Today was set aside for travel to Kyoto. However, it turns out that the shinkansen from Osaka to Kyoto takes about 14 minutes so, really, the day was wide open.

(Random photos of one of the trains to USJ) :

We checked out of our hotel and left our suitcases there. Decided to go out to Universal City and have a look around (it’s a sort of shopping centre outside Universal Studios). Got a frozen yoghurt and did some people-watching (a lot of Japanese people dress up – in costume – to go to USJ).

Had some conveyer belt sushi for lunch, at Maeve’s particular request.

Then we headed for Shin-Osaka station to catch the shinkansen to Kyoto. And, about 3 seconds later, we were there.

I have to say that right away Kyoto felt different. Different to both Osaka and Tokyo. More calm, slower, less crowded, more peaceful. It’s interesting – there are a couple of very wide, busy, commercial streets (with big names like Gucci and Zara) but then you turn off those streets and just a block back the streets are narrow and quiet, and there are some old, beautiful houses with immaculate street frontages. It’s just lovely.

For our first night (only) in Kyoto we booked in to stay in traditional Japanese accommodation.

We were welcomed with tea and a traditional treat:

And this is what our room looked like:

We decided to go to dinner at a place called Shishin Samurai Restaurant. It has gluten-free options and they will also prepare a number of the other dishes gluten-free on request. The restaurant itself is in a house that is over a hundred years old and the food options are themed around traditional samurai fare (well, some of them are). The food was wonderful but we were so focussed on eating it that we didn’t get any photos! Here’s Corwin’s ninja ice-cream though:

Maeve chose the kids meal:

It was multi-layered and the bottom layer was full of treats:

Unfortunately, while we did ask them to do the kids meal gluten-free, it seems that they forgot to apply that to the pre-packaged treats in the bottom. And we didn’t check the ingredients. She was glutened, I’m afraid, though thankfully it was only a small amount. She was very uncomfortable after the meal but was really brave. We’ll be more careful in future.

Gave her a bath when we got back to the accommodation and she was fine after an hour or so.

Tomorrow we move to another hotel. Not sure what else we’re doing yet.

Today we got up at a reasonable hour and caught the (normal speed) train to Nara (about 40 mins?). Outside the JR station we caught a loop bus to take us to Nara Park. It’s about a 20-30 minute walk, but we were being lazy and catching the bus was easy.

Nara Park:

Nara Park is famous for its (substantial) population of wild deer that roam around freely. The deer are thought to be messengers of Shinto gods and over the years have been “taught” to politely bow for food from humans.

For 150yen you can buy, from various stalls around the park, a pack of ten deer crackers. I’d post a photo of them but we never had any in our possession long enough to photograph them.

It seems that the smartest deer have worked out that it pays to stand near where most tourists enter the park and buy their crackers. These smart deer then pursue cracker owners aggressively, wait for crackers to be dropped in a panic and thus become the biggest deer also. The bigness helps with the intimidation.

Maeve wasn’t too sure at first:

And they really were pushy – nibbling your clothes, biting onto any areas that look like cracker storage, and generally demanding all of the crackers.

I particularly like this sign – illustrating all the different ways that the deer can f*ck you up:

More feeding photos:

You can’t really tell from any of our photos, unfortunately, but they do bow. Some of the wee ones do more of an impatient, repeated head nod. Some of them sort of lower their heads and twist their necks around. But most respond to the sight of a cracker by lowering their head and neck in a fairly quick, but very cute, bow.

After blowing through four packets of crackers in about as many minutes, we strolled through the park towards Tōdai-ji.

Along the approach to Tōdai-ji is the Nandaimon Gate:

Tōdai-ji (the “Great Eastern Temple”) is one of Japan’s most famous temples. It’s a 1300-year-old Buddhist temple.

The main hall – Daibutsuden – (pictured immediately above and below) is the world’s largest wooden building.

It was completed in 752 and houses one of the world’s largest Daibutsu (bronze Buddha statue):

You don’t really get a sense of his size as there is nothing for scale in those photos. Anyway, he is 15m tall.

