Day 12 - Hakodate to Tokyo.

So today's breakfast was at 8am as we wanted to go take a walk at the morning market before we left for the airport.

Since it's my last breakfast here at Hakodate, I thought I'd share photos of my weird combination of a breakfast.

We walked over to the morning market where I managed to get my dad some ika shiokara and some dried cuttlefish so that was great. He has been texting me non stop to remind me to get some for him. I also managed to get the melon soft cream that I have been eating since I was a child and the taste is exactly how I remembered it.

Soooooo, here's the one and only photo we took at the morning market.

Yes, that's the melon soft cream that I am holding in my hands.

We brisked walked it back to the hotel so pack our loot in and we made it in time for the 1040am shuttle bus to the airport. It took about 20 minutes from our hotel to the airport, so it's not too bad. We got to the airport and blimey, the queue for the bag scanning was horrendous. When we finally reached the counter, I was told that my bag ( containing nothing but boxes of Trappist cookies ) were too heavy. So then we had to reshuffle and add some boxes into my bag. But guess what ? We had too re-queue again to re-scan our bags. How silly is that ? We just repacked it in front of you isn't it ? Facepalms.

Well, with all that shizzle, we made it in time for our 1240pm flight.

またね ！今度また戻ってくるね ！

We arrived safely at Tokyo about 1 hour and 30 minutes later.

Next up was an hour ride via the limousine bus to 新宿 ( Shinjuku ) where we were going to stay for the remaining nights. It dropped us right outside Keio plaza hotel, the hotel that we had originally planned on staying at, but was fully booked. My mum managed to find us another hotel nearby ( and by nearby I mean like a 10 minutes walk ), which wasn't too bad if you weren't lugging 2 baggage each - Hotel Gracery which is also a new hotel, so if you do visit, you can check it out.

So we checked in and realized we were on different floors, because my mum requested for 2 single beds for herself and Uncle Pat. while she got me the double bed.

This is what my original room looked like.

From where I was standing was the hallway and by the time I laid my baggage down, I had no walk space and I couldn't open the fridge either. It was like a maze trying to get to the toilet as well because of how space restricted the room was. I showed my mother this photo and she was appalled. She then took a photo of her room and sent it to us. Now I understand why she was appalled. It was massive ! And as if the room wasn't small enough, there was this stench in the room which just wouldn't go away. You know how they say if you've smelt something long enough, you'd become immune to it ? Well, this smell didn't. The longer you stayed in there, the worse it became.

The only consolation was the lovely view of Shinjuku that we got from our window.

So anyways, we regrouped at the coffee house below to have coffee and cakes as it was tea time.

Just after we finished our cakes, I decided that the stench was too much for me to bear and I decided to go see if they had another room for me. I was then told that I would have to top up, which wouldn't have been a problem. The problem was, it was a smoking room. I have stayed in smoking rooms previously and boy do they stink. From the carpets to the sheets, you name it, they smell of nothing but overnight cigarettes. But after much contemplation, I decided to give it a go. I figured that if it was really that bad, I could just spray some of my perfume in the room and hope for the best. Whereas the room that we had originally been in, no amount of perfume would have removed that stench.

So I went up and swapped rooms and to my surprise, there was 0 odour in the smoking room and the best of all, I had a bigger room all to myself ! Yay ! So remember friends, if you do decide to stay at Hotel Gracery, request for the double single beds. The rooms are way bigger.

Before we went out for dinner, we decided to check out the Godzilla located at the lobby.

For dinner today, we let Uncle Pat choose what he wanted to eat. We walked round 新宿 for a little while before settling down at bari bari chicken. Manage to capture one of the many alleys of 新宿.

Now, for our not so fantastic dinner.

Well, I'm off to do some shopping now. Hopefully I get to buy some clothes.