On our second to the last day in the city was spent back at our favorite ramen shop and aracade at Nijo Station.
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| This was his horror-stricken face when he 'won' a cannister of Chip Star, but they got stuck and did not come out! |
As soon as we were done there, we discussed the possibility of impulsively heading out to the Kamo River to check out a famous stone-crossing area where the river forks. Ryan was up for it, so we literally ran to try and catch a bus and got on with a few seconds to spare. I told him to feel free to get wet...everything he was wearing was dri-fit, and it was so hot outside he'd dry off quickly. He said nope, no way...he'd only get his feet wet. You can see how that worked out...
On our way back from the river, we met the boy's at our apartment for a final send off. They insisted on meeting us for a final get together, which was very sweet!
They surprised us by being kind enough to come back and see us once more on Ryan's last day of school the next day. They met us at school for Ryan's closing ceremony, where he was given a certificate of completion.
After school, we went back to Kura Sushi before heading to the apartment to check out and leave.
Our journey home was filled with endless drama, unfortunately. Though we quickly picked our suitcases and headed to Kyoto Station with the boys (who insisted on accompanying us), as soon as we arrived there, we were told they had closed the Haruka line to the airport because it was 'too hot' for the train to operate. I was stunned. The other train lines were running, and they'd never closed the line before. I'd lived there for three years and never once had a train line shut down...now, in a two week period, it happened twice! So we bid a quick goodbye to the boys, and madly rushed to a local JR train line (since we'd already paid for a JR train pass for the day). My plans of relaxing once we got into the train to the airport were quickly dashed, as I was panicked trying to find another, fast route to the airport. I had no maps (I had discarded them thinking we were simply hopping on the Haruka, and don't think I had any Osaka maps anyway), and no more wifi, as I'd just turned in my pocket wifi back to the hotel.
So instead, I had Ryan watching our bags in the train car as I went around asking random people for help on how to get to the airport from Kyoto station. A couple of people gave me a few different routes from their phone...but one route took us largely on a private (Nankai) train line, which would have cost more money I didn't want to spend. Another route had us going on local trains that would have taken forever. The third suggestion seemed the best, which was to get out at station in Osaka, then run over to another platform and catch another JR express train to the airport. It required running up and down a flight of stairs to get to the train on time, but thankfully, it worked, and I was so relieved even though I was pouring sweat, panicked and exhausted. We got to the airport only about 30 min. later than we'd planned, which was a small miracle.
We were not able to get an upgrade to business class, as I'd hoped we might. And because we were in a really long time for check in, we were also unable to get good seats (we were given two next to each other, in the back of the plane, with someone seated next to me. :-( But my scrawny little guy still managed to pass out for a few hours. I'd quickly grabbed him some long, warm socks at the airport.
And because we were short on time, we didn't have time to sit for a nice dinner as I'd planned. All I had time to do was grab some horribly unappetizing and overpriced croissant breakfast sandwiches, some peanuts and water from a coffee shop near our gate. I was also unable to buy the last minute gifts I'd hoped to from Duty Free. :-( But the main thing is- we got there, we made the luggage weight, and we had food for the flight.
Once we got back home, my father congratulated Ryan with a 'money lei' that I'd suggested he make for him (traditional gift for high school/college graduation here). :-D What a jerk!
It was a great trip, and we plan to do it again...just not in summer if we can avoid it. Too much typhoon/heat drama negates the savings of going off season. ;-) I had a great experience of being able to travel with Ry solo, despite the hiccups with my phone temporarily dying and shut down train lines.
We have a few more trips lined up soon, with our next one in about a month and a half (Malta/Italy), followed by another jaunt to Europe four months later to Scandinavia (likely Denmark and Sweden, with a possible quick trip to Norway (Oslo) just to check it out. Prices at the latter countries remind me a lot of their Scandinavian cousin, Iceland. :-0 Yikes. My parents will be coming with us on both trips, so that will be fun! My dad does not like cold weather (oh boy), and Scandinavia looks to be pretty nippy, but we have warm clothing from Hokkaido that we all still fit except Ryan, of course. His snow pants from Hokkaido were practically capris by the time we actually returned from the trip (note to self: don't buy young kids clothing 3-4 months before a trip)! I'm excited at what the rest of '18 and early '19 will hold, prayer that we stay healthy so that we make it out of here smoothly.
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