traffic intersection on the right. The kids got a double aspect panoramic view which is currently being photographed for a time lapse over night. Fingers crossed for that. We went out for tea and having Ezra, Luke and Susie choose the restaurant was fab. They picked a good one. We had to wait outside for a while as it was super busy but truly worth the wait. The restaurant was based around skewers and you order 20 or so at a time with drinks. Simple food, meat and vegetables plus fries, some food lightly fried, others with teriyaki style sauces. Yum!
This holiday has been different in that it is not until halfway through at least that we felt truly relaxed. Partly this was due to having to be “on it” learning the right way to do things. Manners is so much part of the culture and that strikes a chord with me so I want to get it right. I want to be respectful. I hope wee didn’t tread too heavily on our interaction with the lovely folk we have come across. Almost everyone has gone out of their way, some literally, to help us feel welcome. For our part I think the prep made all the difference and I cannot imagine arriving without a full plan of where to stay and how to get around.
The general feeling is that we would love to come back and see more of the North parts, maybe in a Springtime period. However we have higher priority places in the world now we would explore first that we have no experience of.
Tomorrow we take the local train back to Narita airport and begin the double whammy flight home. We need to stay up late, get up reasonably, have coffee in the morning then try and sleep on the flights. We will obviously be incommunicado for a while after tomorrow morning so assume all is well.
We will summarise when we get back and add some retrospective photos and links to videos but for now this is Phil signing off. Sayonara!
