Good news! I`m able to squeeze in one more blog entry before leaving　Japan thanks to my foresight in bringing along my laptop, the convenience of the airport internet lounge, and good old-fashioned Air Canada incompetence that has seen our flight delayed by three and a half hours.

We had intended to wake up early this morning and make the most of our last day here, planning on taking advantage of that late check-out we`d requested so that we could head out and in at our leisure up until 3:30 p.m. (when we would catch a cab to the airport). Unfortunately for us, the late check-out turned into a not-SO-early check-out as the hotel informed us that, because they were booked solid, we would have to vacate our room by 1:00 p.m. The hell with making the most of our last day here, I decided. Who am I kidding? I`m admittedly weary of Tokyo and anxious to get back home. We slept in. We woke up late, finished packing, and cleared out the mini bar which we had crammed full of the food we`d purchased over the course of our stay. I ate my giant apple, finished off the box of half-chocolates sitting on the window sill (as assortment I had purchased at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel and sampled that evening, leaving the various chocolate halves for Fondy to get around to – which she never did), and had some of diverse-flavored cream-centered mochi cakes I was meaning to get around to (but never did). We settled up with the concierge, dropped off our luggage for later pick-up, and headed out.

Which is about when I started to feel ill (damn giant apple!). According to the instructions on the medication I`m taking, I must take my pills on am empty stomach, 2 hours before a meal or 3 hours after I`ve eaten – which leaves empty stomach, 2 hours before a meal or 3 hours after I`ve eaten – which leaves me that 5 hour window sometime between midnight and 5 a.m. Since I`d eaten that damn big apple, my stomach was technically not empty, so I had to wait to take my pill – which exacerbated my condition. By the time we sat down to lunch at Gompachi, I was feeling decidedly under the weather, but I took heart from Fondy who assured me that as bad as I was feeling, her uncle, who had just returned from a trip to mainland China where he had picked up some sort of bug, had fared immeasurably worse, admitting he`d emptied his bowels 27 times in one night. 27! That must be some sort of record (although I doubt Guinness keeps tracks of these sorts of feats). Buoyed by someone else`s misery, I enjoyed an excellent grilled strawberry-foie gras, tsukune (minced chicken), spinach salad with baby sardines, and a blacker than black black cod. Fondy ended the meal with a matcha cake she described as `soft and tasteless` on her way to finishing the whole thing.

We eventually made our way back to the hotel where we picked up our stuff and caught a cab with plenty of time to make the 7:00 p.m. flight – now the 10:30 p.m. flight. I finally took that pill 7:00 p.m. flight – now the 10:30 p.m. flight. I finally took that pill and, after waiting about an hour, felt much better so I decided to tempt fate with the ultimate of fate tempters+ hour, felt much better so I decided to tempt fate with the ultimate of fate tempters: airport sushi. We had some very good fatty and medium fatty tuna, and some not so good anago and unagi.

Sorry, no pics of the rainy, windswept Tokyo we left behind today, but I`ll make up for it when I get back. Now, what am I going to do for 4 hours?