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Day 10 highlights:
- We had a mid-day flight back to Korea, so day 10 was wrap up for obsessive shopping. Ramon got the address for a semi-hidden Japan only Bape store, so we jumped in a cab to Harajuku and he picked up some shoes. I had to do a return trip to pick up a few more small things at Tokyu Hands, and the last step was getting it all into our bags for the flight back.
- We made some pit stops at some other stores in Shinjuku, packed our bags, and waited for the bus.
- I had been complaining I hadn’t gotten to eat at any sushi train places, and as my luck had it there was one in the Narita airport. There was no wasabi on my plate, but a tube of green powder so I started putting it in my soy sauce. It wasn’t spicy but it was tasty, and then the waitress saw me and said " No! No! Green tea!" Then she brought me some wasabi and it was all good.
- We checked in at United and I tried to use my meager status to get at least one Economy Plus seat. We had the best gate agent, and she was clicking away on the keys and after a long wait in silence she said I don’t have Economy Plus for you because you are in business class. After telling Tara she could have the seat, a bunch more click clacking followed with "Good news – I have two business class seats for you and I’ve found some better seats for your friends." Shitya, what a great finisher to a great trip. We were actually bummed it was a 2.5 hour flight because it was so comfortable and Tara and I were both trying to ge through the end of season 1 of Heroes. We put back some glasses of champagne before takeoff and asked to send some to Ramon and Wendy. They wouldn’t send it to them, but they let them come up to hang out with us to drink which was cool. It’s a night and day difference of flying when you’re outside of the US…
- We landed back in Korea and took the bus to Suwon, where Wendy’s mom was waiting with a great dinner, and her dad ready to drink. They invited two friends from the building to come practice their English. One of them was Hannah who was about 80 pounds, and she showed up half way into a bottle of scotch. Instead of sipping it, she started pounding shot after shot and turned bright red. Every now and then she would say things like "I love you. Sorry sorry sorry. I’m drunken." Once dinner was done, Wendy’s parent’s fired up their singing skills and turned it into karaoke night. Wendy’s dad barely speaks English, but he speaks it perfectly well when he’s singing it, check the video. It was the best way to finish our trip, they were such great people and so hospitable to us.