Tokyo 2019 - Day 5, Finale

Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale for the fifth and final day of our Summer 2019 Tokyo trip in conjunction with Wonder Festival. The past four days have been filled with hustle and bustle with a timetable more packed than any of my previous trips to Japan, namely because of the short amount of time available at hand. But as they say, all good things must come to an end. Before we jump into the events of the last day, here is a quick recap of what we have gone through thus far. Day 1, we hit up Nakano on mid-day as a warm up for the main event of Day 2, where we attended Wonder Festival. Day 3 keeps things in line by a follow up visit to Akihabara after WonFes. While Day 4 sees us veering way off course to Kyoto before bringing us back to Tokyo for Day 5, the last day. 

Now that we were back in Tokyo, it was time for me to complete several final scattered locations on my checklist of things/places to be during my annual visit to Tokyo. The first of which, is not pictured here, is a visit to the salary-man district of Shimbashi where I had the chance to meet up with some of my old colleagues. Since I happened to be in the area, I also made sure to pay a visit to two of Shimbashi's hidden gems, Atago Shrine and the NHK Museum. For lunch, we paid a visit to one of my guilty pleasures, Sweets Paradise, this time paying a visit to the branch in Ueno which I had not visited before. 

After lunch, we made our way back to Akihabara. Not just for last minute window shopping but, also to visit one of my all time favorite shrines, the Kanda Shrine. Without fail, I always make it a point to visit Kanda Shrine with each of my visits to Tokyo yet I had not been back in a while seeing as to how I had been away from Tokyo for more than a year. Expecting nothing to have changed, I was in for a real surprise seeing the radical changes that Nozomi's home Kanda Shrine had gone through with the addition of Edo Culture Complex. 

This radical modernization consisted of the addition of a modern three story complex located to the side of the main shrine where a small single story booth used to reside. Besides that, the surrounding booths and complexes also seemed to receive a minor overhaul. The end result is a shrine ground which looks much more vast despite the addition of a whole new building next to it. The best part was, on a warm summer day, the air conditioning within the Edo Culture Complex was a shelter sent from the heavens. 

Of course this was still my final day in Tokyo and with a flight out to catch at night, I could not afford to spend an entire day in Akihabara as much as I would have liked to. With a quick and early dinner, it was then time for me to grab my luggage and head for Narita Airport. There I would have to grab a connection flight with a total traveling time of 13 hours from airport to airport. Even more when you consider the time it takes to travel from Tokyo to Narita. While it certainly did sound very hectic, this was actually nothing new for me by now as I had become very accustomed to traveling in and out of Japan. 

In fact, the long hours actually gave me ample time to reflect upon my journeys thus far, refocus where I would like to be moving forward into the future and helping me reset before returning back to my beyond hectic working life. And then suddenly the realization hit me. Despite being my shortest visit to Tokyo thus far, this has been without a doubt the most fulfilling and enjoyable Tokyo trip I have ever had till date. Maybe it does go to show that a little bit of planning goes a long distance. Or maybe they were some other forces at play outside of my control for this trip.

Whatever it was, I certainly cannot wait for my next trip back to Tokyo. Unfortunately, we will not be able to attend Summer Wonder Festival 2020 because of the 2020 Summer Olympics. Workaround include attending Winter Wonder Festival for a change or the later C3 Expo which happens later in August. Thus far, no plans have been set in stone. Nevertheless, a trip to Tokyo next year is certainly in the books. Until then, thank you so much for joining me on a roller coaster of a summer trip and I hope to see you again next time!