Its sad to think that my holiday is ending on a similarly worried note to how it began. The deal with my tickets was that I could return whenever I wanted granted I phone them up 24 hours in advance to book tickets. By Sunday evening and another fun night out in Hiroshima I felt tired and thought this would be a good note of which to end the proceedings and return - besides I had work to do I had been unable to complete before venturing forth. However panic set in again as the ticket company's 24/7 hotline was apparently only open 9-5 Monday to Friday leaving me unsure as what to do next as I could not tell what my options would be. Thanks again to Naoko and her patience and understanding as I attempted to unravel the myriad issues.
By this morning (monday) I had calmed down and decided that I hadn't been to Osaka yet and it would be nice to spend a couple of days there as it was looking unlikely I would be able to return this day, and I managed to get through to the air company here to sort this out. However they weren't going to make this easy for me and appeared not to offer nearly the level of flexibility promised when I purchased my ticket. I could not fly out from Osaka, I would have to return to Tokyo and I had a choice between travelling back on Tuesday or Friday - and I had to decide there and then. Unsure as to whether I could really afford to stay here that much longer I went for tuesay, however the other catch was the flight from Milan back to London would again be the next day (exactly 24 hours later in fact) and this time they weren't going to be putting me up in a hotel, oh and the flight from Tokyo would be fairly early on Tuesday so here I am mid afternoon on the Shinkansen between Hiroshima and Tokyo beginning the three day long journey it will take me to get home.
I'm sure once I have got home and recovered the outstanding memories I will have of this trip will be overwhelmingly positive, but right now I'm feeling pretty down as I now don't yet feel ready to go home and certainly not in as inconvenient a way as this, and am now concerned that perhaps when looking back on this holiday I will regret not having done more, particularly with many of the people I have met on this trip spending a lot more time out here than I. I also feel bad as Naoko was exceptionally generous and patient with me over this last night and realising I don't have her mobile number on me I have been unable to thank her and say goodbye properly as I would have liked to have done before I caught my train this midday, especially as her office is just round the corner from the train station it would have been really nice to perhaps have had lunch with her before I left, but it was not to be and as yet I have not contacted her and for all I know is now rather worried about my situation.
Again, I'm sure I'll look back on all this and laugh as I already have done with the previous nonsense on my way here, but it is sad to end it on a low note.