Day 8: Tokyo National Museum, Flying home (Click on thumbnails for gi-normous pictures.) The last day started kind of sad. We had an amazing time traveling all over the country, but it was over way too fast. It was with heavy hearts that we ambled to Starbucks for breakfast.

This subway train went by the second-floor window of Starbucks while we ate breakfast. I spent more time in Japanese Starbucks in one week than I have my entire life in the United States.

We waited in line for forty minutes to buy tickets to the Tokyo National Museum before being told we were in the wrong line. The right line had two people in it. Oh well. The Tokyo National Museum has a huge collection of paintings, sculpture and woodblock prints, as well as battle armor, swords, and other cultural treasures.

The swords and armor here were treated just like paintings and sculptures.	Each one has a story, and many are famous to the Japanese by name.	Just as someone might go to see Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, some travel here to see Kagemitsu's "Ko-ryu-kagemitsu." Or other swords, like the one seen here.

This is armor of the Domaru type, from the Muromachi Period in the 15th century.	The armor is beautiful and surprisingly functional.

From the museum we raced to the train station (with a stop for a quick lunch) and there parted ways. Lisa headed north to Fukushima, where she teaches, and I headed to Narita Airport for the long flight home. It was very very sad, but we both pretended to be happy until we were out of sight from each other. It was an incredible, exhausting, very full trip, one neither of us wanted to end. Check out the next few pages of weird and cool stuff we saw over the course of our travels... CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE THE ADVENTURE...