Day Seventeen - Arigatou Gozaimasu and Genki de Japan

Today was our final day in Japan and sitting here at Haneda International Airport waiting for our flight out of Tokyo on All Nippon Airways flight NH879. 

After our feverish packing until midnight last night, we set the alarm for 0730h, giving us time to shower, get breakfast, do a brief tidy up and walk out the door before our compulsory departure time of 1000h. I did a brief walk through the apartment taking photos. For the record, the apartment was awesome. I'd be happy to pass on the details if anyone is interested. It sleeps up to seven.

After we headed out, we went straight to Tokyo Station so that we could put our luggage in storage for the day. 

Farewell Akihabara Station

Getting there with our luggage was no easy feat, thankfully it being Sunday meant that the trains weren't crowded, but the walking gaps on some of the Station escalators was thinner than some of our luggage (perhaps because the luggage was bulging). The price for storage of the luggage was 600 yen (about AUD$6.70) per suitcase and we had eight.

Putting the suitcases into storage. This was probably the cheapest option.

We then walked out of the station towards Ginza. 

A brief team meeting at Tokyo Station

Is this the cleanest Cement Truck you have ever seen?

The Ginza District is a high-end shopping area in the heart of Tokyo, and is really quite pretty. We probably walked about four to five kilometres. It was interesting to see that they shut down the main street to traffic on Sunday between 1200h and 1700h; this is called Hokōsha Tengoku or Hokoten for short, literally meaning 'pedestrian heaven'. 

So we had a leisurely stroll down the middle of the road, alongside thousands of other people. We also stopped for lunch, visited a department chain called BIC Camera, which sells far more than just cameras and takes up six stories on a city block. We also had a brief visit to the Tokyo Police Museum which had a snazzy old Mazda RX-8 Police Car parked outside.

Afterwards we walked back to Tokyo Station and collected our luggage. 

Farewell Shinkansen. This was the last time I saw you (this time around)

We then caught the train to   Hamamatsucho Station before boarding the Monorail directly to Haneda International Airport. 

The Qantas aircraft sits forlorn at Haneda. The Qantas flight home was cancelled. I suspect that the aircraft has gone US.

On arrival we reweighed our luggage with the check-in scales and realised that we needed a major redistribution for just about every bag. It took us some time to finally get all of our bags and carry-on to within acceptable levels. Afterwards we checked in our bags and got ticketed for the flight. 

ANA Check-in

We then walked up for a short time to the Observation Deck, as the Sun had just set, and I tried my luck at some night shots. 

What a surprise to see the Star Wars R2D2-schemed ANA Boeing B787-9

We also did some airport shopping for some time. We then decided to head through Departures, clearing customs and security, and are now settled at Gate 110. We've managed to get some food and we are resting up, ready for our flight home.

I've convinced everyone that they need to watch "I want to eat you Pancreas" on the flight home. I'll compile one last blog when we get home, and I think we are all ready to get home. I am especially keen to have a medical professional check my back and let me know what's wrong with it. Since the Tuesday before last, this holiday has been quite a struggle, but I have refused to let it stop us from doing what we had planned. I think my back needs a well-earned rest.

Our flight departs at 2200h Japan Time and gets into Australia at around 0930h tomorrow morning.