With all the crazy weather yesterday, it was a relief to wake up as we entered the Tokyo Bay with light winds, no chop, and a beautiful sunrise.

We had to be out of rooms at 8 and off the ship by 9. Our flight home was at 4:30 so we had to improvise our time management. We left a little after 8 because there was no line to get off the ship. A short 10-minute walk to the train station and we were on our way to the Shinagawa Station where we had anchored on Days 2-5.

It was a bright clear day and Mt. Fuji was visible from the train station. It was the first time we saw it.

We found a café in Shinagawa that had great coffee and a nice selection for breakfast (no photos—not sure why I didn’t take any). At about 11 we headed to Haneda Airport knowing that we could not get into the executive lounge until 1:30. So we headed up to the coolest observation point ever: Terminal 3, Level 5. They had restaurants, bars, shops, lots of seating and an incredible view of the airport. Two runways were working for takeoffs and two for landing, so action was nonstop.

We arrived at the Sky Club and immediately were whisked to a place to sit. Knowing that we’d be having dinner on the flight, we just had some snacks. I had my final noodle bowl in Japan and savored it.

The flight to Atlanta was effortless. Atlanta to home was a different story. Bad weather had descended and flights were being cancelled and diverted all over the place. Our plane was at the gate and the cabin crew was onboard. Unfortunately, our pilots were on an inbound plane that got diverted. The gate agent was working magic and was able to work with crew scheduling to find a 757 team to replace our missing pilots.

Our 8:30 flight left at about 10 allowing us to get to our house by about midnight. After 30 hours of door to door travel, we were done!

Japan is such a wonderful place to visit. We don’t plan to go back because we have some other places to discover. But given the chance, we’d be back there in a heartbeat.