Day 22: Last Day & Tokyo's Artificial Island, Odaiba

The day started out by being the hottest of our trip- it reached 99 this afternoon. In the morning, we walked through throngs of people at Ikebukuro station to get to Don Quixote so we could buy perishable souvenirs (candy, cookies, etc.). Don Quixote is kinda like the Walmart of Japan only a lot cooler... I want to petition to open one in Portland, haha.

In the heat of the day, we traveled by the yamanote loop line train to Shibuya, where we took pictures and walked among the crowd at the famous "Shibuya crossing." It was neat, but we both agreed that compared to the crowds we've seen in stations and on trains, it really wasn't that busy. Speaking of trains, mom figured out that when the cars are totally stuffed, each one holds about 150 people. And most of the local trains have 10-12 cars. And some, like the yamanote line, come every five minutes. You do the math...

After Shibuya, we took a train called the "yurikamome," an unmanned, elevated train. It was SUPER packed. There were so many girls wearing yukata (cotton kimono) that I suspected a festival. Well, later when we rode back, we got to watch a fireworks show over the river from the train! That was really cool. Much cooler than our fireworks at home. :P Anyway, the train brought us to Odaiba, a man-made island famous for shopping, among other things. We went shopping at a mall made to look like a southern European town (complete with fake sky), walked beside the giant Gundam statue (from the hugely popular anime), and checked out some cool cars in Toyota's large showroom. There were two Pokemon cars which were super cute. It was so nice to go inside and shop where it wasn't 99 degrees... Every time we went outside, my glasses fogged up. -_-

Well, this trip has been amazing. All good things come to an end though, and of course, I will be glad to come home. We are sitting in Haneda airport waiting to board as I type this. Thank you so much to anyone who followed along with this blog; it helped us feel a lot less isolated. :) See you on the other side!!