Oasis Park

 Yesterday was Kaori's birthday - and she HAD TO WORK!!!!

So we postponed her birthday to the evening and Austin, Tatsuki and I went to Oasis Park for the morning.

At Oasis Park there is a ferris wheel, an aquarium and a park with water features and eating spaces and play spaces.

I do love a good ferris wheel:

I was a bit worried about going into the aquarium. The one in Ise was a sad, unhappy place with animals in spaces that were (to my mind) far too small. I remember it as dark and crowded. The one in Gifu is lovely. It follows the river, and then explores rivers in other parts of the world. You go to the top in an elevator and then meander your way down the river and it is open and light and airy and there are waterfalls and it feels happy and bright.

Then we had lunch in the park.

Hot corn soup in a can

I didn't realise redback spiders had migrated to Japan until I saw this warning poster. Apparently they arrived in Osaka in 1995 and have now spread over almost all the country. I did a google translate of the poster to make sure I was right about the type of spider and it definitely is a redback.

Then we made a quick visit to Donki. Still no bags of mixed KitKats, but plenty of bags of other chocolates.

Then we went to a fancy bakery to get cakes for Kaori's birthday.

a quick trip to the supermarket and then home for a Birthday Feast. Austin made prawn pasta. We had pizza from the prize winning pizzeria next door. We had Kaori's favourite croquettes and mince katsu. And we had cake

It was a good day. And it was my last full day in Gifu. Today I am making my way back to Tokyo on two trains and then I am taking two planes back to Melbourne. All being well, I should arrive home late in the afternoon tomorrow (Tuesday).

Breakfast yesterday:

Pastries from the bakery on Saturday:
Half a custard bear, a piece of apple pie
and part of a potato, sausage and cheese
tart

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