Last day abroad!

I woke up feeling a lot better - probably because I knew I was soon to be on a plane home. Lesson - whilst lots of stopovers are nice, don't go crazy. The trip home can be short.
I packed up my stuff, checked out, and left my stuff at the front desk and wandered up the street to a large temple. Probably the Akasaka Temple, but not sure. It was nuts - very high up, with escalators leading to the top! I wandered around and got some photos, then headed back to collect my stuff.
I headed to Ueno to store my bag and go see some stuff before heading to the airport for my early evening flight. I went back to my lovely tourist information people who gave me directions to the Museum of Contemporary Art and headed my way to Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Station. At the station, I was a little lost, but then saw that the Tokyo Museum of Contemporary Art had little signs posted showing the way. So, I walked for about fifteen or twenty minutes only to discover that it was closed! Argh! I was so disappointed, and talking to other people since, I have heard it is an amazing gallery. I can't believe they close the whole joint to change the exhibits rather that just closing a wing or two at a time. The perils of travelling out of season. Luckily, as I left the station, I noticed a large enclosed garden, so I headed back and discovered the Kiyosumi Gardens. Incidentally, it was raining all day - not heaps, but enough to require sporadic use of umbrella, which I found very annoying. I paid some amount to get in, and wandered through the peaceful scenery taking lots and lots of photos. I really like the description on the brochure: "Famous stones, greenery and history reflected in pond". I don't think that sounds very nice at all - but it really was gorgeous.
From there I wandered through a park with several amusing no-dog signs, and then headed back to Ueno. I still had probably five hours before my flight, so I thought I'd spend perhaps an hour in the park at Ueno, then head to the airport. And I did just that - for about an hour, wandered through aimlessly, enjoying the sights. Then, grabbed my bag, to the airport and as it happens, had to wait for ages to check in because it seems I arrived at the prime time for check in for my flight, annoying.
Flight was fine, at Sydney I had to grab my stuff, transfer to the domestic terminal, then check in to Melbourne. The nice thing about this was that Mum and Dad able to meet me as I walked off the plane rather than having to wait for me to get through customs. The not nice thing was that the luggage from Sydney took longer to get off the plane than anywhere overseas. Hopeless. Embarrassing also, as the first thing to come through was my umbrella, which I had to jostle my way through to get, only to discover that it wasn't mine, and put it back when my umbrella came through. Seemed like I was wasting everyone's time over an umbrella... oh, well, we all got our stuff, and that's all that matters. And I was home. Back in Australia, having missed an extremely mild summer for some quite cold conditions - although in the week after I returned, suddenly high 30s were the fashionable place for the temperature to sit. Argh!