Next to him is a golden Nyoirin-kannon statue.:

Lots of other interesting things in the Great Buddha Hall:

Behind the Daibutsu is a wooden pillar with a hole in its base the size of the Daibutsu’s nostril. It is said that those who can squeeze through the hole will be granted enlightenment in their next life. Maeve was up for that:

We left the Great Buddha Hall and kept wandering around the park.

Saw more sakura, of course. The wind picked up a bit from time to time so we got our first sakura snowstorm. I’m not sure you can tell from my photos, but the individual blossom petals were blowing past us like snowflakes.

You can see them on the ground at least:

We headed back to Osaka in the afternoon and did some shop wandering. I may have come across another Tokyu Hands and been helpless to resist the pull of even more notebooks:

And we visited a fourth Pokemon Centre. Some photos for Charlie:

Tomorrow we leave Osaka for Kyoto.

This morning we caught a couple of trains to Osaka Castle. Took a few shots as we walked through the park to get there:

Then lots of photos of the castle itself as we got closer:

It’s a great place for photos. Surrounded by a lovely park and gardens, moats, bridges and a pretty impressive stone wall.

We meandered up to the castle itself and it started to rain (lightly) just as we got to the line to buy tickets.

I know – I may have overdone it with the castle photos, but it’s very photogenic! But here’s a photo of something that isn’t the castle:

There are 8 levels and you are encouraged to start at the top and work your way down.

The 8th floor is the observation deck level. You can look out over Osaka and the park around the castle. Unfortunately, the view is impeded somewhat by the bars and wire they have up there – I assume for security reasons? You essentially have to take photos through the gaps:

The remaining floors make up the museum. It begins by telling the story of the man who had the castle built in the 16th century – Hideyoshi Toyotomi. Subsequent floors have exhibits relating to Japanese history since that period. No photos allowed for much of the museum, which was a shame, as they had some wonderful painted screens and armour. We made our way back down to the first floor and out again, and it was still only raining lightly.

Here are some sakura photos for those who are interested (Osaka Castle Park is a great cherry blossom location):

On our way out of the park we got some meat-on-a-stick.

We went back to the hotel after that. Felt a bit strange going back before late afternoon. Every day in Tokyo we left after breakfast and didn’t return till evening. Perhaps we’re flagging?!

The rain had picked up through the day and I’d woken up feeling a bit crook, so Maeve and I stayed back while the boys went out for a wander later in the afternoon.

Dinner was Bikkuri Donkey, because they have an allergen free meal for Maeve (which she really enjoyed). I ordered a horrible Japanese beer which Morgan ended up drinking. Tasted like goblin piss.

Tomorrow it will stop raining and we will go to Nara.

We had a leisurely start to the day today after yesterday’s epic theme park adventure. We didn’t get to the aquarium until 10.30, which is quite late to hit an attraction for us.

Above is the big Ferris Wheel by the aquarium (we didn’t go on it).

The aquarium:

Osaka aquarium is one of the largest public aquariums in the world. You start at the top and kind of work your way down in a spiral. As the tanks are quite deep, you can see each tank in several “slices” – from the top, in the middle, and at the bottom.

We saw penguins, seals, sea lions, otters, randomly – coati and agouti, lots of fish, octopi and – the big (huge) highlight – whalesharks. Apparently the aquarium houses approx. 30,000 fish and 620 different kinds of marine life. And did I mention the two huge whalesharks?

Their “touch” pool is sharks and stingrays (‘rough’ and ‘slimy’, respectively).

We had to stop and have a ‘traditional’ whaleshark icecream (ramune – a kind of Japanese soda flavour – and vanilla, with sprinkles meant to represent the whaleshark pattern):

Maeve couldn’t resist purchasing her own whaleshark:

When we finished at the aquarium, after about 3 hours, we went across the road to a place called Kuma Kafe. I’d come across them in my research and heard they had a gluten-free menu. Indeed they did, and Maeve chose chocolate pancakes:

We all had lovely food there and the people were delightful. Decided then to head home for a break and possibly go out for dinner after a rest.

