Our bags are packed, we're ready to go

Sunday 25th April
Well, here we are at the Narita Airport Hotel. I'm having a Sapporo Beer while I write and John is getting his last dose of Japanese television.
We had a bit of concern this morning. We logged into the Malaysia Airlines website to check our flights and found that there wasn't one coming up for Monday 26th April. Aaarrrgghh!! We tried to call the Japanese office of Malaysia Airlines, but got a 'call back later' message. I tracked down the Australian office and gave them a call. It was really strange to hear the Australian accent! Anyway, all is apparently well and the flight is going ahead as scheduled.
Crisis averted, we checked out and made our way to Harajuku. Harajuku is the place for fashionable girls to be on a Sunday. They come out in their droves to show off their latest fashions, including the 'cosplay' outfits. There were squillions of shops selling clothing, accessories and various knick-knacks, including a second-hand shop that sold everything for 700yen. We strolled the length of Takeshita Street (I kid you not!) and then back up again. We have almost perfected our precision pedestrian skills by merging into the human traffic and crossing over without bowling anyone over. We saw a number of shops with interesting names. I can only put a couple of them here, but there were many more that made us smile. The banner above the ILL Store says "Extra Dope Wear Select Shop". (Who knows??) We finished off our Harajuku experience by buying a decadent crepe each. John's contained custard, slices of banana, caramel, whipped cream, a slice of cheesecake and ice cream, all wrapped up into a cone shape in a thin crepe. Mine wasn't quite so spectacular - it was just fresh strawberries and ice cream, but was really nice anyway.





Our next adventure was to Ebisu, which has the largest English-language bookshop in Japan. John had finished the book that he brought and wanted one for the flight home. When we came out of the railway station, we were uncertain about which way to go, so we asked at the little police box nearby. I'd been told that the police in these mini police stations can always be relied upon to give directions, but the largest English-language bookshop in Japan was beyond their knowledge. We took a punt and walked off down the street, only to be waylaid by a Subway store. We went in for a cup of tea and a Veggie Delight and when we came out, John looked a bit further down the road and saw a big sign that said 'BOOKS'. There it was, just around the corner and down the road a bit from the police box! We went in and found the science fiction section and John soon found a suitable book for 630 yen (around $7), which was considerably better than if we'd bought one at the airport.
We then went back to the hotel in Ikebukuro to collect our baggage. John noticed that the little pocket in the strap of his pack was unzipped and his mp3 player wasn't in its correct place. We checked around the floor where the baggage had been stored and asked at the desk about it, but it had disapeared. A little disappointed that our last day should end like that, we made our way to the railway station. As we were walking along, I had a sudden brainwave, and checked the little pocket in the strap of MY pack and felt a little rectangular shape. There it was, in my pack! Our apologies to whoever we were thinking badly of! At the station, we discovered that not only do Japanese people use their train journeys to catch up on their sleep, they can even do it while waiting for the train. The woman on the opposite platform was having a good snooze while standing on the platform!
We got onto the Narita Express train and had an 80 minute ride out to the airport. For the majority of the journey we saw kilometre after kilometre of tall buildings in all directions, but about 15 minutes out from the airport we started to see big areas of rice paddies. The hotel runs a free shuttle bus service between the airport and the hotel, so we had a 5 minute wait and were then driven to the hotel, where we had a pleasant surprise. The Toyoko Hotel chain has a loyalty points system which offers a free night for every 10 paid nights. Because we had accumulated 12 points, we were entitled to the price of a single room off the price of the double room which we had booked. Not only that, tonight was 'discount night', so the double room price was discounted, and then the price of a single room was taken off, which left us about $35.00 to pay for a night in the biggest hotel room we'd seen on the trip so far. Then the receptionist pointed out that dinner of curry and rice was included in the cost! All Toyoko Hotels also include a free breakfast, so our $35.00 bought us two dinners, two breakfasts and a big hotel room. We're a couple of pretty happy customers. (I'm even happier now as I've just finished downing my can of beer).
After checking in, we rang our friend Colin to make arrangements for him to collect us on Tuesday morning. We made a Skype call, and it was fun to be able to chat with Colin and see him as well. Before making the call, John couldn't find the little earphone that we use when making Skype calls, which has its own special pocket in John's pack - but this time we had a good idea of where to look - and there it was in my pack! It seems that our little gadgets are playing games with us.
Once we'd had our curry dinner, we went for a stroll to the local convenience store to buy ice creams and my can of beer, so we walked off a little bit more of our crepes but I still think I'll be needing to put a bit of effort into my flab when we get home. We then sorted out all our goodies and distributed them between our bags in readiness for the journey home. We'll have quite an early start tomorrow, but I'm hoping that this will mean that I can sleep during the night-time leg of the flight between Kuala Lumpur and home.
The trip has been a fantastic adventure with so many new experiences. To finish off our story, I'll write a bit of a summary once we get home. But for now, it's good night. xx