All too soon, our time in the bubble of the Tokyo Disney world has come to an end, and we find ourselves faced with the prospect of returning to normal Japanese life, on our last full day in Japan. After this, we're faced with the even sadder prospect of returning to completely normal life back in Australia, when we fly out tomorrow night.

Thus, we prepare ourselves for the last city hop of the trip, from Tokyo, around the corner to Yokohama. Specifically, we’re headed to the Yokohama Kannai area, where our hotel sits within strolling distance of Yokohama Stadium, Yokohama Chinatown and the abundance of shops and attractions of the Yokohama waterfront around Minato Mirai Chuo.

As with the Disney hotel, this wasn’t on our original itinerary, and some last minute hotel roulette saw us ditch our original planned hotel for tonight, at Shin-Yokohama station, and head here. Having been to Shin-Yokohama on a previous trip we know there isn’t much around that station (aside from the ramen museum), so I think we made the right decision.

It seems that theme park affiliated hotels in Japan have an hour longer check-out than other hotels in Japan from what we’ve found. We noticed it last time with the Universal Studios official hotel, and again today, the Disney Hotel offered an 11am checkout. This proved invaluable, as it allowed us to cram our mess into our bags, as well as leave behind a bunch of things we’re not bringing home. There were many pairs of blue socks, and blue shirts left behind today, after an innocent washload was assaulted by a pair of new jeans which didn’t exactly hold its colour in the wash a few hotels ago.

On our way out of the Disney hotel, we used the opportunity to buy yet more Disney stuffs (I’ve given up trying to fight it now). The attendants greet you with the typical Disney cheer, and take your money away from you with big friendly smiles to which I’ve become very familiar. Mainly jewellery was on the shopping list today, however Isabelle managed to score a fairly sizable Stich stuffed toy, which I’ll reluctantly admit is pretty cute. Also, if there is a softer, fluffier toy in existence, I’m yet to see it.

They Disney Hotel staff, true to the Disney ethos of "never say goodbye" to a customer, bid us farewell and bon-voyage as we left their hotel.

I find it interesting that Disney staff are not permitted to say “goodbye” or “sayonara” or any such variant, since it conveys a sense of finality and permanent departure that Disney do not want associated with the Disney brand. I paid particular attention to this when leaving Disneyland and Disney Sea each night, and not once did I get a “Goodbye” or “Sayonara” or anything implying permanent departure. Instead you get “Come back soon!” or “Thanks for visiting!” which implies that you’ll be welcomed back if and when they see you next. I’m probably easily amused, but I think that’s pretty cool.

With one last ride on the happiest bus in the world (practically empty, since it was nearly midday, and nobody would be coming or going from Disneyland in the middle of the day) and we were at Maihama station. Being in no particular rush, and craving coffee after only eating Disney treats for 2 days, we wandered into Ikspiari, the immaculately clean and well-presented shopping mall next to Tokyo Disneyland. From the looks of the shopping centre, the same amount of care which goes into maintaining Disneyland is also put into maintaining this shopping centre. It was immaculate. One could eat their dinner off any one of the surfaces in the mall, it felt that pristine.

This shopping centre is however, really stupid. It trades on regular shopping centre hours, which means that the majority of the shops are closed at the opening and closing times of the park. I’ve witnessed what a hungry Disney crowd can do to a convenience store, so I can’t imagine why the restaurants in this place wouldn’t be open for breakfast and dinner around park opening and closing times to feel the hungry cashed-up Disney locusts. I know I would if I had a restaurant in there.

Starbucks was typically magnificent. Krispy Kreme, offering a range of Easter themed donuts, wasn’t. It was just as bad as I remembered it.

