35. All over, red rover, well at least for now.

Three and a bit weeks in Japan, my how time flies. Time for a few last pics and a wave good-bye to this wonderful country.
In summary, we had a great time and I think we will definitely be returning. Well Carolyn will definitely be returning since she already has a flight booked, but you know what I mean!

34. Vending Machine Central

Well it is already the final day, the morning is spent rushing about Shimbashi collecting gifts and souvenirs. Once this was done, it was time for the final meal before boarding the plane home. We stopped for one last Katsudon at a place where you pay your money into the machine to get a ticket which you hand in once inside for food. This reminds me of all the other vending machines like:
and:

Yep you can get hot chips 24 hours a day, but I don't think they would be that great. I didn't see great queues in front of this one, in fact it looked like it had never been used. You can get beer, cigarettes, hot coffee, ice cream and plenty of other things out of the vending machines of Japan and one is never more than a 50 metre walk, or so it seems.

33. Disneyland

At Disneyland, like DisneySea, the pictures really tell the story. It is certainly more of a kids' park than Disneysea, but it still has some cool stuff. It also has the best ride, Space Mountain, which is an indoor rollercoaster. It is in the daggy future area, which is like a perfect vision of the year 2010 in 1982, or simply put it is like going on the set of Battlestar Galactica - The Original.

Just like after the night out at Sakai's, it was junk food for lunch, this time a Mickey Mouse burger. By this time I had worn out the saying "What kind of Mickey Mouse 'insert here' do you call that?" When the answer was obviously Mickey Mouse.

Occasionally it felt like I was losing a bit not being able to understand everything since it was in Japanese, but at the same time, I think it prevented a lot of it from getting on my nerves. I also think the pricing model is right, it is certainly a lot cheaper than Australian theme parks.

32. If memory serves me correct...

If Michiba was the strongest Iron Chef, Kenichi the most popular and Sakai the most aloof, then it would be Ishinabe who would certainly be the most commercial. Travelling through Japan he had his face on Daimaru posters, chains of pattisseries and a number of restaurants. He was also the shortest lived Iron Chef with only 8 battles, but 7 of those were wins.When I saw he had a restaurant at Ikspiari, only 5 minutes from the hotel, I felt it was fate that I go there.

The menu offered a reduced degustation menu which was great since I don't think my cholesterol or wallet could handle another Sakai-sized beating. That said, reduced was only 4 courses instead of 7. I had a fois gras entree and Carolyn salmon, the food was nice, and the little piece of gold foil in the centre was a nice touch.

Soup was consommé with a pork mousse. Very nice, classy, French style cuisine. The main was superb, Fricasee de Homard. More gold leaf and a very well presented dish. This was easily the best lobster I have had, the flavour was concentrated and it melted in my mouth. Carolyn also had the same dishes and was most impressed. It also saved on the photography.

Finally desert, if Chen Kenichi's had an achilles heel, it was the Peking duck. Here it was the chocolate parfait. It was acceptable, but a little runny and the gold leaf looked like it was tacked on as an afterthought. If Sakai hadn't have set such a high benchmark, I would have thought more, but at the end it was kind of a bit disappointing. But given it was also less than half the price of Sakai's I can't complain too much. Also when the Champagne by the glass is Veuve Clicquot at only $12 a glass, I can't complain about that either.

31. DisneySea

I think the photo's summarise everything, it is literally picture perfect, each area is its own replica of either a real place (San Francisco in the 1800's) or fictional (Under the Sea, Little Mermaid style). The whole Venice thing was there again too, just like Odaiba!
We had no trouble filling up the day from 10am to about 6pm. If there is one advantage to winter travel is that there are very few queues for anything, anywhere. That said, we still had a brief queue for some rides. Thank god it is not summer.
The only thing left to do is go to Ishinabe's restaurant, Queen Alice at Ikspiari. I eventually managed to twist Carolyn's arm in to going.

30. What kind of Mickey Mouse vehicle is that??

I was expecting saturation, but nothing to this level. I also thought the way the music is piped through repetitiously was outlawed under the Geneva Convention.

Also by coincidence, the shopping centre at the gateway from the Disneyland resort to the rest of the world is home to French Iron Chef I Yutaka Ishinabe. This would require some investigation.

29. So long Hokkaido, Hello Tokyo (again)

Farewell Hokkaido, hello Tokyo. The whole island appeared to be covered in snow, pretty tough living, but as someone pointed out, you have a hell of a lot more space in Sapporo than you do in Tokyo. At the airport there was a plane covered with Pickachu. Pretty cool.

Mmmm Katsudon.

A short flight and bus ride later, we were back in Tokyo at the Sheraton Grande hotel at the Disney Park resort. Upon arrival we were greeted with an upgrade to our room featuring a King Size bed. I guess a free upgrade and no knee injury shows the Buddhist prayer in Osaka worked!
There was another great view out the window and more of that smog tint.

28. Toughest challenge yet, Natto

Imagine, dried balls of vomit covered in snot, you might get close to the smell of Natto. Since hearing about it and how bad it smelt, I thought I had to at least smell, if not eat, this goop. Well, I got my chance.
I took some from the hotel's buffet breakfast to try in the hotel room. Given what I had heard, I thought that having a bathroom nearby might not be such a bad move.
Well, upon opening, it stinks, stinks bad. Upon further smell, it is more like sour milk. The smell is dreadful, prodding with my fingers was pretty bad too since it stirred up more of the smell. Only one thing left to do, eat it. I tried a very small amount, it tastes better than it smells, but I still gagged. I decided after that, there was only one sensible thing to do, flush the rest down the loo.

27. Rusutsu - the perfect ski end

An early start to the day for a trip to Rustsu ski resort afforded me a bit of time to grab a few pics with some clear sky.

Upon arrival, this was how things looked, I certainly could not wait to get out there. Rusutsu was built from scratch by the Steamboat Ski mountain company before the mountain went bust. The result is great runs, great facilities, no people, no queues and fresh tracks.


I was a bit hesitant about going since it was the first clear day we had and the last day of skiing, but I made the right choice. Excellent way to round things off.