Morgan tried a hot coffee drink from a vending machine on the way back to the hotel:

Apparently, it was a mistake.

We were all a bit knackered and the kids were quite excited to just “blob” when we got back to the hotel at 4, so I got going on the Universal Studios blog, and Morgan went out to find a coin laundry to do our clothes.

He came home a couple of hours later having washed and dried all our clothes for the price our hotel would have charged us for laundering 2 pairs of undies!

In the end, the boys went out to find something interesting to eat while Maeve and I stayed at the hotel. The latter having a ‘natural spring’ bath while watching a movie on her tablet. (The hotel is over a natural hot spring so they have it plumbed to each room – you can choose to have ‘normal’ or hot spring hot water).

A pretty relaxed day in all. I don’t think we even hit 10,000 steps!

Tomorrow we’ve got a few things planned but we may get some rain.

We were up bright and early this morning (Corwin was NOT impressed), had hotel breakfast and then jumped on a couple of trains (1 or two stops apiece) to get to Universal Studios. Arrived half an hour before the park opened, as per Morgan’s plan of attack for the day.

Anyone using this blog as an indication of what is possible in one day at USJ should be aware that we decided to pay for express passes to avoid most of the queues. Full disclosure – it’s quite pricey but when you are with kids and on a time budget… Well, we decided it was worth it.

Got inside and ran (or walked briskly) straight to the Flying Dinosaur ride. It was the only top park ride not included in our express pass so we wanted to beat the crowds. We didn’t tell Maeve but it is billed as the scariest ride at USJ – a roller coaster where your seat is tipped so that you are effectively lying on your tummy in a “flying” position, then lots of loops and twists. It was brilliant, but Maeve screamed like a banshee. I was a bit worried that she was traumatised but she got off, shook her hair out of her eyes and said “Again?” So we did. Still not much of a queue to speak of so we were back on it again in no time.

After that, the Jurassic Park ride (express pass), which is a flume ride. Also very good. And we didn’t get too wet.

Then on to Jaws for a photo and the ride. Silly but fun. Possibly would have been hilarious if we could have understood our “captain” – he was really hamming it up. But in Japanese, of course.

The first of our timed express pass rides was the Harry Potter ride. We went into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter ahead of time and had a look around Hogsmeade.

Then we went to Olivanders to learn about wands.

Maeve was chosen as the volunteer to get her first wand (of course she was). It was actually quite neat. They had an Olivander “lookalike” who spoke fluent English and Japanese and flitted between them so no one got lost. Maeve tried two wands before the right wand “chose” her. The failed wands led to killing a plant instead of watering it, and then making a bunch of drawers open and shut.

Anyway, it’s a great scheme because the lucky wand recipient doesn’t get given the wand – rather, they are offered the chance to buy it! But they do get a special box to put it in. 😉 Luckily, Maeve had every intention of buying a wand anyway, but I pity the parent who has to tell their child that they cannot have the 5000 yen wand that just “chose them”. Corwin bought himself a wand too.

We tried butterbeer. Some liked it:

Some did not:

Then it was time to get to the Harry Potter Forbidden Journey ride – part roller-coaster, part special effects. The seats are moved around on a robotic arm and the projected pictures in front of you convince you that you’re flying around. I guess it must be my age, but I felt a bit ill. Motion sickness – what next? It was very clever though. Morgan and the kids loved it!

Then on to Flight of the Hippogriff. A low-key, kid-friendly roller coaster. Bit ordinary, compared with some of the high-tech rides we’d been on, but good views of Hogsmeade.

After that we went in search of lunch. We’d heard that all USJ restaurants have an allergen free menu so we were hopeful. Chose Mel’s Drive-in (on right in above pic), where we had burgers and fries and poor old Maeve had the only gluten-free food item – a curry. Probably not what she’d have chosen on a warm day for lunch but, again, she was a champ about it. And she was able to have the vanilla shake!

