The sad task of packing our belongings ready to head home tomorrow is what we are currently doing. Okay, so it is not too sad, as we are both looking forward to seeing Sooty and family again, and sleeping once more in our own bed, but we will really, really miss Japan and we have had such an amazing holiday, it is sad that it is over.
Tomorrow we check out of the Granvia and head to Itami Airport, where we will take a 2.30 flight to Narita, which will only take about an hour and a quarter. Then we wait – until 9.30pm, when our flight home will be ready to depart, flying through the night to arrive home in Brisbane at 7.10am – by golly will we be tired by then!!!
The last few days have been spent mostly shopping around, although today we visited Nara and saw the cute deer in the park, and two nights ago we caught up with Kiku, James’ email pen friend and had a great night out eating Okonomiyaki and laughing so much!! Kiku has a great sense of humour and I really hope one day she visits Australia!
I decided to end this post with a list of things we will miss about Japan – there are some things we just don’t have at home!!
1. Mr Donuts (both James and I are very partial, especially to Angel Cream donuts)
2. Japanese ice coffee – straight black coffee, with loads of ice, to which you add sugar syrup. No cream, no ice-cream, no milk – yum!!
3. Vitamin Water – a drink that both James and I have become addicted to, it is a lemony flavoured water with added vitamins – but still low in calories!
4.Yodabashi Camera – huge electronics stores with everything you can imagine and staff who run to serve you.
5. Customer service – okay so retail and the service industry is not glamourous, but here at least they pretend to want to help you, and no one says ‘are you right?’ with a snarky face.
6. Efficient public transport – trains every five minutes, subway access to all parts of the city, cheap fares – it can’t be beat!!
7. Yummy, yummy Japanese food for cheap!! – Ramen, sushi, tonkatsu, okonomiyaki…..so much food, so little cost!! Japanese eat out a lot because they have tiny homes which they like to escape from as much as possible – this means that every night of the week hundreds of restaurants are open, and you can choose from cheap and cheerful to silver service and a different dish every night for months!!
8. This list could go on and on… but suffice to say Brisbane and Australia do have heaps to offer too – and it will be sweet to see Sooty running full pelt in the huge backyard we are so blessed to have!
Goodnight…see you all soon!
