Godo

Godo is the suburb of Gifu where Austin, Kaori and Tatsuki live. It's a nice area. Their house is a new build and there are many other new builds around them. There are also a few older houses, and lots of small fields. There is the small river Tenno to the West, and the main river Nagara to the East. And to the South there are various shops and dealerships and things, plus a Lawsons and a 7-11. I believe that there is a shopping mall development coming. Oh, and there is a pizza place next door that I really hope we will try before we leave. Austin says that it came second in some world wide Pizzeria competition. This seems so unlikely in a Pizzeria pretty much out in the sticks of a relatively unknown (internationally, at least) Japanese city with almost no tourist attractions, that I simply must check it out!

Godo had everything that Lindsey and I needed yesterday morning. Austin had gone to work for the morning. Kaori was in meetings. Tatsuki was in school. Lindsey had a webinar between 11 and 12:30. And Japan was playing America in a the final of some worldwide baseball tournament (Spoiler: Japan won, in a tight finish). So Lindsey and I walked to the Lawsons and bought sandwiches, snacks and drinks and settled in for the morning.

Austin, Kaori and Tatsuki's house
The wall on the right is
the next door house

And the surrounding streets:

Their car is a small, four seater. This is perfectly fine, usually. There are only three of them. Just at the moment, however, there are five of us. For daily life, we can manage if either Kaori or Austin goes by bicycle, then the rest of us fit in the car. However, everyone will be on holiday from tomorrow afternoon and we want to go to places where it won't be sensible to go by bike. So we have hired a five seater car until Lindsey and I go home. We went to pick it up in the afternoon.

So now - we are a two car family, even if temporarily. Austin, Lindsey and I went out in the new car, to the shops in search of futons, headphones and other things. Kaori went home in their car to meet Tatsuki when he returned from school.

It was Kaori's birthday yesterday and we had intended to go out to dinner to celebrate.  Alas, Tatsuki came home from school feeling not very well. He was all limp and sleepy. So instead we bought slices of cake for the birthday and ordered in pizza, not from the place next door but from somewhere that does pizzas that Tatsuki would eat, and which Kaori likes. I must say, I enjoyed the pizzas too. They might not have been in an international pizza competition, but they were very tasty. There is lots left, though. The pizzas were very big. (Not as big as the ENORMOUS pizzas we accidentally ordered some years ago in Kyoto and which we kept eating for the whole time we were there, but too big for the five of us for one night.)