6 May 2009

Once Emily had eaten breakfast we popped down to the bathroom for one final dip together.

Straight after the mammoth breakfast we finished packing and made a start on the journey back to Shuzenji, where we were due to drop off the hire car and pick up the train early afternoon. The pension owner tried to dissuade us from the route we planned to take, and maybe we should have listened. We wanted to drive along the 'Skyline' road back up the spine of the peninsula. However, since there was a lot of cloud and it was raining heavily, we ought to have realised that it was pointless. Anyway, we drove from sea level up a series of sharp bends to the Skyline, at about 1,000m. Of course, it was so misty that we couldn't see a thing: a great shame as there were several viewing car parks along the way. Still, as Emily had soon dropped off, having risen early again, we couldn't really have stopped anyway without risking her waking.

We joined the traffic lines as the Golden Week holidaymakers exited Izu, and made it back to Shuzenji in time for an early lunch at the same cafe we had eaten in before. We strung out the meal as long as we could because we were way too early for our train, but in the end, after we had dropped off the car we killed the time walking around the streets with Emily, trying to tire her out before the two hour journey.

We obviously didn't walk far enough, because the trip back to Tokyo was very stressful. Emily would not sit still, so we had to take it in turns walking up and down the carriages with her. She got upset every time we tried to get her to stay in our seats. On her travels she would keep stopping and trying to fiddle with people's things, and the train was lurching a fair bit too so she was very unsteady and I had to hover behind her the whole time with a hand ready to grab her if she fell. We arrived home with nerves in shreds and very weary. Not a good omen for our flight home! Well, at least we know what the worst case scenario will be.