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We left our hostel at 7am to get onto our Skinkansen to Tokyo, Colette was meeting us at the train station after her flight so we had to make sure we didn't miss the train. Tokyo was always going to be slightly bittersweet as it was one of the places that I was most excited to vist but it was also our very last place we would be visiting before we travel home and are back in the real world - sad times.
We reached our hotel quite quickly as we had done quite a bit of research so we didnt get lost. When we arrived we had our own room which was really nice, and I loved the fact that we were spending three nights here so we could unpack a little. Our hotel was in Shinjuku which is one of the main areas in Tokyo so after dropping our bags off we went out and made it our mission to find the Forever 21 shop. After quite a while looking around the shop we then went back to our hotel to get showered, changed and go and find somewhere to eat. By this time it was dark which made it more exciting as all the bright lights were on and it made it really feel like Tokyo. We found a nice Thai restaurant to eat in, and Colette had suprised us by telling us that their dad and given her some money so that we could have a nice meal in Tokyo which was so nice of him, and the meal that we had was lovely :)
I woke up the next day so excited as it was time for Disney Land!! The whole park is a replica of the Florida one, minus Harry Potter but I didnt mind too much as I can always visit that another time. When we arrived I felt like a little kid, I bought some minnie ears then we took some pictures by the castle before starting on the rides. The park was so busy, and we waited in line for 90 minutes for our first ride Splash Mountain. We knew that we would spend most of the day waiting but they did have some free fast track passes so we used them where we could, Space mountain was my favourite ride of the day. The only dissapointing thing about the day was that I expected to see the Disney characters just walking around but the only one we saw was Jessie from Toy Story. By the time the parade was on it was freezing!! So cole that we could even bare to stay for the fireworks which I was gutted about but we did have an amazing day anyway!
We were up nice and early the next day for a trip to Harajuku. It wasnt far from our hotel, only a few stops on the train. Apparantly Sunday is the most busiest day in Harajuku and its the best time to see some Harajuku girls who are basically girls who dress quite crazy. When we arrived the streets were so busy it was quite hard to see much. So we got out of the crowd and visited a few shops including Top Shop and Forever 21. After a little walk around we got out of the hustle and bustle and sat in a nice park for a while. We left the park after a few hours of people watching (some teenagers were pretending to walk up and down a catwalk which kept us amused) we walked to Shibuya. We were excited to visit Shibuya as it is the main part of Tokyo that you seen on TV and films. It has the famous Shibuya crossing which is a huge crossing that stops traffic in all directions. To get a better view we went to the star bucks that overlooks the crossing and managed to get a window seat. We literally sat there for hours watching people cross the road, it was so good!! We finally dragged ourselves away from starbucks to walk across the crossing, well me and colette tried to run in front of the crowd so that we could get a picture in the middle of it but it didnt quite work. On the other side of the crossing we got to see the Hatchi statue :) It began to get very cold so we headed back to our hotel, but first we stopped off at Coco Curry House for some Japanese curry and it was the best curry I have ever tasted!
It was our second to last day in Japan and our last day with Colette :( we were still going to have fun though and so we visited the Studio Ghibli museum. It didnt know anything about Studio Ghibli before we went but I really enjoyed looking around the museum, i'll defintely try and watch some of the films now I know all about it. After the museum we made our way back to the hotel for the last time to pick up our bags. We walked Colette to the train station to say a sad farewell :( as we may not see her for at least another year. Its been so good being able to spend so much time with Colette in Japan if she stays longer than a year at least we can visit her again :)
Me and Jane had a capsule hotel booked in another part of Tokyo for the night. It felt like it took us forever to get that, and by the time we did I felt like crying with the weight of my back pack on my back!! The hotel was ok, but we expected proper capsules like Karl Pilkington had on idiot abroad but but ours were more just like bunk beds. We decided to have a little walk around the area even though it was late and came across a lovely shrine. There were quite a few people still at the shrine. We watched a couple pick out a fortune so we knew how to do it ourselves. They must have seen us watching and called us over to show us how it worked. They were really nice and asked us to go for a drink with them. The best thing about Japanese people are that they are so friendly. And as there arent many westerners in Japan, when they see a westener they really want to talk to them. So the four of us went for a drink and tried some Japanese Sake. At first we thought it was a shot but then realised that you were supposed to sip it. The couple even ordered food for us to try, which included deep fried squid! Now I dont eat anything that come out of the sea so for me to try the squid was a massive thing and once I tried to get out of my mind what it actually was it didnt taste that bad. We all then went to a wine bar and had some more food and drink. Considering we were onl going out for a quick walk we ended up having a really good night out and met some new Japanese friends :)
The capsules were really comfy to sleep in and I think all the alcohol we had the night before helped us sleep, but it was another early rise to check out of our hostel as it was our last day in Japan and our very last day of our travels. After packing we went out for a walk again to see the shrine in the day time, and then met up with our Japanese friends for lunch. We went for Okonomiyaki again and it was lovely. Our friends even bought us a little present each - two cans of sake. After our lunch we said good bye to them, if they ever come to Liverpool we said we would take them out! We then made our way to our last hostel which was by the airport so we would have an easier journey the next morning.
The day had finally arrived for us to leave Japan and go home. Although I was sad for our adventure to be over, it will be exciting to get home and see everyone again.
When we arrived at the airport we checked our bags for the last time. I did have a slight feeling of relief to think that I won't have to carry that backpack with me again any time soon. We tried to buy some Sake in the airport but they wouldnt let us because we had a connecting flight in London we were both gutted! So we bought lots of sweets instead.
So we finally borded our last big flight of our adventure. In 16 hours we will be back in Liverpool........
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