The dreaded day is finally upon us - the last effective day and night in Japan. We however held our spirits together and made sure the day was going to be spent as wisely as possible. As per discussed last night, the first task of the day will be to grab all the souvenirs and foodstuffs from Asakusa itself first thing in the morning and then return to our rooms to leave the stuffs there before continuing our day.

And so, we made our way to the crowded streets of Asakusa to start our shopping spree. Ninguyaki (Red Bean snack in the form of humans) was the main item on our shopping list and we made a beeline for the most famous stall as recommended by June. We wanted to get it on the last day only as the snack is made fresh everyday. It tastes really good when its piping hot! I personally did not have much things in mind to buy from Asakusa other than Ninguyaki, however I did buy a fridge magnet as a souvenir. Wai Kit, Kenny and me bought some postcards when we passed by a stall selling them. I thought it would be nice to send Ron chan a postcard from Tokyo. I got another couple more of postcards to send to my friends as well.

We split up so that we can get our own stuffs more efficiently and set a time to meet back at our room. The guys made it back earlier, unsurprisingly, and rested first. We weren't exactly wide awake yet. While waiting for the girls to return, we wrote our postcards so that we could mail them later on. Kenny managed to track down a post office in Shinjuku, where we will be going to later.

The girls came back soon after and once we finish leaving our stuffs in our rooms, we made our way out to the metro station. As mentioned earlier, we went to Shinjuku, another major shopping area where the big departmental stores such as Takashimaya, Odakyu and Isetan are located. Major luxury brands are also present in this area as well.

The first place we went was this Big Camera place to help June buy a Polaroid camera for her sisters. It was a long and dreary affair as she took quite a while to make up her mind and also the tax rebate issue which we took a while to understand how it works. We insisted that she try out her new camera just to make sure it is working fine. LOL. And so we got a stranger to help us take a photo. The Polaroid photo came out as expected and we waited for the picture to come out. We waited and waited and hey, still no picture! We were wondering why when we finally realized that the first piece of the negative is just a protective piece! Waste of time man! So we decided to try another time. And well, it worked this time and we concluded the camera is working fine ;-).

We continued on our way towards Isetan as the Post Office is around there. We managed to locate the little post office hidden amongst all the signs and buildings. We went in and took out our postcards to be sent to our friends. There wasn't a queue and therefore it was done in a jiffy. We went back out and came across the largest Kinokuniya I have seen. There was 7 storey worth of it and the lifts that serviced the bookstore had a girl inside assisting the customers in pressing the button and giving a brief introduction to the level we are heading to. I bought a cheap and good dictionary, which was a newer version of the current one that I am using now. June tried to find some Japanese word game but no luck.

Next we went towards Takashimaya Times Square. Along the way we passed by a fruits stall where we bought "Furu-Furu" drinks. This was the interesting drink which I mentioned earlier when I was in Sapporo during the Christmas Hippo Party where you had to shake to drink it. There were a few more flavours this time and we tried them. We also noticed the stall selling a triangular shaped water melon and it was going for a ridiculous 60,000Yen! Fruits in Japan certainly isn't cheap. Mango was going at about 1000Yen a piece. Recalling that Rie loves mangoes, we decided to get her a couple of mangoes, but Kenny insisted to pay for it though. Then we continued and came across this really huge UNIQLO outlet which was pretty crowded with shoppers. We went in to see if there was anything interesting. We didn't see anything that could catch our attention but the girls beg to differ. So we decided to move on while the girls wanted to stay on and shop.

So Kenny, Wai Kit and me went out and at this juncture, Kenny decided to leave us for Ueno where he will be meeting Rie to pass her something and the mangoes as well. So Wai Kit and me continued our journey and we visited Zara just across the road. He bought a shirt after trying on a few of them. The shop was actually closed and we were more or less the only ones left in there but didn't realize it. When we found out, we quickly made payment and left. Taka was next and we strolled towards it relaxingly. We didn't really explore Taka as it was just another mall to us, so we went through it and behind was a huge bridge. We went across and I finally manage to tick another item off my to-do list. I finally found Krispy Kreme Doughnuts! Wai Kit and I went to queue for it without any hesitation. The queue was a little long but the wait was made easier when the staff brought freshly baked original glazed doughnuts for all the queuing customers free of charge. What can I say about Japanese service standards man. Simply world class.

It was finally our turn and we bout 3 doughnuts each and made our way up to the 2nd level to savour our kill. The doughnuts are just plain delicious. Now I have officially tried Krispy Kremes in the USA, Hong Kong and Japan. There was a little park that was decorated with blue lights and it was very romantic and pretty. We took some of photos of it and of course with us in it as well. LOL. Then we went back across the bridge back to Taka and found an area which was decorated with lights as well but this one being more colourful and with a myriad of designs including animals, pavilions and poker cards, etc. around this time, we contacted June and reslised she was in Taka as well and we met up to make our way to Ueno to meet Kenny.

There was only 2 things to do at Ueno that time, most of the places were closed and the only interesting places left opened in the station was the Black Tokyo Banana store and the Hard Rock Café. We bought some of the banana which was available only in Ueno and made our way to the Hard Rock Café. And this Wai Kit spent a helluva long time in there taking his own sweet time to choose shirts and gifts for, I think maybe, his whole extended family or something man. LOL. When he was finally done, everyone was famished. We then went back to Asakusa to settle our dinner. Everywhere was pretty much closed but we managed to find 1 stall selling Don still open for business. We had a quick one and then went straight back to our rooms. There was a lot of packing to be done tonight.

The whole trip is finally coming to an end. Really miss the homestay, especially our host mama, Ron chan, Kira, etc and also all the kids as well. Tokyo is really big, so much so that 3 full days won't even be enough to cover half of what is on offer. Well, all wonderful things also has an end to it and I guess this is it. Finally going to return to Singapore and face reality again. It was however great to be able to escape from everything, even if it was only for a couple of weeks. Will definitely treasure this experience.