Then we had some more timed rides – Lupin the Third Car Chase (VR), Spiderman and Despicable Me, the latter of which took us into Minion Park:

The Minion ride was just like the Harry Potter one – robotic arm moving the car, projection making you feel like you are plummeting, or flying. I felt crook so closed my eyes for much of it.

The others went on the Hollywood Dream ride next – I took a break and babysat the bags. We had a few by that time – 2 wands in their boxes and Corwin got a Jurassic Park t-shirt.

We’d been in a few shops – trying out the goods:

Then we went back into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter as the kids wanted to try out their wands. When you buy a wand you are given a map of Hogsmeade that shows the 8 locations around the village where you can use the wands to do actual magic. Each requires a particular spell – you have to speak the spell and move your wand correctly and then “magic” will happen.

Above is doing Cistem Aperio on the Hogwarts Express luggage.

Below is Maeve using Wingardium Leviosa on a quaffle ball.

They both really enjoyed it. We mostly took videos of the “magic spells” so can’t show them here.

Other Hogsmeade shots:

Then we went to the Three Broomsticks for dinner (where Maeve was able to have a ‘normal’ dinner of corn, chicken and potatoes!).

We wanted to have a good view of Hogwarts for the light show:

By that time it was getting pretty late and the park was due to close in 40 mins or so. We decided to try and ride our favourite ride – The Flying Dinosaur in Jurassic Park – again. There was no queue at all so we got to ride again in the dark. Morgan and the kids ran around and rode it for a fourth time after that.

Then we went and watched the Universal Spectacle Night Parade. It was really quite amazing but the photos don’t do it justice:

Then it was time to go home. We’d been at the park for over 12 hours and walked more than 20,000 steps (according to my fitbit, which must think it’s been stolen given the sudden increase in my activity since we came on holiday). So knackered but what a fabulous day. And we managed to do everything we wanted to do, in one day – which is good, because now it’s the weekend and the park will be absolutely chocka with locals.

Decided to authorise a sleep-in till 8am tomorrow. Such indulgence…

A much nicer day today. Little bit of wind but we’re from Wellington, so no big deal. But lovely and sunny.

Last night was our final night at Tokyu Stay Shinjuku so after breakfast we re-packed, checked out, left our suitcases at reception and headed first for Shinjuku station to book shinkansen (bullet train) tickets to Osaka for the afternoon. That involved queuing but didn’t take too long.

Then we walked on to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building (Tocho). It’s the fifth-tallest building in Tokyo and has observation decks in both towers that are free to visit and are open very long hours (up to 11pm). The gardens outside are lovely too.

We took a lift to the 45th floor which opened onto the observation deck. It’s a wide open area with windows all around the outside and a cafe and souvenir shop in the centre. Tokyo is so vast – stretching as far as we could see in all directions. Here are numerous photos of the view (spot Mt Fuji):

We lingered up there for a while – too long, in fact – and we ended up doing a bit of a sprint to get back to our hotel, grab our bags, and get the subway to Tokyo station (where all shinkansen depart from). We reckon we missed our train by about a minute – we just underestimated how long it would take us to get through Tokyo station, I think. Nevermind – a quick visit to the JR office in the station and we transferred our tickets to a later train. And here it is:

Looks pretty fast, huh?

It really was. Although it’s hard to get a sense of how fast you are travelling. There were certainly a number of instances of ‘see a cool thing – turn on camera real quick – thing is already gone’. 😐

Here are some pics we managed to snap on the way:

About 320kph, according to google. It took us about 3 hours to go 500k.

It was very comfortable and the train was almost empty.

Arrived at Shin-Osaka station and took a local JR train to Fukushima station (a one minute walk from our new hotel – or ten minutes, if you get google maps to guide you).

Here’s the view from our new hotel room at about 5.30pm:

Tonight we had takeaways. Maeve tried (and liked) the allergen-free burger from Mos Burger, which is awesome because they have stores all over.

Tomorrow – Universal Studios!

It rained today. All day. And it was cold.

