Do you remember the Kath and Kim episode where all the planes are grounded and Kath and Kel  spend their holiday at the airport? Well that’s sort of what our last day in Tokyo was like.

Our flight to Sydney wasn’t leaving until 10:00pm and we, and our backpacks, and shopping,  had to be out of our apartment by 11:00am.

Liz wanted to sleep in so I went to the Tsukiji Fish market on my own. This is where they auction fthe huge tuna. A sushi chain store owner, Mr Kimura bought the first blue fin tuna this year for US$37 500, in 2013 he paid 1.22 million dollars US for the first one of the year. I would love to attend the auction but they only sell 120 tickets on a first in first served basis and you have to line up at 4:00am to get tickets of the 5:00am auction. The inner market where all the business is carried out is surrounded by streets of market stalls selling seafood, raw and cooked, cooking utensils and souvenirs.

The inner market is open for tourists at 9:00am but I need to be on the train back to the apartment by then. Next time! You don’t want to be be walking around the markets head down, looking at your phone. These guys on their trolleys were whizzing all over the place, and it was up to you to get our of their way

I tried shredded dried squid which was ok, quite sweet, but not something I could eat a lot of.

The scallops cut up and cooked in the shell with  blow torches were so good.

I helped a young Amercian guy who was quite overwhelmed by everything, and I mean everything! We chatted over breakfast, he is a physician in Tokyo to present some workshops, and it was his first full day in Japan. No wonder he was overwhelmed.

We both had a raw seafood combination for breakfast and we talked about how you could never sell such a dish in the US, or probably Australia. There would be too many health regulations and signs and you’d probably have to sign a waiver saying it’s ok if you die after eating the raw food. I tried everything except the raw prawn, I couldn’t quite bring myself to eat that. Most of it was ok, but it’s just not my thing.

I was proud of myself for managing the train to the market and back on my own, but as they say, pride comes before a fall! I wasn’t sure what station exit to take when I got back to Shibuya, just picked one, and then wandered the streets for 20 minutes trying to find a landmark I knew.

Liz and I decided we would take our backpacks out to the airport because it was not far from Shibuya, put our backpacks in lockers and then train back into Tokyo and do a last bit of sightseeing/shopping/eating. We stopped off at Starbucks to have a coffee where we discovered via our Aussie sim cards that Liz had been upgraded to Business class on the way home and I hadn’t. I’m not proud of myself, I admit I had a sook, quite a long sook actually, which Liz suffered with grace, of course she could suffer with grace because she was the one travelling in comfort!!

Anyway i got over it by the time we reached the airport, we found a locker for our packs, wandered around the airport for a while and decided that even though it was 9 hours until the plane let, you know what? We were done! I think sometimes less is more. We had a wonderful time in Tokyo, but it is big, it is loud, it is crowded and we just wanted peace and a world we knew.

So we shopped and ate, sat and read, wandered around.

Haneda has an amazing observation deck, there were lots of guys with very large cameras taking photos of the planes leaving, all having sly looks at each others equipment. Some things are the same the world over aren’t they!

IT was actually a nice way to end the holiday. For those folk who don’t know the Kath and Kim TV show I’m sorry. But do you remember the scene where Kath and Kel appear up the escalator wearing those truly awful Australiana jumpers, matching of course. I laugh every time I think of it, well we so wished we could have hired some kimonos and had a photo of us appearing up the escalator in matching kimonos!!

When we booked in I found I had been upgraded to Premium Economy which didn’t thrill me too much at the time. But it is actually rather nice, more leg room, cabin service, no Moet, but a glass of Australian bubbles before take off. Just not a flat bed. But I had the two seats to myself so was able to stretch out and enjoy a reasonable night’s sleep.

Sayonara Japan, you treated us well and we will be back