Jan 13: My last day in Tokyo. My flight to Singapore doesn't leave until that evening, though, so I've got most of the day to tour. I get up early and have a light breakfast before packing my bag and checking out. I drop my bag with the hotel and of course they are exceedingly obliging about taking care of it for me.

Nice and sunshine-y today, and I'm once again walking back to my friend's restaurant to meet him for breakfast. "What?" you're thinking? "Fancy French sweets for breakfast as well?" No, actually, fish: we're headed to Tsukiji. It's mid-morning, so not quite the commercial scrum of the early AM, but still very interesting. And my guide knows an enormous amount about the fish and other things for sale. Plus he knows some of the suppliers, and they stop him and offer us tea and it's all very cool.

We go to his favorite place for sushi. The woman who mans (womans?) the counter is a take-no-prisoners sort. My friend says it's his life's ambition to get her to warm to him.

Brunch over, we walk back to the restaurant so that he can start his work day, and I get to say good-bye yet again to the staff.

Jan 13, cont: I've still got the afternoon to spend in Tokyo before heading for NRT, and there happens to be a very conveniently located attraction just around the corner from my hotel, the Museum of Advertising and Marketing. Very much my cup of tea: small enough that I can see pretty much everything in a couple of hours, stimulating, and great insight into Japanese popular culture. There's a permanent exhibit and temporary exhibits. The temporary exhibit on that date was about TV advertising as a means of influencing social behaviours (as opposed to just getting you to buy something). Public service announcements, sort of. Most of them not Japanese, and many of them short films as opposed to just 30 second ads. I can only imagine what a Japanese audience might make of Sarah Silverman exhorting people to embark on "The Great Schlep" to Florida to encourage their grandparents to vote. It was already a stretch for young Australian guy sitting next to me.

The permanent exhibit is mostly about the history of Japanese advertising. It's all sponsored by Dentsu, and it's free.

It was finally time to head to NRT. I collected my bags from the hotel and caught the N'Ex in time to have a snack in the lounge before catching my flight to Singapore. Business on Delta, old NW equipment so that same hideous old World Business Class seats that I'd experienced on my TPAC flight. Better than coach, at least, and a low level award ticket, so I'm not going to complain, but I'd have been pretty testy if I'd actually paid money for those seats.

So, that's all she wrote.

Feel free to post queries and comments, and thanks again to everybody who helped me plan this trip.

Thanks again, Therese. Consistently a good read -- always interesting, always well written.

Yes thanks again! The Museum of A&M sounds like an interesting couple of hours, will check it out on a future trip.

Aloha!

Thanks! It's been a nice distraction for me, as I've been home recuperating from surgery (on the 14th, nothing serious) and posting helps the time pass. I've also been studying Japanese using a very cool iPhone app, Human Japanese. Hiragana is actually starting to gel for me, though soon I'll have to start thinking about kanji.