But it all worked out well.

I tried hard to stay in until 10 but I was up soooooo early. Jet lag or something. So I checked out Tokyo station. It’s been rebuilt and is amazing. It has a good wikipedia page.

I thought that with rain in the forecast, I should probably find a way to be inside a lot….hahahaja.

But then 10 minutes later (that is my maximum attention span) I just walked towards the palace grounds to try again to see what I could see.

So anyway I found myself on an outdoor walking tour during the rainiest time of the day, of course. Totally worth it. We saw as much of the palace complex as anyone ever does. None is in any way original of course bc WWII. Still neat.

After an adequate lunch, a museum. The museums in Japan are very moderately priced so that’s nice. It was ok.

Then I was thinking of going to this neat old shrine and park that I’d seen before, and then promptly subway’d it to the wrong station. Oops. TripAdvisor told me that there’s this free observation deck nearby and it was cool! A snack bar, and a piano, and other neat stuff.

On the way back I walked through a park and saw an old shinto shrine. It still had a semi-original wooden pagoda and priests that drive Mercedes Benzes lol.

Thus my day ended. Dinner was some random stuff from the 7-11.

Night!

It was almost 60 degrees today! So grateful for a lovely day.

Met a fellow traveler at the breakfast and we walked over to the local temple together for a short walk.

http://www.senso-ji.jp/

This is a busy, busy place. So neat to see it again. It’s one of the great things about Japan, that this place isn’t a tourist trap. It surely could be.

I totally just showed up at the thing I was gonna do today, and of course it was closed lol. So since it was only 11, I just moved on to something else. Luckily, this is a city of 28 million people….so there’s lots of something else.

I was looking for some lunch and saw these locals waiting in line for ramen. It was delicious. So worth waiting for.

The procedure for seeing a for-real, all -day kabuki theater production is kinda complicated for visitors. It’s made simpler by the theater owners selling standing room only tickets that you can only buy the same day, and you can just buy a ticket for one act of the play.

It was enough to just see a bit. Not speaking Japanese, you know, makes it a little harder to follow the plot. I’ve always wanted to do this kind of thing and it was cool, so….winning!

I walked up and down the fancy shopping street that was nearby. Let’s just say that I let my opportunity go by to purchase a $35,000 purse.

Fun, though, to see all the dressed up shoppers. So many cool clothes and handbags.

My feet hurt so I called it a day after that.

To my disbelief I watched an episode of Little House on the Prairie, dubbed in Japanese.

Goodnight lovelies

And it feels pretty good.

My hostel is in an alley, off an alley, off an alley.

Anyway, after a fun time finding my way…..wait, it wasn’t fun. Just a little frustrating…I’m checked in now and drinking a beer.

The flight with JAL was great. 2 solid meals, lots of movies, a great seat mate. Also I found out where the snacks were.

The neighborhood is interesting. It’s simultaneously quiet and lively, if that’s possible.

I’m looking forward tomorrow to finding the best ramen in the area. Nearby there’s a halal ramen shop. Intriguing!

Anyway, I’m exhausted and my beer is gone.

Shower and bed, finally

TTFN

Well

I got my flight times mixed up and discovered that I had an entire day to kill in Sydney!!

It got a lot easier when I found a preloaded travel card with 45 bucks on it. Now I could spend what cash I had on food and coffee. I also got to ride a ferry one more time, so that was nice.

I went to Watson’s Bay, which is a nice little neighborhood close to Bondi. There’s a coastal walk, lighthouses, yummy bakery, and old cemetery up there. I sat in the cemetary and ate an apple turnover and felt lucky to be there.

After the long bus ride back to the city, I stopped into a souvenir shop and my favorite city stop, the Customs House.

The hotel let me have a coffee and charge my phone even though I’d checked out already. That was nice of them, and finally it was time to go to the airport.

After a day of worry about Hurricane Lane, the flights went off without a hitch. Much ado about nothing, apparently. I even slept a little!

Now I’m in Portland on a bus, waiting to come home.

What now?

I need a job, and to make some money. My tooth broke in the outback and I need dental work. I want to sit on my couch and drink my coffee.

Thanks, Australia, for a great month. I met some super cool people from all over. Your coffee is on point, and the outback was everything I could have hoped for.

That’s all for now.

See you…sometime