8/14 -15 Tokyo and Going home

8/14

I was up early finishing my packing, because Tokuoka-sensei was gonna pick me up at 7 and take me to the Matsuyama airport. Just like how I was picked up by him when I first arrived, he was taking me back to the airport.

Right before I left, so around 6:30, one of my classmates from Thailand, ASIA, wanted to give me a letter before I left. So, I went out to see her and she handed me it, but told me that I could not open it until I was on the plane. I said "thanks!" and something along the lines of "see ya later!" Then I went back to my room to wait. I am such a genius. The reason being that I had previously contracted the Yamato Transport company to take two of my suitcases to the Narita airport for me, so that I wouldn't need to deal with them. This meant that I only had my carry-on suitcase, and when Tokuoka-sensei arrived, he was surprised by this.

After "Good morning!" and greetings, we departed for the airport, which was about a half-hour drive through town. It was a warm morning, as Shikoku summer is no joke, but the shadows which evaded the morning sun and covered the city I had lived in, made my journey already seem nostalgic. The dorm and city streets felt almost deserted, as no one in their right mind would be out at 7 in the morning. We drove and drove, until we had finally arrived at once was my arrival destination. We parked on the second floor of the near-empty parking garage across the street, and made our way into the premier Matsuyama Airport.

I had Tokuoka-sensei watch my suitcase, I believe, while I went to use the restroom. When I came back, I decided that I would use my gift 500 yen convenience store card to buy a breakfast item, which was probably a Famichiki of some kind or a chocolate Danish. To my surprise, people I knew started walking into the airport to greet me. First was Junko, who told me that no matter what she would be there to see me before I left. When I came back she was chatting with Tokuoka-sensei. Then others entered. After Junko there was a lady from the Matsuyama-Sacramento Sister City Corporation, Mrs. Ando. She came to give me a parting gift and letter. From there she started talking with the others. Following her, one of the students from Japan, Kokoro and her family came to see me off. They also brought her younger brother, Yamato-kun. What a plus! 

One day they drove me in their car, and 5 year-old Yamato was watching the Minions movie. I asked Yamato-kun if he liked Minions and he said no, to which Kokoro told me "that's such a lie! He watches Minions every day!" 

I crouched down and started talking to Yamato about different things. He was pretty shy, but I gave him my 500 yen convenience store card, and he got pretty talkative after that. Around me, the people I had gotten to know were all chatting with one another. Those whom I had met through different means had all come to see me off. It kind of felt like Avengers Endgame haha.

Then another walked in, it was Saki-chan and her mom! They came and gave me a gift, which I was thankful for. We talked a little bit and then they had to leave. It was a school day after all.

But yes, all these people from different paths whom I had walked with came to see me off. Tokuoka-sensei from Ehime University, Kokoro from Sac State, Ando from the MSSCC, Junko who I met at church, and Saki who I guided around Sacramento!

But eventually it was time for me to go, and some of them stayed at the base of the escalator which led me up to the security checkpoint. Once I got into the line, I waved goodbye to those who remained and boarded my last flight from the city.

My flight was taking me to Tokyo, where I was to stay, again, with Nathan. He met me at the airport, and also was confused why I didn't have my two large suitcases. After a brief explanation, we were on our way from Haneda to his apartment in Edogawa, which was quite the familiar journey. Since we had time, I needed to mail by student ID back to Ehime University, we stopped and did that, then we decided to go walk through a shopping mall, somewhere. On the way I got my last matchalista (frozen matcha latte) from Tully's and we kept moving through Roppongi. So, one of the senpai I had at Ehime, who had studied abroad in Chicago, named Akane, was actually working near Tokyo Tower! So I dragged Nathan along so we could go meet her.

