Winter 2016: Day 4

Kawaii

The final day of the trip!

The flight home was scheduled at 5.30pm. It meant that we needed to be at the airport at 3.30pm. We figured that we wanted an hour more in the airport as a buffer and also some extra time for duty-free shopping. So that works out to 2.30pm arrival at Narita Terminal 1. The journey from the hotel in Asakusa to Ueno takes about 15min while the Keisei Limited Express train shuttle between Ueno and Narita takes 70min. That will set us back another 1.5 hours to a 1.00pm departure from the hotel. However, the check-out timing for the hotel is 11.00am.

We wanted to take our time a little on the final day, so leaving the hotel for a return to Nakamise Shopping Street late will mean that we will need to rush back to meet the check-out timing. So we did the logical thing every traveler would do. We left our packed luggage at the hotel lobby and check out when we left the hotel for Nakamise at 9.00am. This meant that we have 4 solid hours outside before coming back for our stuff.

First up was the much needed morning coffee which we had at Starbucks. Partly because the electric kettle in our room stopped functioning that morning causing me to miss my caffeine fix from the 3-in-1 pack.

So the order for the day was pretty straightforward. Leisure shopping at Nakamise, followed by lunch at Naritaya - an eatery which serves Halal ramen - and then the journey to Narita Airport. The bowl of ramen I ordered at Naritaya had 1 boiled egg, seaweed, chicken cutlets and mushroom. The hot soup really hit the spot on a cold day. It was tasty, yummy and cost me ¥700.

Naritaya's Shop Front

I THINK this bowl I had was the "Special Ramen"

Its good to know that Naritaya has a tiny surau within their restaurant. It is on the second floor (tall people should watch their heads when climbing up the stairs) of the restaurant that comes complete with a simple tap and basin for ablution. The space fits only one person - or maybe two very small people.

Naritaya's ablution area

With shopping and lunch settled, we headed back to collect our luggage and went straight to the airport. Even with all the calculations done, we eventually only reach the airport at 3.30pm and not 2.30pm as originally intended. It was a little bit of rush because the duty-free shops in the airport can have very very long queues which eats up a lot of your time. So do take this in consideration when you plan your time.

Find Mt Fuji..!

More Kawaii drawings on my food :) 

And with that, my "Smash & Grab" Tokyo trip comes to an end! Till I see you again in 2018 Japan!