While we were staying at the ryokan in Yamanouchi we met an Australian named James. His job was to travel around the world giving snowboard tours to people who would hire him (Australians are the coolest).
Got a late start yesterday, didn’t leave the hostel until past noon because we had to do laundry and dryers in Asia take forever to dry. One thing on my checklist while in Sapporo was to try miso style ramen.
We found out yesterday morning that Jack and Gretchen’s flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis was cancelled due to maintenance. After almost an hour of figuring out an alternate plan they were rebooked to fly through Canada to get home.
The other night Jack and I decided to do one final onsen soak. We were offered the chance to do a private onsen for $5 each at 11pm which we took them up on. At least with the other 2 places we’ve been to there’s a shower room and a place to keep your stuff.
The trip is winding down now for Stephanie and Alex as they left early this morning for Tokyo and are flying to Shanghai tonight then for home tomorrow. We didn’t have any plans for today as tomorrow will be a big travel day for the rest of us so we kept it pretty chill.
When we got to the ryokan we chatted with a family from Houston. They recommended that we sign up for the 9am shuttle up to the monkey park because it gets really crowded as the day goes on.
Today was the last day of us being in paradise. We woke up at 6am with 70 degree weather, said our goodbyes to Ken and his wife thanking them for their hospitality, and headed to the airport. Even though the flight was at 10am, we weren’t sure how long it would take to drive to the car rental place, drop off the car, and take the shuttle to the airport. In the end we had over an hour extra which made things super stress free.
We did so much yesterday that I passed out on the couch when we got home and woke up at 2:30am with all the lights off. I’m writing this blog on my phone on the way to the airport. This is going to be a long post.
I showed up to the dive shop today and Amber surprised me by being my guide and bringing her friend Sarah who is a professional photographer. We went diving right off the shore near the dive shop and it was amazing. So much underwater life with a huge coral garden.
Finally, after long planning Alex and I got to go diving since the last time in the Philippines almost 3 years ago. Everyone else was able to join our boat trip out to the Kerama islands to do snorkeling which they’ve never done before. The nice thing is that we had very thick wetsuits which made the water warm and the weather was beautiful.
