It did look at the beginning stages of packing up though. These boys must get up pretty bloody early! We felt a little in the way but got a few good looks at the squidlings:
And some pretty massive fish. This guy is explaining how to dissect a prehistoric beast.
Next stop was to go and have a little look at the East gardens of the Imperial Palace in the middle of Tokyo. The Rough Guide gives this a good review. We hopped on a bus from the market and glided towards our destination. However, a few wrong turns and then what seemed like moving goal posts, we started to lose a little faith that the gardens were worth it. We persevered and made it into the main area. The outside moat was quite impressive. It really showed the old Tokyo and new Tokyo well.
The park was a little bit over hyped but it still had brilliant cherry blossom. We've done so well with seeing it as it's only about for about 3 weeks a year.
For lunch we wanted to return to Akihabara (the electronics district) to get Missy some new fun bright yellow headphones and an iPod cover. Oooo she was pleased with her little purchases. I bought some new headphones also (but when I got them home later I realized the cable was about 10cm long! Must be kids ones. Oh well). We had lunch at the same place as the other day as it was great food and good value.
I wanted to have one game in one of the MASSIVE arcades they have on every street corner here for the over worked population to lose themselves in. On route we run the gauntlet of maids handing out flyers for their cafes. Another escape for the male over worked population me thinks...
We got into the noisy place and went to the arcade area. To my delight there was a wall of about 10 machines with Street Fighter games from 1 through to the newest 4! I paid my 200Yen (about £1.50) and got on to delivering some whip ass via Ryu to some street fighter chumps...
After beating 4 characters on the bounce and transporting myself back to my 13 year old self, I received a banner across my screen saying "New challenger". A guy on the other side of the consoles was asking for it. He gave me a good kicking and sent me packing. But I enjoyed my brief flirting with the computer game world again.
For our afternoon treat we went to the National Museum in Ueno. After a nice walk through the park, we reached our destination. We breezed round the tasteful and pretty displays but best of all we got to play with a lot of ink stamps! We each got to try and make a kimono pattern. Ame was in heaven. I think we both indulged the kid inside today in our own simple ways.
We made our way back to the Ryokan, Ame packed and I online check-in-ed us to our BA flight tomorrow along with some blogging. We then had a lovely jacuzzi (you get 25 minutes per room per day here) and got out for our dinner out. We picked a Cambodian restaurant called "Angkor Wat" to blend our love for Japan and good old Cambodia. It seemed an appropriate final meal.
We couldn't read the Japanese menu but we impressed the waiter with our food knowledge and he recommended a set menu so we could have all the dishes we wanted. It was all wonderful and delivered in several dishes just the way the Japanese like. The food felt slightly like a fusion of Cambodian and Japanese which was interesting. All round a great meal, excellent last night out and a strange but happy revisit to a past chapter of the trip.
We returned to have a sleep before we fly back to Blighty tomorrow. We are knackered today and cannot attempt to try and sum up our thoughts and feelings about the trip tonight. Once home and back in the flat, some final thoughts will be written. But for now, just to say that the past 6 months have been an amazing whirlwind of cultures, people, nature and happiness. We have enjoyed every bit of it. And now it is time to return.
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