April 11

We are to our final day in Japan. We have the whole day to enjoy as our flight does not leave until 9:30 pm tonight. And we received notice this morning that the flight would be delayed until 10 pm. 

Matt and I were up earlier than the guys as usual. It has definitely become a 7-11 morning habit and we headed out for coffee and breakfast. Came back to the place and got all packed up. We will be storing our luggage at the AirBnB today while we explore. 

We decided to take a water bus on the Sumida River and see Tokyo from the water. This is the warmest day we’ve seen here. The variety of weather is astonishing - from the 40’s in Hakone to 80 today in Tokyo, and everything in between at the other cities, from overcast days to clear skies, cold bitter wind and warm balmy evenings, sprinkles and pouring rain, we’ve seen it all.

The water bus ride was about an hour long, under bridges and through the city. We enjoyed it very much. When we disembarked, we walked all along the beach around the river through Odaiba Park. Such a beautiful day but definitely hot. Beach volleyball is a thing here and there is a competition going on today. We enjoyed watching for a while. 

Mohan was suggesting a Ramen place for lunch where you eat in stalls by yourself; it is a tradition here called Ichiran. I spoke up and said that I don’t love Ramen and sitting in a stall by myself to eat noodles just didn’t sound appealing. The guys were gracious and accommodating and we went to an Asian cuisine restaurant instead. The food was good and we ordered four desserts! They were so unusual that we wanted to try all of them.  

After lunch, we walked to Lady Liberty, a miniature Liberty statue like ours in the United States. They had a fountain out in the river by the statue, water was set to music with an array of sprays, and one that shot 90 feet into the air. It was quite a sight. 

We continued our walk along the boulevard there and found we were in tulip fields! Tulips everywhere in all colors. So beautiful. We saw the gigantic transformer that this area is known for, and decided to wait until he did his attack mode thing, which was in about 30 minutes. Of course, we bought another coffee while we waited. The attack mode thing was not terribly exciting but fun to watch. 

We moved on to continue exploring through some stores in the area and went to a place that had part of a Japanese neighborhood from the 1950s, at least that was what it was supposed to be. Mostly just a lot of stores and a lot of people. 

It was now time to head back and collect our bags and start our trek to the airport. We took the train back and decided to walk from the AirBnB to Tokyo Station. Wanted to enjoy walking through the city one last time. 

At the station, we boarded the Narita Express for the airport. The ride is about an hour. We had some time at the airport. Matt and I filled up at the Capital One lounge. Dan and Mohan bought lunch at a restaurant in the airport and Daniel discovered he was sitting right next to the gold medalist climber from Japan, quite a thrill for him. 

We are on the plane flying home as I write. It was such a fun trip. I loved it, even the parts I didn’t. It was great to travel with my wonderful son and his husband, and of course, my sweetheart. I realized that I didn’t have any days feeling weird and displaced on this trip. I’m not sure if it was because Daniel was along or if I’m getting better at allowing life to be what it is. We shall see.

I’m grateful for the opportunity to travel with people I love.