Contengency Plans: Epilogue

This is the story of how I almost missed my flight out of Narita, all because of takoyakis.

Wanting to squeeze in some shopping before my flight to Taipei (19 hours after originally planned) I went down to breakfast at 6:30 hoping to beat the crowd. Lo and behold, a huge crowd of people had the same idea and beat me to the punch. Luckily, I was still able to snag a seat. Happy to report that the breakfast was so much better than dinner!

So I got to the airport three hours before my flight. Checking in took a while but the Japanese airport workers were super polite and efficient. Considering how long the line was, I got through in a quarter of the time I would have estimated had I been anywhere else.

I really REALLY wanted to get a souvenir to remember this little unexpected side trip. So many kawaii items! But talk about sticker shock. I couldn't justify spending $50 US on a Japanese wooden puzzle box, however cool it was (and it was really cool. 10 steps are required to opening it.) There were also some very cool handmade dolls. Exquisitely made but unbelievably pricey. Pictures will have to suffice.

Here are some more pictures of cool/cute items in the shops.

Dogs doing crunches?!?! Crazy~ Maybe it serves as an inspirational tool for lazy people like me? And the cat from Kiki's Delivery Service. So cute.

The only things I could afford was a pack of postcards. Unfortunately, the post office didn't open until an hour before my flight (leaving me very little time to go through security checks and etc...) The info centre was welling to send my postcards for me but didn't sell stamps (why not?) In my search for stamps, guess what I saw?????

THAT'S RIGHT!!! DING DING DING!!!!

TAKOYAKIS!!!!!!! *happy dance happy happy happy dance*

The shop at that time wasn't open yet but I didn't care. I was a woman on a mission. A box of that delicious octopus morsels will be mine!!!! I couldn't afford any of the souvenirs but I could definitely afford this! So I waited and waited by the little window for the shop to open, waited while the woman pour the batter into the griddle, waited for her to flip the semi-cooked batter with a little wooden stick into perfectly golden spheres. And then I grabbed them and ran for it (yes, I did pay for them first.) It was already 9 am and I still hadn't pass customs, security, buy stamps, mail the postcards, or found my gate.

After the security check, I had to take a moment and breath in the takoyakis. Look at it! There are eight per box covered with mayo, special sauce and bonito flakes. My mouth was starting to salivate just by the smell alone.


Here's a close up because it deserves one.

Five minutes later....

ALL GONE!! (I wish I bought more...)

It was denser than the takoyakis I've tried before and the chunks of octopus ball were bigger. All in all, absolutely delicious. I'm seriously considering entering Japan again on the way back just to grab another box of these delicious bad boys!

After I had my mini-break, finally found a store that sold stamps, mailed off the stamps, and found the departure gate (apparently it was in a satellite building, accessible by a small train [right].)

So concludes my one night stay in Narita, Japan. I hope to visit it again someday under better conditions.