At our hotel, The Best Western Shinjuku, we pretty much braved the bland breakfast for the whole week that we were in Tokyo. The previous day we had an awesome brunch at Slappy Cakes which happened to be a famous breakfast chain from Oregon. Both Sherryl and I loved our meals there and we both decided to head back out there again for our last meal before the limo bus takes us to Narita International Airport.
After we packed we went to the lobby to check out, leave our stuff in the lobby, and get some food before our taxi arrives. It was then that Sherryl notifies me that our flight is delayed. Delayed 3 hours to be exact. At first I was bummed out but then I realized that there's nothing that I can do. The hotel stuff informed us that it is safe for us to leave our bags in the lobby while we go out to eat.
We head out of the hotel, hang a left, and walk straight for Lumine Shinjuku. We get there without incident and have to take the many flights of escalators to the 7th floor. Even though Sherryl and I get there before it opens a line had already formed.
Despite the line our wait was not long and we were promptly seated. I then realized that this would be our last meal in Tokyo. I ordered the same meal that I had the previous day and Sherryl had something different. It was fitting that we had a meal like that before we had to leave.
After finishing up we walked back to the hotel, got our stuff ready, and before we knew it our taxi was right there waiting for us.
Taxi drivers in Tokyo are well dressed and the cars, although old compared to the taxi's in Bangkok and Singapore, are immaculately clean. Our taxi driver takes us to the bus stop, we unload our bags, and in less than 15 minutes we load our stuff onto the Limo Bus and it promptly takes us to Narita.
I really wanted to look outside the window to get another last look of Tokyo. I remember driving into Tokyo from the Airport and I really like what I saw. However as soon as I got onto the bus I just fell asleep. And when I woke up it was just a few minutes before we entered the Airport. Couldn't believe that I missed that whole drive.
After we got into the airport and checked in our bags the reality of our delayed flight started to creep in. I absolutely hated waiting. What made things worse was that the WIFI at the airport was down as well.
Finally after a few hours both Sherryl and I were able to board the plane. Our flight was uneventful. We flew straight from Tokyo to San Francisco. This was a first for me. For my first three trips in the past we flew from Bangkok to Taipei, stayed a few hours, and then flew to San Francisco. After I started adding Singapore to my Thailand trips we would fly from Singapore to Hong Kong, and then from Hong Kong to San Francisco. One time I took a flight from Singapore to Seoul and from Seoul to San Francisco. There was always a stopover. I actually liked those as I got to stretch out and eat good food at the airports. This time it was just a straight flight which is also good considering the time we would be saving.
When we landed, we went through immigration, baggage claim, and customs. We waited for a bit but my cousin Edward and his gf Melinda were able to pick us up and bring us back home.
