Leaving Tokyo

It’s our last full day in Japan today. Tomorrow afternoon we’ll leave Tokyo to fly to Seoul for a brief overnight stay at the airport before our flight back to London. 

To call this a disappointment would be an understatement. Yes, we’ve been away for coming up to two weeks and it’s been fantastic, but Japan is one of those destinations I’m never ready to leave. On reflection, we’ve packed in an enormous number of experiences, which probably explains why I’m a little bleary-eyed typing this post this morning…

I fully intend to write up my key memories, with photos, in the coming weeks. This year, I was more realistic about how much I’d be able to blog while traveling and didn’t want it to turn into a daily chore. I’ve also found in the past that it’s useful to have some time to reflect on travel experiences before writing about them in detail. 

But at this point, I just know I’ll be writing about:

• Our day trip to see the snow monkeys
• My efforts collecting JR train station stamps in my Midori notebook
• Japan’s apparent fascination with paper
• Our morning in Yokohama and the terror of the ferris wheel
• The lure of the executive lounge
• Why Google Maps and some data are all you need to find your way around
• My mega-exciting fan-boy trip to the Traveler’s Factory store in Meguro 
• Our experience of traveling to Japan via Helsinki 
• Making use of the JR rail pass, the Shinkansen experience and JR in Tokyo
• How South Korea and Japan are similar and yet very different 

I’ll write these up as and when time allows, though I know I have a ten-hour journey back from Seoul ahead of me, so plenty of time on a comfortable Finnair flight to ponder and create. And until then, you can have a look at what I’ve shared about our travels so far on my Instagram feed.