After checking out in the morning, I went back to pick up some goodies in Shibuya 109 for some friends. This does, again, mean that I was dragging my suitcase around with me in the middle of a shopping mall, but such is life when you're traveling on the cheap.
(There are....a number of storage lockers in Shibuya station SPECIFICALLY to prevent this, but I somehow could not find them, so public inconvenience it was.)
Booth outside a record store advertising a newly released album.
I hauled my suitcase up a hill to get lunch at an Indian place that Google maps thought was good--and it was! After that, it was time to head to the airport. Learning from my experience last time, I had booked a flight out of Haneda Airport, easily accessible by the Tokyo metro, not Narita, which is a full two-hour drive out of the city.
I am ENCHANTED by the organization of the metro stations. Each different colored line is for a different train line that uses the same station, preventing crowding and confusion.
Tokoyo Haneda was all decked out for the holiday season!
I bought a few last-minute souvenirs in the airport (including cantaloupe-flavored KitKats, which were TRULY strange), got dinner, and then boarded the plane.
I may have yelped quietly to myself when I saw the city all lit up.....
Someday I'll see you again!!!!
Eleven hours later, I landed in Toronto, where I had to go through an oddly intense security check before proceeding to my gate, which was the. farthest. gate. possible. from where I had landed. After a long flight like that I'm always a little loopy, but I was especially exhausted this trip. Maybe you didn't notice, but within the space of two weeks, I went from tropical Shenzhen to bitterly cold and dry Beijing, back down to the tropics for Hongkong, and back AGAIN to a cold winter in Japan, and then I'd gotten on a plane for eleven hours. My body was a mess.
Luckily, my four hour layover didn't feel that long, and the flight from Toronto to DC was less than two hours.
MOOOOOM, I'M HOOOOOOOME
My loving mother picked me up and took me home, where I then proceeded to be sick for like two weeks ð Everything that I shipped made it to the US not long after I did, and only a few of the weaker plastic items broke in transit, so I count that as a victory.
Good morning! Tuesday (December 5th) saw me wake up and head to Tokyo Station to catch the train to Kamakura. Kamakura today is a rustic seaside town, but it used to be the seat of political power from 1185-1333, so there's a lot of cool stuff to see--too much to see in a day trip, but you have to start somewhere.
The first place I went was through Komachi Dori, a pedestrian shopping area.
I bought taiyaki, which is one my absolute favorite snacks!
I also saw this BEAUTIFUL bird (advertising for an "owl forest" - basically a petting zoo with only owls).
At the end of the street, I came to a large park containing a number of Shinto shrines, a museum, and a kindergarten! I first wandered to Hataage Benzaiten Shrine, isolated on a little island to the right of the entrance.
View of the pond.
The entrance to the shrine grounds.
I fully do not know what these are, but they looked really cool.
Also there were some pigeons chilling.
A view of the shrine gate (torii) from the inside. I'm disproportionally pleased every time I see Japanese Maples in Japan.
From there, I walked along the main path toward Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, a shrine from the 1800s that is considered one of the primary draws of Kamakura today. I didn't take any pictures though, sorry haha.
After satisfying my curiosity by looking around a little more, I headed back to the train station to catch a little trolley-style train to Yuigahama Beach, where I hoped to glimpse Mt. Fuji!
The trolley cars were so cute!
At the beach proper, I felt a little........blown away.
Beautiful beach though!
This is looking toward Zaimokuza beach to the east.
AND WHAT'S IN THE SKY?
AN ANGEL
Alas, my birdwatching cred is not what it should be, so all I can really tell you about this bird is that it's likely a hawk, and definitely not a falcon.
"Beware of hawks!!" BELIEVE ME I AM
Diversions aside, between the wind and the sun, I could not see a daggone thing in the supposed direction of Mt. Fuji, so I decided to return to town and wait until the sun was going down to try the beach again.
Paused at this roadside mirror to capture just how vivid all the colors looked.
The outdoor station near Yuigahama.
Anyway, because I have a one-track mind, I went directly to the owl garden I had passed earlier.
AND I LOVED IT
There will be a special mid-week post showing off the...truly excessive number of photos I took of the owls.
After spending a delightful time there (and presumably eating lunch), I went to grab some dinner and head back to the beach to finally find The Mountain.
Earlier in the day, I had thought maybe that Mt. Fuji was somewhere in the left of this picture? But it was not.
I ended up having to walk around the full curve of the beach, basically to the cliff directly opposite to where I started.
BUT WAIT
IN THE DISTANCE
THERE SHE IS
I finally found Mt. Fuji! It was so dark that I had to brace my camera on a railing to get even these unsteady shots, but it was definitely worth the trek. The beach was also very beautiful at night, despite how windy it still was. I swear I was brushing sand out of my purse for a month.
Lovely
Since I had gotten so far from the station at this point, I ended up just walking back instead of taking the train. It's not too long a walk, but a little longer than I planned for when I started, haha.
I made it back to Kamakura station, dozed all the way to Tokyo, and then crashed back into bed. The next day would be my last in Tokyo, and indeed all of Asia, for the foreseeable future. ð¢