Our day started with a slight setback as we discovered that the activity we had planned to do was sold out. We’ve booked tickets for when we return to Tokyo later in our trip.

So we decided to go to Ikebukuro and visit another Pokemon Centre.

It was in a huge shopping centre so we checked out a few other shops afterwards and then had some lunch. Found a Coco Curry house, which was fortunate, as they do an allergen free curry which was great for Maeve.

Next up we finally visited a Tokyu Hands – they have an entire floor dedicated to stationery! I may have done a little purchasing…

Maeve may also have done some purchasing…

We could have stayed for hours but the boys were getting restless so we got a train to Akihabara.

I have to say, at this point, that we’ve done a pretty good job of negotiating the Tokyo subway system. We haven’t got on the wrong train, gone in the wrong direction, or missed our stop. We’ve pressed in tight with commuters – so tight that we didn’t have to hold on to anything. And we survived getting split up – when Maeve and I managed to get on a train before the doors closed but the boys did not. Always have a plan in case you get split up – especially if you only have one portable wi-fi unit!

Akihabara is the electronics district. Morgan had a short browse in a couple of places but, sadly, we’d really run out of time for electronics shopping as we were due at our next booked activity.

Akiba Fukurou – owl cafe. Here is Maeve standing outside the address, in the rain, wondering if we’re in the right place:

It was the right place, and it was worth the wait.

Inside everything is painted white, and there are little chandeliers. It is a small place and all around the walls, on low perches and high, are owls. Perhaps about 20 of them. The (two) staff wear all white and there are strict rules. Low voices, slow movements, only touch them on their feathery foreheads.

As you can see (above) Corwin hit it off with his owl buddy, who sat all fluffy and snuggly on his shoulder the whole time we were there.

Maeve made friends with two wee owls. The first one stood on her hand and made sweet little noises from time to time.

The other one started by sitting on her shoulder and then moved to a better vantage point.

Morgan started with a large owl (luckily there were convenient places to rest your arm while a couple of kilos of owl sat on it).

And he spent some time with a more medium sized owl too.

This is “Whitebait” and me:

And this is my second friend. Of all of the four of us, I’ll let you guess who got shat on…

I think you can see the moment when I realise that the pooping is inevitable.

Anyway, the less said about that, the better. We loved it, but we were cold and slightly damp and some of us had poo in our hair, so we headed home. Another konbini dinner. Always delicious.

Tomorrow we check out of our hotel and head for Osaka. We’re hoping for better weather.

A sunny day today but quite windy. It made me worry about the cherry blossoms so we determined to see some today.

We started today by taking the train to Ueno and buying tickets to visit the Tokyo National Museum. It’s a lovely museum in a gorgeous building. They have something in the region of 100,000 items but can only exhibit 4000 at any one time, so there’s a lot of rotation. Here are some of the wonderful things we saw:

We wandered the bottom floor for about 2 1/2 hours and then Maeve had had enough, so we gave the second floor (art) a miss. The below pic is of the museum garden.

After finishing up at the museum we wandered out into Ueno Park to have a look at some blossoms.

After a lovely stroll we jumped on a train to Asakusa. Spotted the Tokyo Skytree:

We had a yummy sushi lunch at Tsukiji sushi.

Corwin watched them catch these prawns before frying them up for him.

We then went to visit Senso-ji. It’s a Buddhist temple – the oldest in Tokyo.

We started at the Kaminarimon Gate (above) and walked down through the souvenir market to the main shrine. Yes – the souvenir market is essentially in the middle of the shrine.

Corwin tried green tea icecream.

The main temple area:

After that, we went full tourist and took a rickshaw ride.

And we finished the day with dinner at Ninja restaurant in Akasaka.

Loads of fun (a bit of ninja training, ninja cooking “magic” at our table, and a little magic show to finish) and really good food too. The fact that Maeve had to eat different food from us took some of the joy out of it for me, but she was a real champ about it.

Morgan’s cocktail:

And some food pics:

And that was that for our Tuesday. Full bellies, well entertained, we went home.

