Thursday, May 7, 2015

Tokyo Adventure III Day 9: Haneda Airport, Rappongi, and Ginza

Woah, that was a really fast trip, but we managed to cram a lot of stuff into it!  I can't believe how fast a week went by, but I really needed to get away and enjoyed every moment of it!

Before I tell you about our last day in Tokyo, I thought I should share a funny story that actually took place the day before.  While trying to go downstairs, Paul pressed the button "G" for Ground.  We were on the third floor and the elevator went up to the 6th floor.  We couldn't figure out why and just assumed that someone must've called the elevator... when the door opened, no one was there.


Meanwhile, there was a guy on another floor that it would stop at for him but when he tried to go into the elevator, it would buzz (I guess we were too heavy?).  This same scenario repeated 2 more times cause Paul kept pressing "G".  HELLO!!!!  It's not "G"!  It's "6".  DUH.  LOL!!!!!  That guy must've thought he was on candid camera.  By the third time he was irritated.  Damn Gaijin!! LOL!

Ok... on to our last day.  We had to wake up early to get Denise to Haneda Airport in time.  She had to still pick up her bag from the Tak-Q-Bin and turn in her cell phone.  So we headed out early to the airport and that alone was an adventure!  First of all, on the monorail we got off on Terminal "1" because that's what it says on her printout.  When we got to Terminal "1" we couldn't find the British Airways terminal.  It was apparently a domestic terminal, so no BA flights.  I think Paul found out that it wasn't Terminal "1", it was Terminal "I" for International.  DUH!  Again we can't figure out where we are going!!

So we hopped back onto the monorail towards Terminal "I".  We got off on the next stop and it did not look familiar at all.  At the last minute, Paul hops back onto the monorail and almost has the door close on him.  We quickly hop back on and then he tells us that we got off on the wrong stop.  Phew and OMG!  What a rollercoaster.

We finally made it to the correct terminal.  Yay!  Mom and I had brought a couple of our bags to store at the airport so that we didn't have too many bags to carry when we go back to the airport later that night.  We took our bags to the baggage storage area and they held our bags for about 800 yen each. Yah!  What a relief!

By then I had to use the bathroom, so I found one while Denise checked in and went to go return her cell phone.  While in the restroom, I thought I'd take a picture of this... I think this is from the airport one but I could be wrong.  Many of the toilets in Japan have these "Flushing sound" buttons that you can activate so that other's can't hear you pee.  Bwahahahaha!  They are so thoughtful!


After a LONG time, Denise was finally able to return her cell phone.  Then it was time to say goodbye.  We had a great time!  So happy Denise was able to join us! Bye sis!


After we saw Denise off, we headed for Roppongi.  They had a special Star Wars exhibit that Paul wanted to try see if we could catch.  I saw this cute Kiki and Lala poster on the subway!  I think they are talking about going to sleep? I wanted to steal it.


We had never gone to Roppongi before.  Since we were really early, we found a Don K! in that area and loaded up on more omiyage for the trip home.  Paul really wanted to buy this bag of arare.  I think we need to go to Don K! at the beginning of our trip!  Note for file for next trip.


Gee, Spam is sure expensive in Japan!


And so is Mauna Loa!


Paul had so much fun in Don K!  I can't show you all the things he took pictures of, but here's the "G" rated ones... or maybe "PG". 




 He totally wanted this telescoping rake/back scratcher.


Look at all the things you can do with it...

 We found these faux "jean shorts" underwear there too..  LOL!


We decide to get coffee and breakfast at Starbucks that was nearby.  Man, they had some good stuff!  This bacon and cheese bread was awesome.


And this milk chiffon cake was sooo oishii!!!!


After our breakfast, we headed to the Star Wars exhibit.  Here's the poster.


But the line to get your ticket was 2 hours, so Paul didn't want to wait.  Instead we tried to see if we could find Star Wars merchandise when we stumbled on these Stormtrooper fan art. I liked the kabuki one.


This one looked like a cake.


And this one like a kawaii bunny!


I think all Stormtroopers wish to have this helmet.



Or maybe this one?  It looks very royal.


Don't ask me why but I liked this poster in the subway station. It looks like Doraemon!



We decided to head back to the hotel to drop off all the omiyage we bought.  We had found a sashimi type place that Paul picked up some food at. He was enjoying it on the fire escape since the maid was in our room.



Meanwhile, Mom and I headed back to find 711. The other combini by our hotel was kind of junk.  Success!  I got more rations.


Check out this salmon musubi!!!  Look how big the pieces of salmon were!!


After our "lunch" we headed to Ginza.  We never got a chance to shop there since the Kabuki ran so long.  I found this ad amusing on the subway, but its not a very good pic.  The guy is actually holding a shower head and spraying himself while dressed in a Tux.  WTH???


While in Ginza, we got more Puri Cube figures for omiyage.  I forgot to do a video on all of them, but I think we have most of them. I'd better remember to do it!


We decided to try go find the Baumkuchen cake again, but I'm sad to say the bake shop is not in the same department store.  Boooo.

We then hopped on a subway to try to meet our friend Randy.. I don't even know where we went!  But we ended up looking for a place to eat dinner.  While wandering around, we saw this!  I told mom that this is how we had to order our ramen one time. That was pretty scary.



We finally saw this sign and some photos of food, so we decided to try this place.  It turns out it was another izakaya.

Remember to push the button!


We decided to toast our last meal in Tokyo!!


This dish is the reason we decided on this place.  It was like a hamburger steak with cheese in it.  Yum!


Paul was ono for gyoza.  I like mine crispy like this one!


Look at all the food we ordered!


Mom wanted to try the crispy musubi. It was pretty good!


This was a little weird.  I think they gave us different parts of a chicken.


We did good....


Still had room for more food. So we ordered hamburger katsu and french fries!


Then it was time to head back to the hotel to rest a little before checking out.  We then headed to the airport early to make sure we had enough time.  I'm so glad we had already taken our luggage that morning and used the Tak-Q-bin for our other bags.  It made getting to the airport on the subway so much easier!!!  We did some last minute shopping before checking in.  Found more Kit Kats and that yummy sakura -milano type cookies.  I this is the mascot for the airport?  Everything here has a cute mascot.  Later we saw his eyebrows and feet move.


Believe it or not, once we got through security, Mom ended up buying a Samantha Thavasa bag!! She was saying earlier, if I don't get one it wasn't meant to be.... Then I spotted a store right near our gate, so we ducked in to see if they had anything good.  Mom spotted a black bag and bag charm. She was so happy! I wish I got a picture of her with her new bag but they had wrapped it up already.  Mission accomplished!  And she got it duty free!

We got through customs pretty quickly and got mom on her way, then headed back to the inter-island terminal to wait for our last plane.  I was so tired.  And to show you what a good sport I am... I'll even post this picture of our last flight home.....


We had a blast Tokyo!  Until next time!

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