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Someone really needs to sort that out...
A local apartment block in Tokyo with a very large cockroach on the wall! Well today is the last report from Japan, as we fly home tomorrow lunchtime Japanese time.
We decided to have a leisurely day today, just experiencing a Japanese Sunday in Ueno Park, just down the road from our hotel. I'd seen years ago about the people of Tokyo metaphorically letting their hair down on a Sunday in the park and they didn't let me down!
The first thing we caught sight of as we entered the park was a local Sunday baseball game. Baseball was introduced to Japan in 1872 and is still probably the most majorly followed sport in Japan. The guys playing the game we watched part of today played with real intensity, but also were clearly enjoying themselves.
Ueno Park is full of museums, including the Tokyo National Museum, the National Science Museum and the National Museum for Western Art, however as the queues were enormous and we didn't fancy the wait we just wandered around the park. We visited a couple of the shrines in the grounds of the park and enjoyed a walk amongst the hundreds of cherry trees.
However the most bizarre event had to be the Snow & Ice
Let's all go to the ball game
Sunday League game in Ueno park, Tokyo Festival being held in the centre of the park. With the temperature not far off 30 degrees Celsius, there were children making snowmen and grown men carving ice sculptures!
After a pleasant afternoon in Ueno Park, we took one last wander through the local streets, seeing if there were any last minute bargains to be had. That completed we wandered back to the hotel to pack our bags for the last time, before nipping out for a bite to eat. Even on our last day Japan has surprised us, with Anthony managing to get himself a Spam sandwich (with the Japanese obligatory egg on top!) for his supper.
Tomorrow just after 12noon Japanese time we will take off from Tokyo's Narita Airport bound for Paris, where we will make a very short stopover (45 minutes) before flying to Manchester. At 6.45pm UK time we will hopefully land back home in Manchester, before the hour long journey home to Huddersfield.
I've wanted to come here since I was 8 years old and always promised I would come one day. I was excited when we booked to come and throughout the time waiting for the trip, however on the
Snowmen in June
Its 30 degrees, hey I know let's go build a snowman - only in Japan! edge of that was a worry that it all might not live up to my expectations of 27 years. Well I needn't have worried; it has been fantastic here in Japan, everything I hoped for and a lot more besides.
Hiroshima was as moving as I expected, Kyoto as historical and picturesque as I hoped for, Mount Fuji as imposing and impressive as all the pictures suggested and Tokyo as completely bonkers a place as you'd expect with a population over four times that of London. Thanks for reading, apologies if I've bored you at any time with these blogs and even more so if I bore you upon my return.
Here's to a safe journey home with the knowledge that these last seventeen days have been brilliant and that we're both really happy with life.
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Gill
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Hpmeward Bound
Well you have obviously had a fantastic though i'm sure quite hectic time. You'll need another holiday to rest and recuperate, have a safe and great trip back through the time zones. Speak to you soon, Amy has her AS exams this week so will catch up when they finish. xx