Y2 : 365 - Day 137.

Christmas Vacation, Japanese Edition: Christmas Day.

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This is the last post of my Christmas vacation journey. My cousin and I traveled to Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka and Sendai in a week! It was very exhausting, lots of walking but overall it was an awesome trip and I am so happy he could visit us in Japan. 

These photos are of our last trip, back to Sendai, that turned out to be quite the adventure. We left Osaka after Dan's game and were hoping to get back to Sendai that night. We completely forgot it was Sunday and that bullet trains don't run late. So we got to Tokyo and then we were stuck till 6am. We tried to find a hostel close to the train station, we searched for open ATMS (in Japan most ATMs are only open during business hours), and finally settled on an idea that just required us to stay in one spot for 6 hours. We were going to stay overnight at the Tokyo train station.  

Our meal in Osaka. Yummy noodle soup! 

Tokyo at night. We took a subway to another part of town to find a hostel. It was already close to midnight and had only an hour to figure everything out. Subways in Japan stop running at midnight.

Walking around trying to find an ATM to pay for the hostel. I tried 5 different ATMs and in all my card was rejected or they were closed. Only 7-11 and Japan Bank take foreign debit cards!

After finding an ATM we decided it would be smart just to go back to the Tokyo Station and spend the night. At this point we only had 6 hours till our next train. These were our buddies for the night! Merry Christmas! 

Plan B quickly came into effect when a police officer was kicking everyone out of the station. Apparently the train station closes from 130-4am! We went to the nearby police booth to ask if there was anywhere we could go, a restaurant, cafe, bar, etc. The police officers kept looking at us all confused and finally told us there was a Denny's about 20 minutes away. So we ventured out but thankfully found a 24 hour noodle shop very close to the train station, so it was tempura shrimp noodle soup, green tea and cheesy Japanese Christmas music for the next 4 hours. At least we were not alone! To view a 360 of the noodle shop click on the right image above. 

Peace from the noodle shop! I was sick most of the trip and walking around in the cold didn't make it any better. I finally put on a mask and fit in. The Japanese wear these face masks any time they are sick so they don't infect anyone else with their germs, very smart! 

Finally back in the Tokyo station! What a different view, I've never seen it so deserted. 

Zipping past Fukushima to Sendai. 
This will definitely be a Christmas we will never forget!