Today was a long awaited and nourishing day. It began by waking up at the crack of noon post a grueling 72 hours at the ASUS helm, clicking away for my university project. My brains cogs spun into gear and I realised I was a little late to meet with the owner of the Sakuramira Cafe down the road. I made myself presentable and dashed out the door. I entered to the delight of T-san and I immediately introduced myself to everybody, ordered a long double espresso and sat down. I met K her husband A and their son M. A could speak good English and we found common ground by sharing our hiking adventures in Nepal. A delivery man entered, whom they all seemed to know well and joined the conversation. After an hour or so, being fed delicious apple pastry, onigiri, receiving gifts and having constant laughs with these generous locals, I really felt quite overwhelmed by it all. To thank my mother for her painting, M made a box set of origami,so I quckly ran home to fetch an Australia beanie to return the gratitude. After another hour or so I left also realising my plans to properly prepare for my parents evening arrival under stress. The next few hours was hectically spent on polishing the travel itinerary and my room. I almost made a huge blunder with the airport express train however my desperate dash across Ueno station saved me. However it was all in vain as my parents flight came in late and they were seated at the back of the plane. As I was waiting in the arrival hall I glared at the televised CNN, realising I hadn't watched English telly since I left Australia. I am not sure whether that's a good or bad thing. Eventually, Big Cam and Mamma Jugs appeared and we warmly embraced. It was mighty fine to see them. We organised ourselves and boarded the Narita Skyliner to Ueno then changed to the Yamanote line to Shimbashi, and after a few bothersome flights of stairs with luggage and getting the analogue train tickets under control, we made it to the hotel. I am so very pleased to be indulging in a spring mattress for the next few nights; my sternum and collar bones can have a rest. We then headed back out and made our way via the JR Yamanote and Toden Arakawa lines to my home in Otsuka to grab my bags and have a bite to eat. However the error in my ways was that the time flew and we had to quickly dash from my room into a cab, straight back to the JR station to not miss the last train at midnight. Luckily we got there and we were on a our way back to Shimbashi with my bags on my back. As I explained to my parents earlier in the evening that the Japanese white collar workers like to hit the drink after work and usually tumble into the last trains. Little did I plan for them to witness it on their first night. There was the obligatory man on all fours spewing his guts out on the Otsuka platform (better out than in I always say) and most of the passengers on the return journey where swaying in a boozy and unconscious manner. We were all famished by the time we got back to Shimbashi and we decided to get the 'gotta try maccas' thing out of the way now to keep things simple.
So after driving to the airport, two flights, four trains, a tram and a taxi my wide Tokyo-eyed parents made it to Japan.
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