Sayonara Nippon

I woke up with a very dry mouth due to the air conditioning. I badly needed water. We got packed up and went down to the changing rooms and lockers. We had a shower... well, a kind of sento style bath. We embarked on our final trip to the train station with all of our luggage. Eric was going to stay in Tokyo and decide what to do later and Philip was going back to Hyogo as Kay was home from Cambodia for her New Years celebrations. We bought our train tickets. My JR Rail pass had expired so this was the first big train ticket I had to pay for. The JR Rail pass is a life saver and even though it is expensive (€551 for a 3 week ticket), I definitely got my moneys worth from it. We then said our goodbyes to Eric and went through. Philip's train was leaving after mine so we walked up to my platform. After a goodbye, Philip left me there to go to his platform.

The train finally came. I tried to sleep on it but with no success. In Narita airport, I checked in my bags, was relieved I didn't get stuck with a middle seat like the trip out and made one las use of a Japanese toilet & I spent my final yen on souvenirs. In my usual manner, I didn't queue up for a half hour to get on the plane so I was one of the last on. The lady scanned my ticket and it said "Not Checked In". I had a brief moment of panic until she quickly brushed me off by giving me a ticket and saying "I'm putting you in Premium Economy". Extra leg space and an aisle seat... brilliant, and a free newspaper. So before take off, I was already caught up on British current affairs. I only slept for about an hour in the whole flight and I watched "The American" starring George Clooney. An awful movie.

In Heathrow, I killed some of the 5 hours wait by eating an over priced burger. I wasn't even hungry but boredom prevailed. When booking my flight from London to Dublin, I decided I would be so exhausted and treated myself to paying for a seat, row 1, seat D (aisle). The plane was empty so I could have just taken it anyway. When the air hostess was starting the whole spiel pointing to the exits etc, I fell asleep and when I woke up, I thought we were moving to take off but we were on a Dublin runway. It's happened once before but those flights are the best. It was weird being home but after a long day of travelling, it was relieving.

And that was the end to an absolutely amazing trip.