We’d been leaving our luggage all over Japan in our hotels, but Mike got extremely excited about this hotel’s self-serve system. The instructions were clearly stated in English, but his excitement got ahead of him. He locked his luggage in and couldn’t get it out.

We had to go get help from the hotel staff because we planned to get lunch and do some last-minute shopping. Thank goodness for Google Translate, which we employed to help communicate the intricate situation! It was a bit of an ordeal, but the staff of course were extremely nice!

The whole thing made me laugh because we thought this system would save us time! 😂

We had one of those travel moments when we were wandering about a confusing shopping center trying to find a place to eat, but we finally found one…and it was great!

We made our way to Tokyo Haneda, where we met Kazue-San (Kay) one last time. It was so kind of her to see us off, and it turned out to be a tearful goodbye. Who knows when we will see each other again?

Nine hours in the air, and then a five-hour layover in Honolulu! My college friend Sandy and her husband Roger came to pick us up to take us to coffee. They also presented us with leis and macadamia nuts, true Hawaiian hospitality! We hadn’t seen them since they visited Japan in 1988 or 1989! They know their coffee!

We arrived home late, and I was so happy to be in my own bed again! We had a phenomenal bucket list/empty nester trip! I have one more blog post in me to wrap things up. Stay tuned!