Day 25 (Aug 23) - Back to Canada

Our last morning in Japan was comfortable since we had nothing planned besides heading to the airport. Unlike two years ago, we knew our seats, thus having no anxiety about whether we can board the plane or not.

We checked out at around 10 and headed towards Shinjuku station to catch the Narita Express. I wish I got myself a ekiben before boarding, but I didn't make any side trips to find stalls/vendors. The ride to Narita was smooth, and this was the first time that I didn't nap as we sped to the airport.

We had about three hours before our flight, which meant that we couldn't check in our luggage right away. We found a waiting area nearby and sat there for about 30 minutes. As we waited, a parade marched by us, though I wasn't sure what the event was for. It was nice to see though!

After checking in our luggage, we went to find a place to return our Pasmo cards. For future reference, we just need to head to a gate attendant and ask for a refund. After returning our Pasmo cards, we headed to go through security. We still had about two hours left, so we strolled through the Duty-Free stores for a while before stopping at McDonald's for one last meal. It seems to be a habit of mine, since I've ordered something from McDonald's ever since 2014 (started with Mexico, though I didn't buy anything from McDonald's in 2018 in Montreal). We finished our meal and headed to the lobby area to wait to board. I'm not sure why, but we waited to be the last people to board the flight.

The flight was relatively uneventful, besides patches of turbulence. I finished watching End Game, and watched The Fate and the Furious that I downloaded on my phone via Netflix. I also managed to finish the first part of Terrace House Tokyo 2019-2020, which kept me up throughout the flight. I think I managed maybe 15 minutes of sleep in total?

Going through customs in Calgary was a lot quicker than 2017 ever since they introduced electronic kiosks. We picked up our luggage and waited for our dad to pick us up from the airport.

And that essentially marks the end of Japan 2019! At times, I admit, I wanted the trip to end earlier, but in retrospect I'm glad we had 24 days in Japan. While I write this, I kinda wish that I was still in Japan! I regret not eating as much variety this time around, but there's always next time!

I'll post a reflective post about this trip sometime in the next few weeks. I've stopped blogging daily ever since I finished my 365 day challenge (if you include those short, short Haikus) for my last year in my 20's, but I'm pretty tired from blogging for almost a month.