Final day meant a final konbini (convenience store) breakfast. We also finally found a playground that looks like it was constructed after the 1970s, so we stopped there for a few minutes on the way to the train station.
Our flight was taking off at 5pm, so we had most of a day to enjoy in Tokyo. Original plan was to go to Tokyo station to see the Imperial Palace Gardens that we almost did on the Monday that we left Tokyo. But it was closed again! So we called a quick audible on the train and rode two extra stops to Akihabara Electric City.
This is the primary anime area of Tokyo with lots of discount shops and Gacha + Claw Machine places. We got handed some free coupons for claw games, but didn’t win anything (shocker). Given that Jordan’s record on claw machines in the trip was 1 for 1 before this, she was legitimately shocked we didn’t win anything at this one. We did find the coolest retro game shop that had old games and systems set up. We also managed to get a knife and some other souvenirs that had been eluding us. Don Quixote was actually perfect for this.
After our final conveyer belt sushi, it was to the train station to head to the airport. Totally breezed through exit customs and security, but couldn’t get duty free because transiting through the states wouldn’t work for that. We did manage to perfectly drain our SUICA cards by transit and coin lockers, and Emily spent the last 500 Yen of it at 7/11 in the airport for some iced coffees.
The only stress remaining was the impending blizzard that was in the process of hitting Ottawa and dumping over 30 cm of snow on Sunday. Sure enough, we got the news part way through the flight that our connection from Washington DC to Ottawa was cancelled. Luckily, Ryan was standing by in Ottawa to book us a hotel so that we didn’t have to deal with that after landing. The flight itself was otherwise alright, with Jordan sleeping for 7 of the 13 hours. Don’t tell Donald Trump, but United Airlines still refers to Denali as Denali instead of the re-re-named Mount McKinley.
We did have a touchy moment where they stopped accepting landings at Dulles because of some emergency landing that had just happened. We were minutes away from the gas contingencies and getting re directed to Pittsburgh! Luckily, we were able to land successfully despite the crazy wind storm happening. Unfortunately, the unique set up of the Washington Dulles Airport meant that our bags would be a while because they had to get re routed away from the connections area. We decided to just leave them for now and get to the hotel because as fine as the flight was, a 13 hour flight is still a 13 hour flight. Hotel restaurant for a burger and fries (no rice!) and then bed time for Jordan.
I did have to take the shuttle to the airport to get the bags, which resulted in standing in the windstorm for 25 minutes as I had to wait for the next shuttle back. It will be a couple of days in Washington, as the Saturday night flight was also cancelled. This meant that the Monday flights were full already. So we are stuck in Washington until Tuesday and there will be a bonus trip report!
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