A Journey of Separation

We've been going non-stop since we left Hiroshima Sunday AM.  We took a 2+ hour Shinkansen ride to Nagoya, changed Shinkansens and took another to Mishima, where Mom was scheduled to meet her shuttle bus that would take her to her conference.

Upon arriving in Mishima we found a Waiting Room inside the station, and decided to wait inside, in the a/c, for the 1 hour until the appointed 2 pm, to get on the shuttle bus.  While in the Waiting Room Mom noticed some women who she thought might also be here for the conference so she went and introduced herself.  Because of course she did.

At 1:45 we walked her out to the shuttle bus, hugged and kissed goodbye, with promises to see her in 4 days back here in Mishima.  Kenji and I walked back inside, Leo was watching our luggage, stopping to look at the machines for buying train tickets.  I'll need to do some research on how/when to get back to Mishima on Thursday to pick her up.

Then it was off to the platform for our 30 minute Shinkansen ride to Tokyo.  I did not enjoy being back in that super bustling, confusing place.  Kenji was following Google Maps to get us to the Keiyo (pronounced: kay-oh) Line which would take us to Maihama (pronounced: my-i-ha-mah) and from there we took the Disney monorail (which you have to pay for, as in Japan, any public transportation that has more than one stop requires regulation and thereby, payment.)

We navigated all that and soon found ourselves at the Sheraton Tokyo Bay, where we stayed just for Sunday night.  Kenji had some Bonvoy points and we got 1 room, for the 3 of us.  Unfortunately, Leo had to sleep in a room with both his snoring parents.  Needless to say it didn't go well for him and he reported that he woke up for good at 2 AM on Monday.  Poor kid!  We got dinner at McDonald's in Ikspiari (sort of like Downtown Disney or Disney Springs) in that it has shopping and restaurants and most are not Disney-owned.  We chose McDonald's just to see what items they had they we don't have in the US.

Leo and I both ordered a burger that looked to have a hash brown puck on it with a squirt of BBQ sauce.  It was ok.  I wouldn't order it again.  We also ordered a teriyaki burger that for some indescribable reason also had mayonnaise on it.  We were unaware of that ingredient until we bit into it.  All 3 of us agreed that was not to be ordered again.  What I *would* order again, was the shrimp patty sandwich.  Leo and I both agreed that was the winner.

We stopped at a bakery and got a few items for breakfast, as well as a grocery store, where I got a bunch of 4 bananas for the next few days.  We went back to the room and fell into sleep.