As of writing this, it's actually the first of July. A mixture of jet lag and a cold I must have gotten on the plane ride home drained my energy, which is the reason for this extremely late upload. Sorry about that!
So without further ado, here's how my last two days of Japan went!
The 27th started out with Courtney, Grace, and I walking out to some nearby grocery stores to buy food souvenirs (the best kind of souvenirs). I brought back some kit kat, mochi, dried fish, and several other things for my parents to try out. We also had our last DeliFrance breakfast and sweet crepe lunch. The three of us lamented over our meals.
We went back to the hotel to relax for a bit before getting together again to try and get our wifi disconnected. Again, we had a bunch of problems while trying to cancel it ourselves due to being illiterate in Japanese, so we headed back to Bic Camera. I was dreading it.
Canceling our wifi ended up not being that hard at all! Luckily I brought the right paperwork the workers needed to cancel it and we were out of there in 10 minutes! The workers were super nice too and asking questions about how our trip went and such. We walked out feeling significantly better and met with Justin and Riley to head off for Abiko for our final dinner.
Before going to the restaurant, we went back to the tea shop. Courtney, Grace, and I wanted some last red bean and mochi ice cream and Justin wanted to buy a small tea set for his parents back home. After getting what we came for we headed out and made it to dinner just in time!
We had shabu shabu for dinner. This is where the servers give you raw meat and a pot of boiling water with soy sauce so that you can cook your own meat. Best part? It was covered by NAU and it was an all-you-can-eat dinner. If we ran out of meat, all we had to do was call the servers and they'll bring out more. I ate until I was stuffed. It was great.
The next day we met up with the group to get our last Mister Donut. You have no idea how much I'm missing Mister Donut right now - American donuts don't come close. I got me a curry donut and a chocolate dipped creme filled donut, plus two donut balls and some iced coffee. The number one thing I'll probably miss about Japan is the food - I now have constant cravings for red bean pastries.
Our last breakfast at Mister Donut. Sad days.
We said our goodbyes to our teacher and headed back to the hotel to get our stuff. Everyone but Sherman and Dominik were leaving that day and around the same time, so we said goodbye to the two who were staying and made our way to Narita airport.
We were crunched for time at the airport so we couldn't get any dinner together. Once us girls found the check in for Korean Air, we said goodbye to the guys and headed in. I still miss them.
As usual, Korean Air takes care of you. Courtney and I were talking about all the food we're going to miss and we got some red bean mochi for dessert for our first meal. Thanks Korean Air!
We killed some time in Seoul by shopping around, and did the same in Vegas. We got to Phoenix at around 9:00 p.m. where Courtney, Grace's, and my family all were together to welcome us home. My parents and I then got to our hotel were I proceeded to give them their souvenirs and tell them all the funny stories about my trip to Japan.
And so here I am laying in bed, missing Japan like crazy. I'm going to miss how structured the escalators are - Courtney and I were already complaining in Vegas when we saw that Americans don't stay on the left side if they're not going to walk up/down. The disorganization! That was my first bout of reverse culture shock. I have not experienced too much culture shock besides this, but I'm sure if I stayed in Japan for longer than a month then I definitely would. I'm going to miss how friendly and willing to help everyone is in Japan, the peaceful shrines, the crazy arcades. And of course, the food. I will admit, I do enjoy the freedom of being able to walk and eat snacks, which can be done with no societal judgement in America but not Japan. Both countries certainly have their pros and cons. I only wish that the trip was longer so that I could really get to know people and become more fluent in the language. The group I was with was a lot of fun to be around, and I can't wait until August so I can see them again!
One day I'll visit Japan again. So until that day comes, まったね！
