We left our airbnb at about 8am in order to pack the most into our last partial day in Japan. First we took the Yamanote line to Shinjuku station where we dropped our bags off in a locker for the day, right next to the entrance to the Narita Express (train to Narita airport). We saw a really neat tiled Shinjuku mural in the station as we exited.

Our mission for the day was to visit three Inari Shrines (fox shrines) around Shinjuku station. Our first shrine was pretty small but with the traditional orange torii gates leading to the shrine and Inari statues (oddly in cages). The main shrine was very small with an even smaller side shrine. Next we stopped at a stationary and art supply store where I bought a few beautiful postcards to give away and some sakura washi tape and a new notebook to bring when we travel.

Next we walked to a bigger Inari shrine. This shrine had a Sunday antique market going on with vendors selling kimonos, jewellery, coins, books, furniture etc. The Inari portion of the shrine was off to the side and small, with a long tunnel of orange torii gates and many Inari statues. The main shrine had plum blossoms in yellow and deep pink in full bloom! The shrine itself was gorgeous and had two huge entrances.

We then walked down a little pedestrian street lined with holly plants, stopping to buy a final vending machine coffee along the route. Next we walked down a clearly love hotel street, where we didn’t film or photograph anything, out of respect for the people clearly leaving the hotels after a wild Saturday night the evening before. 

We then found our third Inari shrine of the day, a dark wooden shrine with stone lions on the pathway. This shrine was filled with pigeons and had colourful paper cranes folded at the main altar. On a small side altar we saw a single perfect eggplant as an offering. The shrine is for Inari and for a demon king. A very peculiar shrine! 

We then visited an arcade where I tried the Taiko drum games for the first time! We did another Purikura (photo booth) , this one was themed as “Spy Family”. We then visited two more arcades in hopes of finding our favourite arcade game “Bishi-Bashi”, but we had no luck. We then visited the giant Godzilla statue peering down on a busy Shinjuku street. We also happened upon the new 3D billboard popular on instagram. It displays a 3D calico cat, a spaceship and many other 3D advertisements. The sign isn’t actually 3D but the angle and screen placement make it look 3D, a really cool illusion. We also spied a moving crab sign, the kind that is popular in Osaka’s Dotonbori district. 

Next we went to our final restaurant in Japan, a delightful partially outdoor spot under a highway overpass with lanterns and kotatsu. We sat on stools along the street and ordered spicy ramen and some sours as a final meal. The playlist in the restaurant was spot on and delightfully 80’s feeling and funky and Japanese. 

Lastly we bought some of our favourite strong zero flavours and sat outside the station in Shinjuku, drinking in our last moments in Japan in the hot February sun (how bizarre). We saw some very interesting protests as well in the square as we sat. My basic Japanese skills tell me that the people were protesting the infiltrating foreigners in Japanese society….

At 2:30pm we grabbed our bags and headed to the Narita Express. We purchased tickets at the machine and a nice train conductor came over to help us/ practise his English. The tickets were about $36 total which should have been a red flag, as we knew it should be $33 each. We got on the train and the nice conductor and his pals showed us our seats. The train took about one hour and we got off at terminal one. We rode the train with a group of skier from New Zealand who loaded ten pairs of skis on the baggage racks. They said “don’t worry these are just our guns” in reference to the large bags to which I responded “I just assumed they were bodies”. 

As we exited the train we were allowed through the gates until we paid an additional $15 ish each. My Suica card had to be reloaded… so I am really prepared for when we go back to Japan. We then checked out bags and hurried through security. We had a little over an hour before our flight left. We bought a Soenen Jump (manga magazine) for Jives and some sake to take home. We went to the boarding game 15 minutes before boarding to realise our flight had been delayed an hour. Meanwhile the boarding gate next to us was a direct flight to Toronto, which was what we had paid MORE for to book initially, but Air Canada bumped us to the now delayed flight with a layover in Montreal. In the end our flight was delayed two hours out of Tokyo. Jives and I had the two seats at the back of the plane to ourselves which was nice, but that backfired as we arrived in Montreal two hours late and our three hour layover was now less than one hour. The captain made an announcement asking if people could let those with connections to get off first, but of course NO ONE listened and it took forever to disembark. We were last off the plane. We then had to go through customs and immigration. The security lady cartoonishly said “we have all the time in the world” to which I responded “our flight takes off in 15 minutes”… she said “ oh, you’re not making that, hun.” They then tore open my bag and scanned everything thoroughly. We had to full out RUN to our boarding gate which had been changed to the furthest gate possible….. Of course! We arrived at the gate at one minute to gate closing to be told the flight was delayed and we were no longer sitting together. AGAIN, we had paid for direct flights…. Air Canada can be a huge nightmare. Also, we paid to fly to and from Haneada airport (the better of the two Tokyo airports) and they changed it to Narita. Urgh. We finally got on the plane and they announced that the baggage door was broken so we were delayed again while they fixed the door. Once they fixed the door we were told we had to wait for push back as the ground crew was on a shift change… We arrived in Toronto five hours late and that’s not even the end of the story…. They couldn’t get our baggage off the plane because of the malfunctioning door so five flights after us got their baggage first. Then our baggage finally started coming out of the belt and after THREE BAGS the belt broke!!!! I cannot even fathom how this flight could have been more hilariously cartoonish. We waited another hour for the belt to be fixed.

We got home at 12:15, technically a day later….we were supposed to by home at 3:30pm.