Sayonara

It's time to travel back to Tokyo for the flight back. It's quite tight. The tour agency for this Osaka stay gave us train tickets to Tokyo for the 1:30 p.m timing. This means we can only reach Shinagawa Station at 4:30 p.m. The Narita Express train to the airport leaves at 4:50 p.m. and reaches Narita Airport at 6 p.m. Our flight leave at 7 p.m. Not much allowance there ...

If everything goes smooth, we will be just right on schedule, else ... well, got to trust in the Japan train schedules, they are known for their punctuality.

Did some last minute shopping, both quite a lot more biscuits and chocolates then have lunch at a Japanese restaurant again. Yeah, I must have my fill of udon ...





We reached Shinagawa on time. Hey, our Narita Express ticket doesn't allow us through the station gates! ALARM, ALARM!!! We are gonna miss the train!!!

Checked with the station official, I was able to make some sense out of it. Seemed like this ticket we bought was only the seat reservation on the Narita Express, which is mandatory.



We need another normal train ticket which formed the base fare of the journey. That costs another 1450 yen, which is same as the Rapid train ticket that we paid for from the airport to Shinagawa. So the total cost to the Narita Airport is 3110 yen in total, which tallied with the website.

What is puzzling is why can't the base fare be bought together with the Express surcharge. Maybe we missed out something during the purchase possibly.

We managed to get on the Narita Express with just 5 min to spare.

Once checked in at the airport, we asked around for Shiroi Koibito - 白色恋人. You got to give the Japanese credit for coming up with such a romantic name. It's white chocolate sandwiched between 2 slices of thin biscuits. Got it just before the boarding starts, goody. I am actually perspiring from all the running ...



It looks nice and is oishii!
It tastes even better when you leave it in the fridge first!

So that ends our trip to Japan, a dream come true ... finally ... for CP. I enjoyed it thoroughly as well.

Summary:
Airfare Northwest : S$1572 total
Shinagawa Prince Hotel 4 Nights: S$944
3D2N Osaka/ Kyoto: 74800 yen ~ S$1024 (inclusive of round-trip Shinkansen and Universal Studio tickets/ 2N Hotel Granvia Osaka)

P.S. The 3D2N Osaka package is definitely a steal. You can get it from Japan Sunrise Tours. The hotel cost about S$260/ night, the Shinkansen cost about S$188 one-way. So if you add them up, S$1024 is super wothwhile.