As our plane leaves late in the day we arrange with the hotel to hold our luggage and we decide to try to catch a glimpse of the Tsukiji fish market a renowned fish market were supposedly you can see almost any fish imaginable and there are also in theory restaurants that serve fresh fish. However as we exit the hotel we notice that it starts to rain quite badly and the wind also picked up – luckily we are prepared with rain coats and umbrellas.
The umbrellas don’t survive for a long time under the increasing wind and the rain coats are almost pulled off us a couple times but we get in the end to the market, which is empty and closed. All stores besides it are also closed – a huge letdown. We decide to return to the central area then and do some shopping but first we want to buy the train tickets to the airport.
As we get to the train station the ticket seller and announcers are letting us know that the trains got cancelled. There is little information why so we run from person to person until we find out that there is actually a typhoon passing through the area and that trees have fallen on the tracks which stopped all traffic. Afterwards we found out it was called Typhoon Man-yi and that luckily for us hit near Kyoto.
We are frantic now and we try to find a different transportation option and we discover a bus which of course we expect to be mobbed by all the train passengers so we run to the hotel and get our luggage and present ourselves to the next bus. Luckily it is only half full and it makes good time to the airport where we arrive in time.
In fact we have lots of time so we eat lunch at one of the airport restaurants. For the first time for almost two weeks we see a fork and knife and then we wander through the airport to see the different art exhibits.
The most interesting one is shop with a lot of origami exhibits from small towns to flowers, very interesting. We are a bit stressed about whether our plane will leave as there are quite a few cancelled but we leave ok and then it is a smooth flight back to the US. This was a great trip with lots of interesting and beautiful sights in a culture both different and sometimes so familiar.
