Our trip was nearing its end as we made our way back to Tokyo. Our bags were gathered at our Kanazawa hotel and would be forwarded for us. For our part, it was one last ride on the bullet train.

As the Kanazawa train station is across the street, the group walked over and headed to our platform. We did stop for a few snacks before boarding. The journey was just a bit over two hours and went very quickly.

We arrived at Tokyo Station and then took taxis to the hotel. Our hotel was the Hyatt House – Shibuya. When we arrived, we were in luck as our rooms were ready for occupancy.

Our room was simple, but very nice. As with everywhere else we stayed, it was spotlessly clean and comfortable.

I was starting to feel a cold coming on, so we rested up for the afternoon to try and ward off the germs. Many of our travel companions have had the same problem, so I guess it was just my turn.

Feeling a little refreshed, we joined part of the group at a Wagyu Yakiniku restaurant and had a wonderful meal.

The meal was a meat lover’s dream. The wagyu was so tender and buttery tasting; the fact that you could grill it as much or as little as you wanted pleased everyone’s tastes.

It was quite the meal. We were all full when we finished and there were eight thumbs up on the evening.

The walk back to the hotel was very pleasant, especially surrounded by the city lights.

For our last tour day, we started out with some free time to wander. Sue and I decided to take a walk to the Godzilla Store, as the route seemed simple enough.

It wasn’t! We got ourselves lost. With judgement clouded by my head cold, we kept going – thinking we would find the street to turn on. We didn’t!

All in all, our simple walk turned into a 2.5 mile walk to nowhere. And then, we had to go back. Five miles and some time later, we arrived back at the hotel. I was tired, coughing, sore and needing a nap.

We skipped the afternoon tour of the palace gardens (it wasn’t a tragedy, as nothing is currently blooming) and rested up for the evening’s goodbye dinner.

The goodbye dinner was the coup de grâce. We traveled a good distance from our hotel to the VIN Tetsu restaurant. It was located on the 46th floor and provided outstanding views over the city.

Our meal was a spectacular multi-course affair.

It was a wonderful dinner celebrating a trip of a lifetime, but accompanied by some sadness associated with the group parting ways.

Because of the different travel schedules, this was our official goodbye to our travel companions and our superb group leader.

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Since this was a shorter post, I’ll try to answer a few of your questions:

We were a group of sixteen. Everyone in our group was a seasoned traveler. There were five couples and six individuals. I would place the average age at around seventy, but you’d probably win a prize at the fair as I’m terrible with ages.

The group was made up of Brits, Canadians and Americans with our tour guide being an Irishman living in Japan.

The language, which provided the majority of my pre-trip anxiety, was not as much of an issue as I thought it would be. Now granted, we were usually with our guide, but many places had English menus or someone who understood English.

I prepared a cheat sheet before we left home and had practiced a bit of Japanese. I had chosen the right words and phrases as we were able to use them often. Combined with appropriate smiles and gentle bows, we did well.

The time difference for us was fourteen hours. 10:00 am for us on Friday was 8:00 pm on Thursday back home.

When flying home Saturday, we will leave at 6:50 pm and arrive in Toronto at 4:45 pm. We will be time traveling.