Sunday October 12th
It’s been a great trip. But all trips must come to an end, and this one is no exception. We woke up around 7:00 and got ourselves organized for the day and the long journey home. We had one stop, like on the way here as we were going from Tokyo to Seoul, then from Seoul to Vancouver.
For the hotel, we grabbed the shuttle. The “shuttle” in this case was a full on proper coach! They had at least two of them running in parallel, one to terminal one, and one to terminal two. We needed terminal three, which meant getting dropped off at terminal two and a bit of a walk back to terminal three.
We were a bit early, too early to check in. So we headed over to the food court and grabbed some breakfast. That took us up to check in time, and we worked our way through the very long line to get checked in, get our boarding passes and drop off our bags. Thankfully, even flying Je Ju Air, our bags were checked all the way home.
From there it was a quick trip through security and customs, and onto our flight from Tokyo to Seoul. It was a quick 2 1/2 hour flight and then a 3 hour layover in Seoul.
On our way from Vancouver to Tokyo, I had finally accumulated enough status to get back to Gold, and so on this leg of the trip we were able to get into the lounge and relax for an hour or so. We did some duty free shopping and soon enough we were in our way home to Vancouver.
Postscript
It’s hard to sum up a trip like this. It was filled with so many great experiences and memories. And it covered such a wide range of experiences. From a “city” perspective, I enjoyed Tokyo more than than Kyoto, which was a surprise. I think I expected to like Kyoto more. But the over tourism in Kyoto was really off putting - much more so than anything we experienced in Tokyo.
I think the thing that surprised me the most was how much we enjoyed spending time in the parks and the gardens around the cities. While the craziness of the cities was fun, being able to escape and find quiet and solitude in the midst of it all was amazing. Don’t get me wrong - I loved the pace of both places, exploring the old, narrow streets of bars and restaurants and really experiencing all they had to offer.
But it was perfectly offset by our trip to Kamikochi and the Japanese Alps. This is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen and was an amazing addition to our trip. Ideally we would have been there a few weeks later for the full effect of the fall colours, but what we saw was amazing. We got some great hikes in, especially the tough one up to Dakesawa, and that incredible view back over the valley. I still have the blisters, but it was totally worth it. Those few days gave us a chance to recharge, and also to come to appreciate the Onsen experience.
It was a fabulous trip, with memories that will last a lifetime.