Near the End - Blog Assignment #8

When I thought about the subject for this blog post last night, I was actually to the point where I was ready to go home. I could not really find anything else interesting to do in Shinjuku and I was running out of things to see in the surrounding areas (at least not that I would go to by myself), and the capsule hotel didn't exactly have welcoming amenities where I could be comfortable just hanging out there. I was starting to feel the loneliness of being by myself in Tokyo for 3 days, until I briefly made a friend on the street while looking for a place to eat crepes. It was nice to have someone to talk to, and he went out of his way to show me a crepe stand. We added each other on Facebook, and I headed back to my capsule hotel for the night. I think a little bit of direct human contact did me some good. 

Today I really only got to do one thing, which was to see the wonderful Ghibli Museum, but I otherwise was worn out from hauling my luggage from the capsule hotel to the subway station lockers, and then later from the lockers to the hostel in Asakusa where I am now. In my exhaustion I was thankful that I will be going home soon where I can just drive everywhere and stay inside and out of the heat, but as I checked in to the hostel I started to wish I had stayed here the whole time. The amenities here are very nice for the price, the location is great, the air conditioner is cool, and the staff has taken so much time to make wonderful area maps divided by interests. If I would have had maps like these in Shinjuku, it wouldn't have been so hard for me to figure out where I'm going. Google Maps unfortunately isn't very useful for exploring an area or finding landmarks. 

I'm excited to spend tomorrow seeing what there is to do around Asakusa, and I think I'll wish I had at least one more day. I feel lucky to spend my last two nights here, because now I feel like I will end my time in Japan on a high note. Maybe next time I travel abroad I will see about finding better maps, or making my own based on my own research. Now I will go have a nice meal and see the nearby temple lit up at night, so I won't have any regrets on missing out on its beauty. 

I can't wait to come back and explore with my best friends some day, and now I will know what to look for.