Garden Party (May 27)

• No sleeping in today – our flight left at 4 p.m. and we wanted to do as much stuff as possible before leaving. Luckily, the girls we were sharing a room with had a similar schedule, so we didn’t have to worry about being quiet. After seeing the British girl from Friday one last time and checking out, we headed to…the Nagoya Zoo! We decided on this option because it was cheaper and also houses a Japanese botanical garden. 
• It was a beautiful day to be at the zoo, though it definitely got QUITE warm, even at 10 in the morning. We saw lots of fun animals and bunch of adorable children too. 

This guy's living quarters seemed a bit small for his size :(

Every zoo has dinosaurs...right?

Cleaning time

Flipper = foot

SOOOOOO CUTE!

And the gardens were really nice. I loved the rose garden – it smelled amazing, looked so colorful and was devoid of said adorable/screaming children. [pictures]

We wandered far into the park (it’s really huge!) and around as much of the gardens as we could. It was quite a hike and we were totally drenched in sweat. So we decided to treat ourselves to ice cream/cold tea and a train ride back to the front of the park. Best decision ever. I had rose ice cream! Which literally tasted like roses. The first bite was weird but, after that, it was strangely good. And riding the train was slightly scary, due to the rickety-ness and obvious old age of it, but it was really nice not to have to walk back to the front of the park :)

• Subways, trains and lots of walking later, we were checked in for our flight and just waiting to board. The first thing we explored was a quilt exhibit we saw advertised when we arrived. It was tucked into the back of the airport but it was amazing! I only wish they had been at human level so I could have touched them (my favorite way of “observing” fabric) – but that probably isn’t allowed anyways, so that they will last. Sad day. [pictures] There was also a little “town” at the airport, with shops and cafes! The structures were built to look like a village – there was even a fake cat “walking” on top of the bookshelves. I bought The Very Hungry Caterpillar in Japanese at a book store :) After that, we made our way through security and immigration and then, since those took about 15 minutes total, we relaxed at the gate for about an hour before boarding. And I drank calpico from a bottle :) 
• Airplanes, subways and more walking later, I bought a bus ticket home. I ate dinner at a Korean restaurant with a really nice owner, who let me stay past closing time to finish and wouldn’t hear my apologies. And then it was time to board. Unfortunately, I discovered the shittiest seat on an express bus - the 2nd from right (if you are facing the front) in the very last row: the seat is narrower, you have no floor space for a bag, you are in front of the aisle so you have to wear the seatbelt because you'll be the one thrown forward if the bus stops suddenly, the floor is hot because it's on top of the engine, my legs are so long that inclining the leg-rest did nothing and they hung off the step, and it still cost the same as all the other seats. (It was almost worse than being in the seat that is on top of the heater.) This was all compounded and made me grumpier because it took like 2.5 hours to get out of the airport, to the bus station and then find a place to eat. And I didn’t arrive back to my apt until 2:30 a.m. 

BUT it was a pretty great weekend ;)