So our final morning in Japan, I am always bereft when leaving Japan as there will always be more I want to experience and there is nothing quite like the atmosphere here that makes you feel at ease and at home. We were staying at APA Narita Ekimae and had booked a shuttle bus at 6:30am, from the hotel, to Terminal 3. The shuttle buses are super popular so we could have taken a later bus, if they weren’t full already.

We very quickly packed and had 15 minutes at the morning buffet to stuff ourselves before getting on the shuttle. It was cramped and a very sunny morning, again we had to be seated separately due to the bus being full. Terminal 3 is the last terminal that is reached, so our fellow travelers dwindled as the bus drove on. At our final stop the staff removed our bags from the hold, accidentally snapping a handle. If you haven’t seen Japanese staff apologise before it can feel a little uncomfortable, they handed us 5,000Y and their business cards, we didn’t mind as the bag was on its last legs, but they wouldn’t take the money back.

We were at the airport so early that the desks weren’t opened, we checked in and printed our boarding passes but had to push our bags around the airport, the stores weren’t even open yet! Eventually everything opened, we got some last minute souvenirs and dropped our (overweight) bags off. We went through the security checkpoints and then things turned. There were no stores on the other side, except for the usual perfume/trinkets. No 7/11, no Family Mart, barely any food. So, hungry, we eventually boarded and made out long way back to the UK.

This was a really great trip and the timing of the blossom couldn’t have been any better. I will miss Japan, but writing about what we got up to has been really enjoyable.