01.02.2020 - Day 37 - Kyōto + Tokyo, Japan

After checking out of the wonderful hotel 'The Thousand' today, we had some time to stroll around the huge station mall before departure of our Shinkansen 🚅. We hadn't seen the two basement floors there, which were supposed to have exclusively food. Guys, I've seen a lot and Brigitte was completely speechless as well, due to the variety and especially the way food is presented there. Unfortunately, I can't find words to describe even remotely, what we found there. It should be unique worldwide. We took a few photos, but they don't show even a fraction of what we saw. One thing became clear to us, Japanese people love to eat and seem to have incredibly high standards for it. It was a great art, literally.

The ride on the Shinkansen was comfortable, fast, and super punctual, just like last time. By the way, it's funny that the train attendants bow every time they enter or leave the wagon 😃. This time, we didn't see Mount Fuji. It was covered in clouds, as it often is. We were lucky on the way there 😊.

We're now sitting in the business lounge at Narita Airport, waiting for our flight to Honolulu, and reflecting on the deep impression that Japan and the Japanese people have made on us. We can only express it like this: we are absolutely thrilled. About the food (see above), about traveling by train (they are light years ahead of us here. We were never even a second late!), about the toilets 🚽 (if they had wheels, you could probably ride them too), and above all about the incredibly well-dressed people, who are extremely friendly, respectful, helpful, calm, and very, very polite. Qualities that unfortunately we barely noticed in another Asian nation, which we have encountered pretty much everywhere on our trip so far. However, the politeness I have adapted here in Japan prohibits me from mentioning this nation by name. Just a moment... I need to sneeze... Achoo-inese. That darned cold 😂😂😂.

For us, it's time to say goodbye to Japan 🇯🇵 and aloha to Hawaii 🌺.