Last Day in Tokyo and back home...

During my last day in Tokyo, I had little planned, since I needed to leave my hotel at 11:50 am for the airport, and the city is pretty much asleep before 10 am (as most museums and shops don't open until 10 or 11). But one thing I wanted to try to do was catch a glimpse of the jingu-bashi girls. An explanation is in order. Jingu-bashi (which I think is meant to literally translate as "shrine bridge" except then it would be hashi, not bashi, but maybe that's just an artifact of pronunciation) is a small bridge leading to the park where the Meiji shrine is located. This is arguably the most important shrine in Tokyo, and many people go there on Sundays. However, another sight are the girls who show up on Sundays to hang out on the bridge in their goth make-up and odd combination of victorian maid, S&M, and bright-striped clothing. A proper explanation of this phenomenon is probably impossible for an outsider; in any case, most people come to just observe the scene. It would have been best to see it in the afternoon, but as I could only stay in the city till about 11:30, I had to make due to a pass by the bridge at 11 am. A few of the girls were around, and I got one good picture (and one okay one).

Oddly enough, I then ran into Nancy and her co-worker Ron (who was also leaving later in the day). Tokyo is a big city, and unlike New York, tourists aren't compressed into a single area (i.e. Manhatten) most of the time, so running into them was totally crazy. Anyway, we chatted for a few minutes before I headed back to my hotel. After that, it was a pretty much standard (if very long) travel day. I got to the airport, and check-in took forever (>1 hour of shuffling through a line to get my bags checked). Fortunately, I had gotten there very early in expectation of potential delays. I got lunch in the airport at a katsu place, and then grabbed a few last minutes gifts. The flight to Detriot was really long, and when I got there I was really tired. I had to go through customs, which was tedious since I got flagged for an interview with the customs clerk. Then my flight to Boston was delayed, and when I got on the plane, it was delayed again for an hour while we sat on the tarmac. When I finally rolled into Boston, I'd been awake for about 24 hours exactly. Whatever. I was home, and that felt good.