Happy Valentine's Day everyone....
It's been a long day, and because for us it's been a two in one due to the international date line, this blog will be in two parts...even after the number of times I have done it I still can't get over the fact that even after 10hrs of flying we are arriving in LA before we leave Narita (time wise)
I'm not sorry to say goodbye to our hotel but I am to Japan, I've loved every experience that Samara and I have shared, and I think if nothing else she's going to return to Melbourne at least thrilled with this leg of our journey.
As soon as we checked out we headed for the airport, using our NEX pass for the last time, it was good to do the journey in the day time and take one last look
of Tokyo and the countryside around as when we got here two weeks ago it was night, and we couldn't see much out of the window.
Check in was simple enough and then it was back out of the airport again (as our flight wasn't leaving until nearly 3pm) so we decided to spend a couple of hours in Narita town, checking it out and of course getting one last temple in before we leave.
It's a great little place and for anyone who has to do a short stopover in Japan and don't want to have to travel into Tokyo itself as there is plenty to see and do. As you walk down to Naritasan Shinshoji temple along the Omotesando you pass some great little shops, yes some of them are selling souvenirs for the tourists but there
are also local shops and you get a real taste for Japanese life. The scents and smells set off your taste buds and even though I'm still full from breakfast I want to eat one last meal in Japan, but it can wait until we see the temple and get back to the airport. We may have time to kill but we don't want to push it too far.
Naritasan or Shinshoji Temple is worth the walk (the complex is huge and we didn't have time to explore it
all, but we did our best. The temple was built back in 940 and at the time was very isolated, and people had to make long journeys to worship here.
It wasn't until much later when Shogun Ieyasu moved his capital to Edo (which later became Tokyo) that the temple came into prominence. The only problem with us visiting the temple is that we had our hand luggage with us, and as there are lots of steps around the complex and the poor wheels took a battering (but thank goodness for those wheels :) )
The 20minute walk up Omotesando from the temple to the train station took us longer as we kept stopping to take that one extra photo,
to have that one last look, that last Japanese experience before we have to say sayonara to Japan.
I wonder if we will have time to visit this place on our leg home lol.
We arrive back at Narita airport with enough time to shop before we board, but think that might be a better idea to do on the way home as we'll have a few hours to kill on our layover. Instead of shopping we decide on food and have our last Japanese meal sitting watching the planes take off and land. I love that there is an
observation deck at the airport and we spent at long as we possibly could out here watching the planes going in and out, and enjoying that 'fresh' air although I am sure people will dispute how fresh it is with jet engine fumes all over the place.
There is something exhilirating about watching planes take off and landing, and you can't help but marvel at how something so huge can actually do that. All too soon it's time to board and leave Japan behind :(
To be continued........