Tokyo Tower is pretty big, nothing like the Skytree, but it's also a huge tourist destination and as such there were a lot of people there. But eventually we saw Akane, and took a picture underneath the tower. She showed us around the Roppongi neighborhood, which was SUPER fancy and expensive. We had reservations nearby to go visit TeamLAB Borderless, which is a super famous "interactive and immersive digital art installation" with locations around Japan. BorderlessI is a location that is less popular (relatively) in the area. We thought that Akane would be able to buy a ticket at the door, but this turned out to not be the case. I felt pretty bad :( 

She said it was okay though, and so we went inside. It was pretty much these abstract-decorated rooms with projectors displaying high-quality graphics onto all of them. This made it a premier Instagram photo spot. There were many small "secret" rooms in there which made it pretty fun experience to walk around. Many rooms were designed to feel, well, Borderless, and being infinite in size. The room that we liked the most was one where you could go draw your own kind of fish or octopus, and it would float around the room. There were some hilarious ones like Stewie Griffin from Family Guy. You can see them below. The rooms "infinite" feeling came from the large amount of stuff they put in there, and also the mirrors on the walls. This kind of made it hard to find the exit haha. I think tickets were $25 which was pretty expensive for Japan.

After that we met back up with Akane, who was outside the building which was impossible to exit, and we were going out to eat dinner and some place which she recommended called "Torikizoku." She led us through streets and alleys before we got to it. Oh my gosh we ordered so much food. I barely remember what any of it was but it was amazing. We chatted a bunch and showed her pictures, but then we had to get going. I have a full day tomorrow!

8/15

I think for breakfast on this day, we went right next to where I had breakfast on the first day in Japan. Instead of Matsuya, it was Yayoiken, and it was delicious. They were playing music in there which I had kept hearing, and I was starting to go crazy. We spent the time trying to decide where to go for the day, and after searching on Google Maps for a while, we found a place. After that we were going to meet another person I knew, can you guess? It was Rin! She was now working in Tokyo and also was unfortunately sick. But just before we were off on today's adventure, we went to Shimbashi Station and said hi. We talked a little bit and took a picture, then I said one last "see ya later!"

Today we were going to the Future Hall (Miraikan) which sounded really interesting and mysterious. Now, it's located in Odaiba, so to get there we had to take the super cool no-pilot monorail. I think it's called the Yurikamome? The artificial island of Odaiba is super nice, with super-modern buildings lined with trees. We walked through it all to line up for the Miraikan, and bought our passes. Inside there were different areas based around topics such as robots, health, disaster prevention, space, and so-forth. It was really fun! You can see video below. On our way back we got to see the Odaiba Statue of Liberty.

It was rush time, because we needed to be at the airport before the Yamato Transport office closed so that I could pick up my luggage. I stressed (not really) on the train, and when we transferred, and when we waited. Google Maps said that we were going to arrive at Narita 15 minutes before the office closed. So on the train I REALLY studied the airport map. When we got there I ran all the way to the first floor office just for them to tell me that it was for drop-off only. So that meant we had to go to the office on the international departure floor. So, I ran to the elevator and all the way to the office. I think I got there within ten minutes of them closing. You cannot believe the RELIEF that I felt to get my two suitcases. Eventually Nathan came back and we went to check in my luggage.

While we were in line I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned around and it was Ben! One of the students who had come to visit Matsuyama way back when with Michael and Thomas. He told me that he was seeing Thomas off and I look over and there he was! It was such a crazy coincidence. So after checking in, we went over and talked for a bit. Apparently Thomas and I had the same flight, but we were not gonna be close to each other. He was gonna go through security then, but I wasn't, so I told him that I'd see him in a bit while Nathan and I went to eat dinner. 

There were a few places open after 8pm in the airport, but we decided to have udon. There was a shop and I got my very last curry udon. It was scrumptious. After walking through different stores and shopping around, I waved adios to Nathan and went through security. On my way through, I bought some Tokyo Banana souvenir cakes to take home and went to go find Thomas. We we waited in line and then we were sitting on the plane. I don't remember what I did for that 10.5 hour flight, but it was certainly something. Oh! and I did pre-order a beef bowl which was delicious.

I had landed at 3pm PST, and about an hour later my parents picked me up. They were ecstatic to show off their new Tesla (or was that in March?) with Oliver the dog in it. We drove straight to my cousin's house and they got to try the freshly bought Tokyo Banana. We drove to In-N-Out, and I got an amazing meal. I also had an amazing view of the Solano county wind turbines with a sunset backdrop as I waited to get home. Incredibly, I did not feel tired the entire time. It was like I had stayed up until 2pm the next day without sleeping. We got home just before 10pm and I went around back to see Pedro, who had trouble recognizing me. On the table I had laid out all of the souvenir snacks I collected from around the country and went to bed. Band camp was in two days after all.