Nihon

It was surprisingly easy to get from the airport in Osaka to Gifu, near Nagoya. You walk past the JR station on your way to the airport terminal from the hotel. The friendly station staff speak English and sold us tickets from the airport to Nagoya via the Airport Express to Shin-Osaka and then the Shinkansen to Nagoya. We followed Austin's instructions to get to the train to Gifu, and then - here we were. No drama, no trouble, no worries.

We had burgers and chips in the Mouse Burger, erm, I mean Mos Burger shop at the station and then took a taxi to our hotel, which overlooks the river and the hill with the castle on top

We  got to the hotel at about 2 and Austin, Kaori and Tatsuki joined us shortly after. Lindsey and Tatsuki re-bonded over her iPad. We played chasey in the room with him, and hide and seek, baby style. He seems to think we are all quite good fun. Austin, Lindsey and I went to the Aeon Mall for supplies, while The Builder and Tatsuki stayed in the hotel. Shopping isn't really Tatsuki's thing! Then we all took taxis to the city centre and met Kaori's parents in an izakaya restaurant for a delicious dinner. We had loads of little dishes, like edamame beans and fried chicken pieces and tempura crab and loads of delicious things. It was a good evening!