Our flight was scheduled at 8:30 PM; we wanted as much time as possible if we were doing the cycle, to make it to Hiroshima. With that not being an issue (with the rain), we were able to wake up later than usual. Feeling a bit hungry, I headed downstairs to grab some snacks from the vending machine, and a milk tea. After eating, we cleaned up and checked out of our room.
After leaving our luggage at the hotel, we headed to another mall that was connected to a shopping street. There was some reprieve from the rain as it lightened down a bit. After exploring the mall for a while, we stumbled across a variety of different shops like a pop up Chiikawa store, Snoopy store and various other famous characters. After spending some time purchasing some small goods, we left the mall to find lunch. After walking around for a bit, we found a curry place that wasn't a Coco Ichibanya. We entered at the right time, for people were finishing up their meals, hence we were able to grab a table. Both of us decided to settle for a katsu curry, which they prepared quite quickly. The curry was different than other Japanese curry I've had, though it was quite good. After completing our meals, we paid and left for another mall.
Like the other malls, there wasn't anything in particular that was unique, save for the top floor vending machine. We've noticed a special Tully's Fizzpresso drink. Tully is known for making coffee drinks, but this one is special. It was a carbonated espresso drink, flavoured with lime. It was as bad as it sounded.
With nothing else to do, we decided to head early to the airport. We went back to the hotel to grab our luggage and made our way towards the bus stop to catch a bus to the airport. With the rain coming back, and harder than it was in the morning, we were fortunate enough to flag down a taxi. Instead of asking to take us to the bus stop, we asked the driver to make the 1 hour drive to the airport.
Luckily we decided to leave early. There was an insane amount of traffic everywhere. What should have taken 10-15 minutes to leave the city took over 70 minutes. As we approach the toll road that would lead us straight to the airport, it turned out that it was temporarily blocked. Further down the road, a landslide (or some other natural disaster), or maybe the possibility of one (since I'm unable to find news of a landslide that took place recently) prevented all traffic from going through, and you had to go through a longer path to reach the airport. With time running out, we had to make a decision on what to do. The taxi driver mentioned to us that it would be very difficult (muzukashii) to make it to the airport in time. If you ever hear someone say muzukashii, it literally means it's impossible. With that in mind, the only other ways I could think of to getting to Tokyo were to take a bus or the shinkansen (bullet train). Frantically, I downloaded the Shinkansen app, made an account and tried purchasing tickets. It seemed like other people were getting the same idea, for it was difficult to get tickets. Fortunately, we were able to secure two seats with luggage access on a train that was leaving in about an hour and 40 minutes. The taxi driver then took us to the station in about 30-40 minutes. All in all, for two hours in the taxi, it was only about $70 CAD. A lot better than I expected for a ride that long.
Since we had a bit of time to spare, we shopped for ekiben (train station bento) for the nearly 3 hour and 30 minute ride back to Tokyo. Despite it being difficult to book seats, the Nozomi 62 shinkansen was only about 70% full. As we made it back to Tokyo station, we got out of the station and started heading towards our last hotel for the trip. Unfortunately, there were two hotels in the area we were in (Nihombashi) that had the same name, with only the ending being different. Going to the wrong hotel, we had to take another 10 minutes to walk towards the right hotel. We finally made it after midnight. Our rooms were located in the annex building behind the main building, so we went out and walked a small distance to the door leading us to the elevator. Being Tokyo, this was by far the smallest room we had throughout this trip. It was good to finally relax. After taking a shower, I got ready for bed.
The next day will be full of shopping. Almost done!
A Chiikawa ramen shop near the Chiikawa store.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that they ended up delaying our plane departure time from around 8:30 PM to nearly 12 AM. If we stuck it out with the taxi, we might have been able to make it.
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