Final Day

We took our time this morning, leaving the hotel just at check out time (11AM).  

We left our bags at the hotel and then took the metro  to Asakusa station ( which is the same one we went to accidentally the first day). This area of the city was where I first looked for hotels before we changed to the Akasaka area. 

The purpose to go there was two fold. First we went to see the oldest temple in Tokyo ( admittedly rebuilt after the Americans destroyed the city in several different raids).

The place was just hopping! There were many young people ( especially girls ) dressed in traditional clothing; there to take photos at the magnificent buildings and grounds. 

After that I wanted to walk a couple of blocks to the river and explained to Caro what happened on those bridges during the fire storms of 1945.

There is a large, busy shopping area in the streets surrounding the temple grounds and we walked them all as we had much time to kill. 

Caro decided to try a shrimp treat ( the shrimp is flattened out as you wait). It was tasty. 

From there we went to a sushi place with a style  that Caro had always wanted to try. The place has various sushi’s going around on a moving tray or you can order from the menu. Either way all the various items you want to eat are on different coloured plates so when you are ready to pay, the attendant merely looks at your dirty dishes and determines your cost. Neat! And I actually enjoyed the raw tuna and sticky rice!

We took the metro back to our area and before getting our suitcases we went to the ramen place we went to on day 1. We  each picked a plate of food and when finished we “waddled” over to the hotel to get our things. 

Back to the metro we went and this time we had to make two metro/train station changes. The first was at Shimbashi station. We needed help several times to find our way to our connection line however we made our way successfully to the monorail that goes directly  to Haneda airport. 

Check-in had a minor hiccup but ANA Airlines was great getting things straightened out. 

We had just enough money left on our Saica metro/train cards to buy a water / fruit pop. The money left on the app was not refundable so it was nice to use it all up. 

We purposely chose to come to the airport early as we didn’t want to be hauling suitcases into extremely crowded metro cars. As it was, the cars were very busy but not so crazy that you had to be pushed on by station attendants. 

So now we sit with three hours to go at this point before getting on the plane.