We woke April 12th Japan time/April 11th Seattle time. James wanted to watch the end of the masters, so using the VPN we brought it up on the iPad and watched the last few holes in bed.

Then it was time to pack up and head to our last yummy breakfast at the beautiful outside deck at the hotel. Baba was moving slowly. He did so well on this fast paced trip, walking almost 12,000 or steps a day. Everyday he surprised himself, even though James and I knew he could do it. We used trains as much as we could and got pretty good at finding elevators, but sometimes we had to go up steps with Fawn providing an extra push from behind, which worked well. All good, no worries.

We had two last stops before we headed to the airport: Shibuya Crossing and a tour of the Imperial Palace Gardens. After analyzing our train vs cab choices, we decided to cab to the crossing.

At the hotel, we did a final look around our room, checked out and stored our luggage with the valet before heading out to the train for the Imperial Palace Gardens.

The sun was out and the temperature was perfect to tour the gardens. We met our guide at a Starbucks near the beautiful fountain park just outside the Palace.

Brandan, our Trip Advisor guide, was originally from the Vancouver (BC) area and was exploring his Japanese heritage by living in Tokyo for a year, learning Japanese, getting a black belt in Judo (he already had one in Karate) and doing history and food tours. His BA was in history so he was super pleased to be able to work in his field.

We were lucky to have such a knowledgeable, articulate guide. Learning history while walking through the flowering gardens is the a wonderful way to learn something new.

One thing new we learned is that Tokyo’s original name was Edo. When the Imperial Capitol was moved, after over 1,000 years, from Kyoto (which means “Capitol” in Japanese), Edo was renamed “To-Kyoto” (which means “Eastern Capitol”). Over time, To-Kyoto was shortened to “Tokyo”.

Another thing we learned is that the Japanese Imperial Family is, at over 2,000 years, the oldest royal family in the world. The reason is that for most of that time, the royal family was primarily the head of the state religion (Shinto), rather than the head of the government/military (usually one or more Shoguns), similar to the Pope and various Kings of the Holy Roman Empire between the years 800 and 1806.

The Imperial Palace Gardens used to be for the exclusive use of the Imperial Family. However, after WW2, the Gardens were opened to the public 5 days a week (on Monday and Friday the Gardens are still reserved exclusively for the Imperial Family.

The actual Imperial Family actually lives adjacent to the Gardens but for security reasons, the public remains completely excluded from that area, in fact, you can’t even see the living quarters of the Imperial Family because of the tall trees and walls that surround it. And no building in the surrounding area can have a view into the palace.

James and I talked about how most history books are so boring. There are so many better books than classroom-based history books. After a couple of hours of walking we took our last train ride with a transfer to the hotel. And we nailed it!

A quick cab ride took us back to Haneda Airport, the closer to downtown of Tokyo’s two airports. Security and check in was easy. I had heard the ANA lounge was quite nice and with good food and we weren’t disappointed. They had a fresh noodle bar and special chicken curry. By this time we were pretty hungry because we had a late breakfast we didn’t really have lunch. By the time we left the ANA lounge we were well fed and ready to sleep on the flight home to Seattle.

We couldn’t all sit together. The guys had two seats next to each other and I was separate. It really didn’t matter because we were all planning to sleep. Jim and I went to sleep almost immediately, while James watched a movie and ate some steak first.

Getting through customs in Seattle was a breeze. We were all pretty tired, but we loved going to the time machine across the international date line. We left Japan at 9:30pm on Sunday in Japan and arrived at 2:30pm in Seattle the same day!

Unbelievably, James went to a football practice that afternoon! We talked to him tonight and he looks good and says he is over his jet lag. JIm & I are both close to over it. Clearly, jet lag is easier for 13 year olds than 65 plus!

Unfortunately, our group cold that passed from James, to Jim got me a couple of days before we flew home. So, even though the guys are are over it, I still don’t have my full energy back yet.

Our time with James in Japan fulfilled all our hopes and created special memories we won’t forget. It was such a special time of learning and sharing together. We can’t wait for our next “grandparent adventure”, this time with Robert, in about 3 years.