Being the early bird, I crept out early in the morning to take a quick walk to the nearby post box, and was dismayed to realize that the rain was out in full force.
We bid our goodbyes to Hakone, as we headed down to Odawara Station. The rain was heavy, and we felt bad for the conductors who had to run back and forth across the platform at every switchback.
We arrived in Odawara with plenty of time to spare, and leisurely made our way to our platform. We were settling in, taking photos of the train resting in the station, until we realized it had been there for quite awhile. Slowly, our phones started lighting up with tornado warnings, and notifications of train delays began popping up on the station screens.
Lightning had struck a power station, leaving all the lines in the dark as the trains sat in the station, waiting for signals. We watched as the minutes on the announcement board began to climb upwards.
When power returned, our train was about an hour and a half late, but thankfully, we would make it to Tokyo before Dan's plane was due to leave. Unfortunately, the Shinkansen delay paired with the inability to locate empty lockers for our luggage meant we were going to be hitting the Digital Art Museum at peak hours, something we had been trying to avoid.
The lines... let's be honest, there were no lines. It was a jumbled mess of people trying to get in to the museum, and it was insanity. Thankfully, it moved quicker than anticipated, and before long, we were in the midst of the museum.
Dan only had about an hour to explore the museum, and so we all split up to cover more ground. As the 'museum' does not have a map and rooms are often hidden, I realized it might have been a bad idea to separate.
After wandering around a few rooms, I was too thirsty to continue and found the resting area and was saved by the vending machine. Thoroughly hydrated, I was ready to explore the rest of the exhibit when Ranee found me... and then we ran into Dan right after. Talk about great timing.
After spending some time taking photos for each other, Dan went off to catch her flight, while Ranee and I continued to explore the upstairs portion... which took a heck of a long time to find the entrance to.
There was a cafe where flowers began to bloom around your plate as soon as you were served.
I convinced Ranee to go on the trampoline with me - we spent most of the time in line surrounded by children, and desperately hoping we were also allowed to jump.
I had been carrying my umbrella around with me the whole trip, and not wanting to waste time checking items in, I had hooked it around my bag strap while in the museum. Once I entered this area, a member of staff quickly confiscated it and placed it into bag check.
This zone was one of my favourites - the whole top floor was more interactive, in a physical sense, as well as a creative one. Drawings here were brought to digital life before your very eyes. Can you spot my turtle?
After giving up on the 3-hour wait for the Forest of Lamps, we headed to DiverCity in search of a late lunch. Finding the food court was a journey in itself, and I finally had my first ramen of the trip.
I had few requests for the Tokyo portion of our trip, but one of them was seeing the Unicorn Gundam. As the museum was quite close to the gundam, there was really no excuse for dropping by; we were slowly making our way over when I noticed there was quite a crowd, and glanced at my watch - it was just a couple minutes before 5pm! We ran to catch the last transformation of the day.
Gacha heaven.
After some unsuccessful window shopping, we were pretty spent. We had initially planned to go to the Shibuya area, but all the delays meant that the sun was setting, and we decided to head to our final hotel.
We were once again living in Sumida City, even closer to Tokyo Skytree than our last visit. My hunt for the coveted Hokkaido Cantaloupe milk proved to be unfruitful, so I made a last ditch effort - it was not the same.
After finding some souvenirs but somehow utterly failing in locating Tokyo Bananas, neither of us were very hungry, but my voice-of-reason travel buddy insisted on dinner.
As we were wandering the top floors hoping to find a restaurant, we passed a Gion Tsujiri. Without hesitation, I jumped into line to order a hojicha soft serve, and therefore thoroughly spoiling my appetite.
From our vantage point in the mall, we saw a grocery store across the street, and decided to see what options there were. On our way over, Ranee spotted my sought-after fare, and I proceeded to go bananas.
I sincerely enjoy going to grocery stores in new places, especially new countries. I love seeing the type of food they carry, their portion sizes, the set-up, the prepared foods, their check-out system, everything. We had a fun time browsing all the prepared foods (that were discounted seeing as it was end-of-day!) and got a few beers for good measure.
I love walking down the streets at night here; it always feels so safe and relaxing.
After packing and finishing the last of our postcards, we decided to go out in search of a post office box now, rather than leaving it to the morning. We had both showered and donned our traditional pajamas, provided by the hotel. Despite knowing we would end up sticky, we ran outside, and the search lasted longer than anticipated. Would not recommend leaving your accommodations in this gear - on the way back to our hotel, my knot came undone and the front blew open - a good way to end our last night in Japan.
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