We have finally reached June 7th, the last day of my trip to Japan! I woke up early to visit FamilyMart with Jessica one last time, and she left the hotel around 8 AM which left me another hour to sleep in.
I checked out of my hotel around 10 AM and left my bags with the hotel to visit the Senso-ji shrine grounds one last time to get some final souvenirs for my family. Being out in Japan alone was definitely nerve wracking, as this was the first time I’d truly been alone the entire trip. Once I had finished shopping, I found a local yakiniku place to get lunch, which only magnified my fears. Not only did I manage to spill soup everywhere while trying to slot the tray into the table (honestly I think this design is a little flawed in general, but I’ll admit I was stupid for not taking the very hot very spillable liquid off of the tray before doing this), but after they had switched my table I managed to also pay for the wrong order and had to trouble the staff to refund me. This was what solidified my readiness to leave Japan, as by this point I was very tired and thoroughly ready to get home.
I returned to my hotel and gathered my bags (at this point I had four of them, and maneuvering them all was no easy task) and lugged my things onto a bus to get to the train station, where I barely made it to my train on time. The train ride was nice as I was on the express train so we didn’t stop until we got to the airport, and the views were very pretty. It was a somber moment to recognize this as my last train ride in Japan, a method of transportation that I had so heavily relied on for a majority of my trip. I will forever be grateful for how accessible and cheap the public transportation is in Japan.
Out of my fear for something going wrong in the airport process, I skipped the mall and sadly the Pokemon store in the airport and hurried to check in my things and get through security. To no surprise, security was incredibly easy, and I then had to sit in the airport for three hours while I waited for my flight to board. There were a couple stores in the airport terminal itself where I managed to get some last minute gifts and a nice water bottle for myself. I also bought one of those wireless mini photo printers, so that I could easily print photos from my phone for the scrapbook that I intend to eventually make for my trip.
Eventually Jasmine joined me for the flight, and the second leg of my trip began. Our flight was ~11 hours in length, and felt a lot shorter than the first flight. I spent the whole thing either sleeping or watching movies, mostly because the charger port at my seat was broken and I didn’t want any of my devices to die. Eleven hours later, we landed in Chicago, and I zoomed my way through customs and retrieved our bags at the baggage claim. I will say, finally being able to speak to someone in English and knowing that they’d be able to understand me was a blessing.
I said goodbye to Jasmine and rechecked my bags with Delta, and spent another two hours sitting in the airport waiting for my flight. At this point the exhaustion was beginning to set in, and the post-trip depression also began to set in as I paid for my $4 water bottle from Burger King. Oh joy.
My second flight was around 2 hours in length, and I spent the entire thing asleep. Despite having a middle seat and waking up with an awful pain in my neck, the sleep was definitely worth it, as I had to deboard the plane and retrieve my bags a second time and hobble my way to my mom’s car who travelled to the airport to pick me up.
And with that, my trip to Japan is finished! I have spent the last few days attempting to fix my sleep schedule, which I believe I’m only now beginning to accomplish, and also trying to find a home for the immense amount of trinkets and goods that I had brought home with me. This was truly the trip of a lifetime, and I hope to return sometime in the future and do all of the things that I didn’t have time for during this trip! I’m so grateful for all of the things I got to do and all of the people I got to meet, and I hope that my desire to travel and see and do more will continue for the rest of my lifetime!
And thank you to everyone who actually read all of this. I appreciate it! It’s fun to be able to share my experiences with others, and I’m really happy that this blog was a required part of our trip. Here’s to more travels!
One response
What an amazing adventure! Thank you for sharing it all with us. Cheers to MORE TRAVEL…the best education ever!