I hate that last day in a new country... 2 main reasons - You have to go through the whole day knowing that later on you have to go to the airport, get on a flight, and soon after you're back at work. Secondly is it's always sad to leave somewhere you've enjoyed.
I have enjoyed Japan. As I've said a few times, it is a weird, but wonderful place. The first thing that strikes you is how friendly and polite people here are. About the only exception is around some of the busier places in Tokyo; but I think that's about normal for any large city, and a reason why I prefer small towns/cities. Even when it comes to the language situation things are different. When I was in Madrid at the start of 2012 there were similar issues with not much English being understood. But there a lot of people in the service industry seemed to see you as an annoyance. Here in Japan, you actually get the impression they are genuinely sorry that they cannot understand you, almost to the point of apologising. Thankfully, there is either usually someone on hand who can speak a little more English, or by process of pointing and gestures you each get your message across. I know some of you will moan at me not learning the language; but in all fairness I was only here for 3 weeks, and it's not the easiest of languages to comprehend. It's also a very clean place. Don't think I really saw any littler, and even graffiti was extremely rare. The one sad thing was the number of people who seemed to be living rough on the streets of Tokyo. They actually seem to have their own little plots on the street with a few belongings, a rudimentary bed and perhaps a gas stove.
Anyway, I did have a few hours to spend today before heading back to the airport, so what did I get up to? Well first was a trip to the Yebisu Beer Museum at Ebisu; also the location of Sapporo (the company who own the brand). The museum itself is free to go in. There isn't a lot to see - it's mostly a little history of the brand and a few old artefacts related to it's history. It was nice to see that everything had been translated to English. There is no cost to go into the museum, but there is a tour available which includes a little educational bit involving how to taste beer. Unfortunately, it is only available in Japanese, so I didn't bother with that. There is also a bar where you can try a few of the beers; but at 400 Yen a beer it was a little on the expensive side, especially given the lack of cash left (and cash machines here dish out money in multiples of 10,000 Yen - just under £100, which seemed a little excessive for 1 day!)
Nearby there is the National Museum of Photography. They have a few floors each with different exhibitions on. The basement level is free to view; there are charges for the other galleries. Once again, due to the cash situation I just had a wander around the basement. Sadly, all the information was in Japanese only. Whilst I appreciate I am in Japan, each of the labels only had a couple of lines of text, so to add a translation shouldn't have been that difficult. The other downside is that you feel there is a story behind a few of the photos, but it's never given anywhere - not even in Japanese. I'm not sure if this particular gallery is a permanent exhibition or also changes over time.
Finally, as some people who know me will know, I am a man who likes his kitchen gadgets. Therefore, the last venture out was to Kappabashi-dori in Asakusa (please note, I don't have map handy so there may be some errors in those names! Will correct later if so.) Bascially, this is a long street lined with shops selling anything and everything you could ever need (or didn't know you needed) to run a kitchen and/or restaurant. There are shops selling your basic cookware and serving plates/dishes/etc. Then there are places selling kitchen appliances. Then there are the knife shops - some of the knives they sell have to be seen to be believed (along with suitably high price tags!) Then there are shops selling "stuff" like neon signs, tables and chairs, candy floss machines, etc. Other shops that seem to sell random collections of kitchen-related junk. Places to get your staff uniforms and notepads/bill holders/etc. There are even places selling plastic food (a lot of restaurants in Japan use plastic models of the food in the window to help people understand what they sell). Finally, you can get just about every kitchen gadget imaginable from pastry cutters of all shapes and sizes to utensils and so on. In a rare moment of "Dear Japan... What a good idea!" I made an impulse buy of something that is so simple I'm surprised no-one's done it before... One of the things about working with pastry is knowing when you've rolled it thick enough - or not gone too thin. I found a rolling pin that, instead of having the traditional handles on either side mounted on a piece of dowl, has a plastic cup on each end, the edge of which has a lip so that you can only roll your pastry to a certain thickness (and so you know when you've reached that thickness). Again, such a simple idea, but so useful!
Anyway, uneventful journey back to Narita airport. Now sat in one of the lounges before boarding in an hour or so. Not sure if I'll bother with any more diary updates, although I may try and do a summing up at some point. I will also get the photos uploaded soon after I get back. Hopefully this'll happen a little quicker than it's taking with Australia photos (18 months since I was there and still not sorted them all out yet!) Then again, this time there's no dust on the sensor, and I shot in JPEG rather than RAW, so a lot less work to do on them!
So until later, Sayonara!