The Holy Grail

I was going to call this last post from Japan (well technically not posted from Japan, but I am writing it as I wait for my plane and I am posting it from home) something like “Sayonara Japan”, or “Japan I Miss You Already”. But Japan really is the place that keeps on giving… right until I am about to board a plane outta here.

But let me start this morning.

Catching a late flight is both great and strange. Great in that you actually have another day that you might not normally have. But it is also strange in that you are kind of in limbo for the day too. I checked out of my hostel and said goodbye to Taka and the crew. As I have mentioned, what the guest house lacked in facilities it more than made up for in the location and especially the folk who run it. I couldn’t have asked for more.

Serenity in the heart of craziness

I didn’t want to shop today, since my bag was packed and all I would do would be to buy more records. So I decided to visit what I think was the last place on my list, the Imperial Palace and surrounding gardens. You can only get into the palace on like 2 days a year, and no I wasn’t that lucky. But I did spend a couple of hours wandering the lush gardens.

Keeping an eye over Tokyo

It is crazy to think that only a couple of train stops away is the craziness of Akihabara when you are surrounded by beautiful gardens.

This garden has everything

There is not much to report except that the gardens were as good as you would expect any royal gardens to be. It was a nice way to spend my last day really.

So once I had done my wander, I headed back to Shinagawa one last time to pick up my stuff and head to Narita. Being the expert Tokyo train user, I just grabbed the local train rather than the express. It is funny to think how spellbinding the train system is when you arrive, and a week later it becomes second nature. Melbourne… it is shameful we can’t have a working train network or swipe card system when Tokyo must manage 20 times the people each day and my Suica card never missed a beat. Get your act together.

If you have been playing count during my blog (assuming you are still reading!) you may ask “hey Matt, isn’t your blog called Man versus Kit Kat? There hasn’t been that much Kit Kat talk?”. Well, you would be right. But it is not for trying. When arriving in each city I would go into every store that looked like they may sell a Kit Kat and checked. But I wasn’t really having any luck. Well my dear readers, things changed today.

Mmmmm... soda

Things turned this morning actually. I popped into a convenience store (none special, just a regular one I go into a bit) near Tokyo Station and OMG. There was a new Kit Kat. I am not 100% sure what it is but it looks like Cola or Lemonade or some kind of soft drink flavoured one. I haven’t eaten yet, but bought two. A nice piece of Tokyo for when I get home.

But a couple of paragraphs ago I was arriving in Narita? What gives? Well, I heard rumour about this, but it turned out to be true. It seems Narita Airport was the home of the Kit Kat. Well, not crazy amounts, but enough for me to spend probably 50 bucks on Kit Kats. What did I find?

A big box of Holy Grail

WASABI.

Yep, my holy grail was there. In big 12 packs. Oh yeah. I almost cried.

There with it was the same 12 pack but some other flavours…

Sweet, not salty

Soy Sauce (the old favourite)

Intense you say?

Intense Roast Soy Bean (their words, not mine)

Boring flavour, but no doubt super tasty

and Strawberry Cheesecake. So which did I buy? All of them of course. 48 mini Kit Kats in total. I couldn’t see them and not buy them.

They also had some singles of the Cherry Blossom Green Tea (the one I found in Kyoto) so picked up another one. They had some Green Tea too but I have eaten tonnes of those so gave them a miss. So it was something like 3500 yen in Kit Kats. Worth every yen.

So I wandered the airport shops, looking for any final presents, but nothing jumped out. So parked myself for a minute and decided to sample some Wasabi Kit Kat.

OMG.

It was wasabi, in Kit Kat form! It tastes EXACTLY like that sounds! So what did I do? I went and bought another 12 pack of course. I figure you folk at home will want to sample, plus I had a 1000 yen note in my wallet, so why not spend it? I am about to leave Japan loaded up with Kit Kats and 200 yen in change in my pocket. Perfect end to an awesome trip.

(I will post a recap episode or two over the next few days, stay tuned… thanks for reading!)