Nicole found the best place to have dinner in Kyoto. We ate at Hamberg & Steak. We had the best hamburger I have ever had. I don’t like pink in my hamburger and this one was cooked through but was very juicy. We had a banana, ice cream, chocolate sauce and pancake that was like a crepe thing for dessert. Absolutely a wonderful way to end our time in Kyoto. We walked and took a bus to the restaurant and then again back to our hotel. It was a pleasant evening to be out walking. Ended the day walking over seven miles.
We had breakfatst in our hotel this morning. Decided to go ahead and take our bags shopping with us so we didn’t have to walk another mile plus to go back to the hotel to get them. We didn’t find many good places to go shopping at on our way to the bus station. We waited until the bus station shops opened at 10:00 and found a few things.
Rode the bus for 90 minutes from Kyoto to the airport in Osaka. We bought our ticket at a machine and when we were on the train the ticket person charged us more. Not sure why that happened as it didn’t before. I had noticed the ticket price seemed small so don’t think he cheated us.
When we got to the airport we dropped our bags off at the hotel. Our room wasn’t ready so we went back to the airport to get lunch. We did some more shopping and finally found lunch. We came back to the airport hotel and got checked into our room a little after 2:00. Not sure what we are going to do this afternoon. The airport was so crowded we are both a bit drained.
Have had quite a time trying to get checked in for our flights tomorrow. I called the airlines this morning but they weren’t much help. We finally have two of our three boarding passes. The last flight is on United but they won’t issue a boarding pass to me as the first two flights are on All Nippon Airlines, their Japanese partner. Guess we will get it in the morning when we go over to the airport. The line was too long this afternoon to attempt to get it.
We may have to run through the Tokyo airport as we don’t have a lot of time between flights. We will have to change to the international terminal. Thinking we may have to clear customs on the way out. Fingers crossed we can make our flight to Chicago. We have over three hours in Chicago to clear immigrations and customs there.
When I bought something at one of the airport shops they needed my passport and they attached a form to it. Not sure why that happened unless they are a tax-free shop. May have to pony up the tax on the way out of the country.
According to our flight schedule we leave Tokyo at 10:50am on August 13 and arrive in Chicago at 8:40 am on August 13. We get to do the time warp thing!
Need to repackage my bags one last time and make sure the things I bought are protected so they don’t break. We are hand carrying our luggage on the airplane so that should reduce the chance that something will break.
Discovered the reason the airport is so busy today is that this is a National Holiday. It is Celebrate Mountain Holiday. 70% of Japan is mountain area and the holiday is to celebrate the blessings the mountains give Japan. Love it!
Ready to go home. Not ready for a 20 hour plus travel day. Trusting it will go smoothly.
Knowing the learnings I have gained from this trip will revel themselves to me when the time is right. It has been a very rich experience on many levels.