Monday, May 11, 2015

Japan 2015 - Day 14 - Going Home

April 20: Mazda Motor Museum

Our last decadent breakfast buffet.  Boo hoo.  This is Sweetie's.
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And here's mine.
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Goodbye salmon/cheese bun.
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Goodbye custard tart.
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Checkout was at 11:00 a.m. with bus departure at 12:15 p.m.  Me and Sweetie checked out early and waited at the department store's door for them to open at 10:00 a.m.  At 10:00 the guy at the door had to put up a raised hand to prevent us from barging in before he was ready. The below are stickers displayed in The Loft.
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We had learned the day before that our flight from Hiroshima to Tokyo had been canceled due to fog. The plan for today was for us to bus-it to Okayama, a 3-hour ride, and catch the domestic flight from there to Tokyo. Despite this hitch, we still managed to keep our planned visit to the Mazda Museum
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This is the area where we first entered. 
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The map below where I outlined in red shows the area where Mazda headquarters for the Hiroshima Prefecture occupies.  They employ about 20,000 people and produce 4,000 cars daily.
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Here is a test for you.  Let's see if you were paying attention.  This is from Mazda's restroom. I photoshopped out the English translations.  Tell me . . . which button is to flush? Hmmmm?
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Here is the vintage showroom.
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Rotary engine showroom.
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This is the first Japanese car to win the 24-hour endurance race at Le Mans.
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This car's engine is configured to run on either hydrogen or gasoline.
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I think this car is the 10 millionth to be produced at Mazda's Hofu plant. 
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There was a McDonald's at a rest stop that we stopped at before the airport. A lot of us got the shrimp burger.  I liked it.
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Here we are at the Okayama Airport.  We had just found out that our flight here might also be canceled due to fog. We were told that we just had to wait and see.
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I was just glad that somebody else was taking care of all the headaches for us.
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In the end, everything worked out okay. On the flight from Tokyo to Honolulu, me and Sweetie somehow got the seats situated between first class and economy class. Our seats were built kinda inclined already and the head rest thing could be adjusted to fold around your head. It was really comfortable. We both pretty much slept the whole ride home. We even skipped dinner. 

Here are my goodies, all safe and sound.
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That was such a great trip.  I hope I can go back again next year. I would love to go with Kobayashi Travel again, and maybe, just maybe, we can have Yuuki, the best tour guide in the history of mankind, be our guide once more. 

10 comments:

Les said...

Awwww so sad! I'm gonna miss the yummy posts. I guess it's my turn to go! :)

Kay said...

Wow! That's a whole lot of omiyage. I'm so glad everything worked out for your trip home. Something similar happened to the group we were with on our Mediterranean Cruise. There was a pilot strike so they had to travel 4 hours to another city to catch a flight to NJ and then to Hawaii. It took them 2 days to get back. Art and I were fine because we were staying an extra day in Venice and were going on to Chicago instead.

Honolulu Aunty said...

So funny - your farewells to the food.

You are a great traveler. Thanks for sharing your wonderful trip with us. Annuals to Japan? Awesome.

jalna said...

Les, go to Osaka, Osaka, Osaka. Not hinting but . . . tart, tart, tart. Or Miyajima, Miyajima, Miyajima. But how are you gonna bring me back a hambaga, hambaga, hambaga.

Oh no, pilots' strike, Kay. 2 days! Yikes!

Thanks Aunty. Annuals to Japan would be so awesome.

K and S said...

Hope you can go again soon!

Anonymous said...

j: hoo da food, amazing how you managed to bring that all back but seeing Sweetie's luggage I kinda get a clue. What did you guys do for laundry while traveling? BTW if it was me and my mom, we be stuffing the custards in our pockets, in our purses, etc.-N

DNakamaru said...

Great Trip!

jalna said...

I hope so too, Kat!

Hahahaha, N. So funny. Sweetie did sneak two cups of natto home for one of our other sisters. We hand washed clothes sometimes, especially socks and underwear.

Sure was, Dean!

Mokihana said...

Sure did enjoy your Japan posts... all the 'ono grindz, the sights... I love being able to travel vicariously with you.

jalna said...

Thanks, Moki!