2 train trips, taking just over an hour, got us to Yokohama. This journey reinforced the fact that we did the right thing switching to the Disney hotel. Our original plan for the Disney days was to stay in Yokohama, and commute the one hour to and from Disneyland, including a nightmare powerwalking crowd dodging train switch adventure at Tokyo station. Doing that before, and after Disneyland each day would have killed us. Yes our Disney hotel was a little isolated, but getting onto a quiet shuttle bus and dozing to and from the hotel was worth so much more than the extra few dollars we paid to stay at the Disney hotel.

In typical Toyoko Inn fashion finding the hotel was simple, and checking in was even simpler. The girl on the front desk was lovely, and although she spoke not a word of English (which I’ll admit is slightly unusual) she was incredibly helpful, checking us in efficiently, and calling the other Toyoko Inn at Shin-Yokohama to cancel our booking for us, since we were unable to do it online.

After a brief rest in one of our rooms, we set out for a walk to get some dinner, lest all of us fell asleep, which was also a distinct possibility. After 2 days at Disneyland, we’re beyond tired.

We explored the neighbourhood, which was a mix of restaurants and office blocks, we admired the streets lined with cherry blossom trees, still very much in full bloom, despite the sakura season in Tokyo supposedly ending a week ago. Nobody told the trees around this neighbourhood, which I was grateful for. I absolutely didn’t expect to see any cherry blossoms this late in the trip.

Baseball is huge in Japan. In the area we’re staying in, it is everywhere. Every shop, every billboard, and a good percentage of the people walking around, are sporting some kind of banner, sticker, poster or article of clothing celebrating the local baseball team, the Yokohama Baystars. They appear to be the rockstars of this part of town.

This was reinforced by the fact that we were visiting on “game day”. A day where it would seem that everyone in Yokohama, and a sizable percentage of the people from the rest of the country, jam themselves through the gates of the tiny Kannai station, and head towards the stadium to watch the game. With the game starting at 6pm, our journey to get dinner corresponded to the sea of humanity arriving for the start of the game. To make it interesting, we were headed towards the station, which meant we were walking the exact opposite direction to the hundred thousand other people on the street that afternoon.

One curious phenomenon I really enjoyed was watching the ticket scalpers at work. These guy, dressed in aprons to make themselves look like they were advertising a restaurant stood on the street corners a few blocks from the stadium, in the direct route from the station to the stadium entrance. With earpieces in their ears, and seemingly on high alert like a skittish bunny looking out for a predator, they subtly offered tickets to the passers-by.

Looking around, it wasn’t hard to identify other members of the team on the opposing street corners, dressed similarly, also with earpieces in, seemingly in constant communication. What was less obvious, but which I was sure were there also, was an unknown number of lookouts milling about in the crowd, ready to warn the crew at any sign of law enforcement. I spotted a couple of plain clothes guys which were likely to be the spotters, since they didn’t move with the crowd towards the stadium when the lights turned green, and instead stood there browsing their phone or casually smoking. Their lack of movement made them stand out as they were the only ones, aside from us, not moving in the direction of the stadium.

I would have loved to go up and asked one of them if they were a spotter, but that may have ended with me in some kind of afternoon ruining scuffle, so I avoided doing it.

There were a lot of restaurants in the neighbourhood, but mostly little noodle shops, or “izakaya”, which are tiny bars serving Japanese bar food like yakitori (grilled meat stuffs on sticks). This is often delicious, but not tonight, so not wanting to walk too far, we decided on Coco curry for the last time on the trip. Coco Curry, I think I’ll miss you most of all.

Returning home to our little twin bed rooms, we ate our magnificent convenience store deserts, watching the baseball game live on the TV, while listening to the crowd and sounds of the stadium outside of the window. Never been a fan of baseball, but after watching the game, especially considering how passionate the Japanese fans are, I can understand the appeal. Given more time, I’d happily go and watch a game over here. Maybe someday.

Final sleep on Japanese soil (actually..in a Japanese bed). Tomorrow we pack our bags one last time, leave them in the lobby of the Toyoko Inn, and explore Yokohama before hitching a ride back to normality from Haneda airport. These blog posts are getting harder and harder to write.