Day 11. Bon Voyage.

Day 11. Bon Voyage.

Today, most of the group were going home. I had booked a room on my own in the hotel where Peter and May stayed before they had joined up with us in Hakuba, and moved all my things over there before returning to say farewells.
I took a few photos of Hotel Unizo while the other did some last-minute shopping. We had been there for what seemed such a long time if felt like a second home. A second home where we sat in the foyer and stole wifi.

Amelia and Jules had flown with a different airline and were leaving later than the others. We decided to get in some cat themed tourism before they had to go.
We ate some fish at a standup sushi bar where there were no chairs! As usual, it was all really yum.
Then off to find a Hello Kitty Japan store for souvenirs. It could just be me, but all the Hello Kitty stuff seemed really expensive. Amelia bought some items and I left the store with the free Hello Kitty event handouts they have at the register. I really am quite miserly when it comes to money.
Finally, we had seen a cat cafe the previous night and thought we might give it a look. It was really hard to find based on the directions we had and it was on the 3rd floor of a building with an out of the way entrance. The door of the cafe itself was covered in cat themed pictures and photos.

There were already 3 or four people inside the entrance and we had to wait. We could clearly see they were struggling with the confines of the reception area. After they went in, a different group came out and Jules and Amelia entered to try and find out what you actually did inside. When they said we would be drinking tea and playing with cats I decided to forgoe the opportunity. My allergeies would likely have killed me.
While the other two went in, I decided to walk up and down the main street and see if I could find a snack to eat. Apart from the Lawsons and K-stores there were only sit-down eateries. I reluctantly entered a KFC and ordered a small chips. Servings in Japan aren't what they are here in Australia or in America. A small chips in Japan is small. There were about 5 or 6 chips held together in a paper sleeve. I had to admit though, they were what I always thought KFC chips should be. Far superior to anything I've had outside of Japan. I was able to finish the chips on the way back to the cafe, but like everywhere in Japan, there are no bins on the street. I had to duck into a McDonalds and pretend to look like I was going to order something so I could chuck out my rubbish in their bin.
I was a little early back as the street had been really boring with not much to see, so I sat in probably the smallest little white stool I've ever seen and waited. Soon enough, the others reappeared and we went to collect their bags before heading to the station for their last time this trip.


After a teary goodbye, I was on my own.

If I hadn't gotten so lost on the first time to Dormy Inn Premium Shibuya, I would have been in serious trouble. The difficulty I had in finding the place earlier meant I knew exactly where to go and which streets to take now.
I had my camera on me and thought I'd take some photos of the hallway for no real reason.

For a 3 star hotel, it was extremely nice. Everything was clean and the staff very friendly. Pete had mentioned something about a Pillow menu and an onsite spa, but I never ventured to the other side of the hotel foyer and so never saw them. I was probably too excited by the prospect of free ramen in the evening.

I didn't venture out of the hotel for the rest of the night and planned what I wanted to do for the rest of my stay in Tokyo. I had 8 days left to do whatever I wanted.

The closest place I wanted to visit was Hakkone (pronounced 'hack-o-nay', not 'Hack-wun' as I originally thought) which Amelia and Jules had seen on their last trip. It looked good but going by my plan, I only had 1 day for hakkone if I wanted to cram everything else into the rest of my trip. I decided to stick with the plan of making it a day trip which meant I needed to book the following night in Shibuya now. I checked with reception and my current room wasn't booked so I added another night to my stay. To avoid the same issue in my other destinations, I decided to also book them straight away. 2 nights in Aomori, and 2 nights in Kyoto. The final night was going to be back in Shibuya where I was planning to get in some souvenir shopping done in Akihabara and take another look at Harajuku before the train ride to the airport. I wasn't 100% sure about the hotel location so I left the decision until later.

Coming up, Hakkone.