Last day in Japan (Boo Hoo Sniff Sniff)

For Monday 24 October

How much shopping can one shopping-hating woman do??  Too much, it seems.  As I sit here writing about our last day in Japan, my feet, knees, hips and back are really killing me!  Fortunately, John offered to go down to the laundry on the first floor to do the washing.  Otherwise, it wouldn’t have got done.

We discovered that we didn’t have to vacate our hotel room till midday today, so I vacated at about 10.00am to continue with the shopping list, while John stayed in the room sending emails and reading.  I always knew he was a smart man.

I was a bit nervous about venturing out without my trusty navigator, but I had a very clear map of the area, as well as the hotel’s phone number so I knew that I wouldn’t disappear in Osaka without trace.

My first stop was a book store to stock up on a few books to help me with my studies.  I could have stayed in there browsing all day, but I found what I was looking for and quit while I still had some money left for my other items.  Judging by the number of people in the book store, books are still very popular in Japan.  There were also many people using the library when we were in Fukuoka.

The morning went by very quickly, while I wandered in and out of various shops, ticking things off my list.  I was really worn out by then, and still had to walk back to the hotel.  I was very pleased to find that I was walking down a familiar street and made it back to the hotel two minutes before the time I told John I’d be back.  If I hadn’t had the map, I would have headed in the opposite direction when I came out of the Yodabashi Camera store.  My sense of direction is dreadful!

The Catholic Church next to our hotel

We then had to make our way to tonight’s hotel which, being near the Kansai Airport, is some distance from central Osaka.  We caught a subway to Osaka Station, a normal train to Shinimamiya Station, an Express train to Kishiwada and a local train to Iharanosato.  From there it was about a 10 minute walk to the hotel – with two backpacks and the two extra bags that we now have to fit all our goodies in!  We were very relieved to get to the hotel, but there seemed to be some confusion about our booking.  We did the booking through a booking website some months ago and I’m not sure that the booking made its way to the hotel.  After a bit of frowning and searching on the computer, we were finally given a key and made it to our room.

After a decent rest, we went to the nearby shopping mall where we had dinner and another browse around the shops.  I’d been looking for tabi socks (the ones with the split toes) during my morning shopping expedition and didn’t find any.  Tonight I bought a pair in one shop (380 yen) and then found that there were plenty in the discount shop for 105 yen a pair.  So I bought another four pairs.  They should last me until my next visit to Japan!

Lots and lots of 'stuff' for 105 yen

Gorgeous little boots and shoes!

We spent the rest of the evening watching silly shows on TV and sorting out our baggage for tomorrow.  We’re catching the 7.45 am shuttle bus to the airport to get there in plently of time for our 10.05 flight.

At this stage of our last trip we felt a bit ‘Japanned out’, but this time we’d both be happy to lose our passports for a while and stay on for some more of this.  Hopefully our couple of days in Hong Kong will help us to ease out of Japan mode.