On Monday, I wore the Kizuna T-shirt I purchased on Wednesday.
Monday rained like mad. I used the umbrella this time and Mirai protected me from the rain far better than my "normal" umbrella did. :)
I had a bit of a dilemma. I didn't want to haul around four pieces of luggage with me.
1.) main luggage
2.) laptop bag
3.) doll bag
4.) A paper bag filled with the plastic model kits and figures I decided I would mail back to myself
Since I was up early in the morning and it would be many hours before Akihabara's stores opened, I decided I would go to Ueno and use the coin lockers there for storing my main luggage and laptop bag. The political summit concluded on Friday so I didn't have to worry about not being able to use the coin lockers anymore.
There's a convenient express train which travels from Ueno station to Narita Airport. While I could use the coin lockers in Akihabara, I didn't want to lug around all my baggage from Akihabara to Ueno. I would leave some luggage in Ueno and pick them up later. I would lug around the doll bag and the paper bag and store those in Akihabara. I didn't plan on making any purchases which wouldn't fit in my doll bag or I couldn't mail. If I bought anything bulky, I would mail it and the contents of the paper bag. Anything else would fit in the doll bag. At least that was the plan.
Before going to Ueno, there was one major problem. As I already mentioned, it was raining like mad. While *I* would be fine because of the Mirai umbrella, my luggage was not waterproof or even water resistant. The orange Nike shopping bag I used on Wednesday to lug around the loot from the Mirai Store got more use. I borrowed a pair of scissors from the hotel's front desk, cut open the bag, and used it like a cape to cover my main luggage.The "cape" idea surprisingly worked better than I had hoped. The luggage stayed dry all the way to the airport.
After I left my main luggage and laptop bag at Ueno, I headed back to my hotel. I picked up the doll bag and the paper bag. Before I could check out from the hotel, I had another dilemma. The doll bag wasn't waterproof or water resistant either.
I had an excess of plastic bags here and there so I went to the front desk and asked if I could use a pair of scissors again. I also asked if the front desk had packaging tape. Indeed it did. My doll bag looked awful but it was certainly rain resistant.
With a lot of time before the Akihabara stores opened, I walked from Asakusa-bashi to Akihabara. I found an optimal location in terms of which coin locker to use, and then threw my doll bag and paper bag inside. I also took a look around the area to see where exactly the post office is so I could head there and quickly mail out what I planned to mail out. There was a specific action figure I wanted to buy from Mandarake Complex, so the plan was to buy it, and then mail it and the contents of the paper bag.
Here's what I had in mind in terms of where to go:
10:00 A.M. - Volks Dollpoint
11:00 - Azone Label Shop
12:00 - DOLK
12:45(?) - Mandarake Complex
That idea fell apart immediately. Volks Dollpoint doesn't open until 11:00 on weekdays; 10:00 is weekend opening time. DOLK and Mandarake Complex both open at Noon, making a trip to Complex more complex (ha!) than I wanted it to be. With my plane leaving at 5:05 P.M., I needed to get to the airport at around 3:00. The express train takes about 82 minutes to get from Ueno to Narita Airport. There's a slightly more expensive super express train which almost but not quite makes that distance in about half the time. In the worst case scenario, I would use the super express train.
I browsed around some stores as they opened one by one. There was a Book-Off store which opened at 10, and it carried video games. I thought I found a PS2 game I wanted to buy - until the game I found had no instruction manual. The game was cheap but I was willing to pay extra to get a complete copy. I walked out empty handed. :/
Once 11:00 rolled around, I went into the Azone Label Shop. Found something inexpensive and made a purchase. Done.
Volks Dollpoint. While I ran into all kinds of disappointment there, I did find something I wanted so the good and bad sort of balanced out. Purchases made. Done.
12:00. Went to DOLK. Browsed a lot longer than I expected to. Once I made my last minute purchase, It was 12:45 - and there wasn't enough time for me to go to Complex, make my purchase, head to the locker, pick up my stuff, head to the post office, mail what I can't take with me...
I went to the locker to pick up my stuff. Went to the post office immediately after. In retrospect, what I should have done was to mail out the contents of the paper bag as soon as the post office opened. While I stumbled and fumbled around at the post office, I managed to mail out the bulky plastic models and action figure I had in the paper bag. As of this writing, checking the tracking number, it's already going to customs in Los Angeles.
It was nearly 1:30 by the time I got out from the post office. Hopped onto a train to Ueno. Went to my locker to pick up my main luggage and laptop bag. Bought my train ticket to the airport. I made the 1:52 train with an estimated arrival time of 3:14. Perfect.
Once at the airport, I checked my main luggage. Not slowing down, before I passed the security gates, I browsed around the airport's shopping areas. I found the Narita Airport Gee! Store and made a purchase. XD XD XD
Done browsing around 4:00. Went through the security gate. Went to the airline lounge. Got food, ate it quickly. 4:30, lined up to board the 5:05 plane.
Boarded plane. Landed at LAX. Local time was Monday, 11:00 A.M. Hooray for time zone differences and jet lag. :P
I want to do this again. :D
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