A Japanese Summer: Chapter Ten

Homestretch baby!

*grins*

Yes. This is the final post for the long and running, soon to be bored to death "A Japanese Summer" series.

Or is it?

Alrighties. From the mountains to the sea. We saw them all. No tour group could have let us see what we saw, go where we went, stay where we stayed, experience what we experienced, all around Japan, within two weeks. Oh, and on the budget we're on. Heh.

So here we were on our very last day in Japan. Our flight was scheduled for the evening which meant we still have half a day worth of sightseeing. Yes. Precious time must not be wasted. We packed our luggage the night before and took them all with us weee early in the morning and stuffed them in gigantic lockers at the train station and we took off to the beach!

We headed to Kanagawa prefecture, or personally to me, the land of Slam Dunk. If you know me, you'll know how much of a Slam Dunk fan I was back in high school. I dare not claim to be an avid anime/manga fan because I know I am not qualified to be one but there's no denying how invested I was in Slam Dunk when I was all teenage boppery boo.

Cubbie being more of a manga/anime/cosplay fan than I am, was even more eagered to head to where we were headed. To the 40th anniversary celebration grounds of Shonen Jump. Yes, that's the manga magazine that made it all happened. Sorta like the Kreko, Starz or whatsoever local manga magazine we have here in Malaysia, except like bigger, massively influential and probably one of the pioneers in the industry.

Oh my! Long intro. Sorry.

Behold the station that's gonna take us to our destination. You know you're on the right track (lame pun) because the entire train station was decorated with all things manga.



Hanging banners.



Panel boards.



Rounded posters? :P



And even gigantic sample pages of the actual manga!





Meet Mr Trainmaster at work.


Cik Datang commented that it's amazing how my shots tend to be tourists- and crowds-free. It's almost like I get them to make way for my photos. Well, would you believe me if I told you I'm standing right next to Mr Trainmaster then?

Watch Mr Trainmaster nagivate through the backlanes of houses. Yes. There's literally no walking space between the houses and the tracks. Imagine opening the window at the back of your house and have a train zooming across just like that. o_O






And from backlanes to the middle of the road.





Video!





And finally, we saw the beach! With itsy bitsy surfers. Took this shot specifically for Mr Skimmer Dude. Dude was impressed alright.







Video again for some real life action. *grins*






Eh?! Hawaii?


*grins*

The entire atmosphere of the area had a very "beach bummer" feel to it. Well-tanned dudes running along the beach. *blushes* Hahaha... bikini-clad ladies? Maybe. Wasn't paying too much attention. Forgive me, I was very much distracted okay?




Even the little cafe we entered was all aloha-ish.



I don't get this SPAM and GUM SYRUP.
Like woot?!? Gum Syrup? o_O



Naturally, food was not Japanese at all. Ice coffee and hotdog. Dude!

Double Dude!

"By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea...."
Excuse my ugly looking pouch.

And then, here's us being all dorky. :P

The Venue. Somewhere along the beach.

Hello Mr Dragonball. The entire setting was pretty small actually. It was a little disappointing as we were expecting something more grand for such an affair.

Anyhow, we still squeeze every good bit of it. Tried my luck and attempted a kaa-cha-pon here. Got myself an Ichigo. HAHAHA. Not bad I say. Of all the characters in there, I got myself the silly lead. Not bad at all. The perfect gift for my sister, an avid Bleach fan.

Another shot of the beach before we head back to Tokyo. *sobs*
Which meant it's almost time to go home.

My last meal in Japan. A treat from Yenyin! We met up with her again at the train station to say our goodbyes. Lots of hugs and farewell gifts. Yenyin got us each a pen and a flower. Aww... yes, that's the flower you see on the blog header right on top. Pretty and I might be bias about this but even flower from Japan seemed to last longer. ^^;; It totally stood fresh and pretty for over a week even after I got home.

That's me all sadface to go home. Hahaha... we took a shot of each other posing like that right in the middle of the airport. Memang sad to leave mah. We then got the idea of sending postcards! Totally random but that's just who we are. So we headed over to the airport post office, bought us some stamps and scribbled away on our postcards. Sent one to godmom and shared another with Cubbie to send our thanks back to Yenyin. *grins* I had previously sent one home while I was in Hokkaido.

Time for Departure.

And then we arrived at Changi Airport, Singapore in the middle of the night, about one in the morning. Our connecting flight back to Penang was at 8am. So we had the entire crowdless airport to ourselves for over 5 hours. Wondering around aimlessly, visiting the media / entertainment lounge and finally catch our fourty winks on the sofa while watching Everybody Loves Raymond. XD

Breakfast on board!

And we touch down homeland. *sobs* With that, I guess "A Japanese Summer" has finally come to an end. Remember what I've said about "No holiday plans till I had a proper closure for this"?
Well. It's about time. *winks*