Today, I woke up at 12:00. Ryoke-chan is watching baseball as usual. I took a shower and sorted my luggage, which is to be sent to Japan today. The plane to Thailand is Air Asia, so the weight is strictly limited to 7 kilograms or less. So I have to make my luggage lighter somehow. My current luggage is a whopping 10 kg plus electronics. So, probably about 13 kg. So I have to reduce it by 6 kg somehow.

Taken sadly just before leaving the hotel.

I reduced all the souvenirs, T-shirts, pants and pants I bought in Vietnam, everything I could reduce. Thanks to this trip to Southeast Asia, I was able to make a clear distinction between what I really need and what I don’t need: three T-shirts, two pairs of pants, and three pairs of underpants are enough. Then one set of sleeping clothes. Other than that, I decided to send all the rest to Japan, leaving only the bare necessities such as medicine, disinfectant sheets, and shaving razors.

Looking for a fashion magazine.

Whenever I go to any country, I am very interested in the magazines there. So if I were in Vietnam, I would want to buy ELLE to take home with me. So, I headed to a bookstore first, and since I had arranged to meet two friends I met on Tinder next week, I asked them where I could find ELLE, and they told me that it was sold at a bookstore, so I walked toward the bookstore. It was 38 degrees Celsius and extremely hot today. I was sweating profusely. I was sweating so much that my throat was really dry. I arrived at the bookstore and looked around, but there were no magazines at all. So I left immediately.

Go to exchange offices and ATMs

We headed for the most famous money exchange place we had researched on the Internet. There were many people there. There were Koreans, Chinese, and Japanese. Only Japanese are sweating a lot. So I feel that probably the average body temperature of Japanese people is lower than that of other countries. At the exchange counter, I gave them the 20 euros I had and received about 980,000 dong, a loss of about 400 yen, but it was all right. Then I went to an ATM near the Saigon Central Post Office and withdrew 1000,000 VND. All in all, 6,400 yen. A bit expensive!

Finally, we went to the post office.

When you arrive at the post office, first go to counter No. 7, where you will get a piece of paper to write your address. The people there speak English. I feel that there are almost only tourists and no Vietnamese at all in this post office. That’s why I feel that most of the language used in daily life is English.

I sat at the desk with Ryoke-chan and wrote the address and filled in the contents of the envelope. I had to fill in my passport number, and Ryoke-chan didn’t have one, so I had to send his as well. Ryoke-chan said he was sending only clothes, so the total weight was 2.6 kilograms.

In process at the post office.

When I finished writing everything down safely and packed it in a cardboard box, I weighed 7.8 kilograms. This meant that I would be sending 5 kg to Japan, which I was happy about. I was happy about this, because five kilograms less would be a lot easier, and I could probably get it down to less than 7 kilograms. I was relieved to know that I could wear two pairs of pants that day, stuff my electronic devices into four pockets, and take my measurements when I check in at the airport.
Then they give you a piece of paper and you take it to the counter dedicated to checkout.

The lady at the counter dedicated to accounting was the same lady who was there when we visited two days ago. She typed the contents and address I had written into the computer. When Ryoke-chan bought me water and I said “thank you,” she said “thank you, thank you,” which was very funny. So I said “Cam Ng (thank you in Vietnamese)” to her, and we became very good friends.

The price was 2300,000 dong. It was so cheap. It was so cheap that I couldn’t even think about it, and the whole price was 13800 yen. Ryoke got 900000 dong and I paid 1400000 dong. Normally, it costs 1300,000 dong to send 2.6 kilograms, so the more the merrier, I thought. The package was safely addressed, I got a piece of paper with the tracking number on it, and it was done! Now I feel relieved.

At the same time, I decided to take the minimum amount of luggage when I go on a trip. I don’t have many opportunities to write messages to friends I meet, and I think it doesn’t have to be in a notebook.

Once home, grab his stuff and go to dinner.

Of course, we took a cab home. We were exhausted and tired. We decided to take a cab back home once, decide where we would have dinner for the evening. For our last dinner, we decided to have a special steak. Ryoke-chan had not bought me a birthday present, so he decided to treat me to dinner.

We ordered steak, fries, mashed potatoes, and spinach. The steak was made with Australian meat and was really, really good. I chose the sauce to be Bearnese. This is the sauce that my friend William used to put on his lobster when I ate the best dish I have ever had in Paris. I knew it was absolutely delicious, so I chose it. It was insanely delicious.

Steak restaurant “topping beaf”

At the same time, I was reminded of the show “Celebrity Ratings Check,” where GACKT chewed on this tiny bit of meat and felt how amazing it was to guess which meat was the real thing. And I was also imitating him, feeling the fibers of the beef as I ate.

The Australian meat we ate this time.

While we were eating, Ryoke-chan and I were discussing “What was the most fun? He said, “I think it was when I bought a fake T-shirt. In other words, he said he had the most fun in Hoi An. But I’m really glad we were able to enjoy it. It was a lot of fun.

After eating meat, go to Takashimaya

Ryoke-chan wanted to buy a souvenir for his company and wanted an assortment of Vietnamese sweets. So we decided to go to Takashimaya. Once inside Takashimaya, it was just like a department store, just like in Japan. Japanese products and brands are all over the place.

There is a UNIQRO on the upper level, just like in Japan. But only the people are Vietnamese and foreigners. It was something interesting. Speaking of Takashimaya, I was really familiar with it since it is in my home prefecture of Aichi and I have been to Takashimaya hundreds of times.

Entrance to Ho Chi Minh City Takashimaya.

We looked for souvenirs at Takashimaya, but found nothing but Japanese goods (laugh). So we decided to go to a supermarket in a different department store that we had visited the other day. We left Takashimaya and walked to a different department store.

On the way, we were really surprised to see a Rolls Royce store. Although the country is communist and ranked 178th out of 180 countries in terms of freedom of the press, there are so many foreign products, and the gap between the rich and the poor seems to be very wide.

At a supermarket in the basement of a different department store, Ryoke found and bought some souvenirs. She bought a kind of assortment of coconuts. Ryoke-chan had some extra money and bought milk and yogurt for me there.

Then we decided to take a cab to the airport. The airport in Ho Chi Minh City is interesting: once you get out of the arrival gate, you are actually outside. In Japan, you are still inside even after passing the arrival gate, but here, beyond the arrival gate, you are outside and cannot go back in. I feel that they make it that much more difficult for anyone to enter the airport. That’s because there are so many different kinds of people.

I didn’t know if I could even get in without my luggage, but I was able to get in. However, I was a little nervous because the exit was the same place where I had entered. I wondered if I could get out. So I decided to go to the Vietjet Air counter with Ryoke and say bye-bye there.

At the end, we took a video and said thank you. It was a really fun and enjoyable Golden Week. It was the first time for me and Ryoke to get together in a foreign country. It was really great fun. We talked about how we hope to see each other again sometime during the summer vacation.

Thanks Ryoke-chan.

On the way back, we take a cab home again.