A slightly later start today and a bit of morning rain. 10am found us on the train, heading to Tokyo station. Surprisingly, there were loads of commuters on the train with us, and bustling through the stations. It seemed a pretty late hour to start work.

First stop was the Pokemon Centre DX and Pokemon Cafe.

The day started with a disappointment as we discovered that we’d have to miss out on the Pokemon cafe. We’d been told we could probably walk up and get in by putting our names down for a later time. Unfortunately, it was really pre-booking only. They told us we could queue for the possibility of getting in at 1.30 (stand in line for 3 hours) but that was a hard pass for us. Corwin was a bit disappointed, but Maeve probably wouldn’t have been able to eat anything anyway.

We headed into the Pokemon Centre itself and the shopping began…

Shopping completed we walked back to Tokyo station and descended into the lower levels to look at Character Street (a “street” of shops with a character theme – another Pokemon centre, Studio Ghibli, Moomins, Snoopy…).

By this point we were pretty hungry so we headed to “Ramen Street” – also under Tokyo Station – for lunch. We managed to locate the place that I’d heard had a gluten-free ramen and we successfully ordered our lunches from the machine. It was a real relief to sit down and take a rest for a half hour or so.

We came out of Shibuya station right near the famous crossing. Before we could try it out though, we wanted to look at the statue of Hachiko. “This Akita dog came to Shibuya Station every day to meet his master, a professor, returning from work. After the professor died in 1925, Hachikō continued to come to the station daily until his own death nearly 10 years later. The story became legendary and a small statue was erected in the dog’s memory in front of Shibuya Station.” But when we went to have a look there was a little bonus:

These cats were very cosy and were drawing quite a crowd.

Said to be the busiest crossing in the world, we didn’t find it too bad when we were there. I imagine it’s pretty chaotic at peak commuter times.

Next up we went to some shops that sell manga and anime (Mandarake and Animate):

Next up was Shibuya. Specifically, Takeshita Street. Lots of interesting shops, narrow cobblestoned street and loads of people. Bear in mind the following photos were taken on a Monday.

First we went to the Mame Shiba cafe to get a time to come back – 5.45pm was the next available time. And then it was off to Totti Candy Factory for rainbow candy floss. I’ll let the photos tell the story:

Then down a nice quiet street…

… to Kiddyland for some toy shopping.

Found these stylish hats for Wesley – I’m sure he’ll love them.

After Maeve spent up large it was time to head back to the Mame Shiba cafe for our half hour slot. The dogs were not particularly interested in their human visitors for the most part, though we did get the occasional pat in.

Then one little guy decided he wanted to climb onto Corwin’s lap. They snuggled for a while…

And then a bigger little dog decided he wanted the lap the smaller little dog had chosen, and a brawl broke out on Corwin’s lap. 😊

Finally, it was time to say goodbye.

After that we were pretty tired. We came out of the cafe and the rain was really coming down so we decided to treat ourselves to a taxi. Which was actually quite affordable. We finished the day with konbini food again. Just as fresh and delicious as Sunday night.

We started the day with a walk to Yoyogi Park. The streets were very quiet, possibly because we got started quite early. The kids couldn’t resist trying a vending machine drink en route (it’s a can of strawberry milk).

Once at Yoyogi Park we headed for Meiji Jingu. The shrine was completed and dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and the Empress Shoken in 1920, eight years after the passing of the emperor and six years after the passing of the empress.

It was destroyed during WW2 but was rebuilt shortly thereafter. During the Meiji Period, Japan modernised and westernised to join the world’s major powers by the time Emperor Meiji passed away in 1912.

Photo above is Maeve and Morgan clensing themselves before entering the shrine.

We came across a wedding while we were at the shrine.

We made some offerings at the shrine and bought some charms (no photos allowed of these activities).

Yoyogi Park contains about 100,000 trees. It’s very tranquil, with lots of lovely paths and walks.

The irises (above) bloom in June and apparently this area is spectacular then.

After walking around Yoyogi Park for a couple of hours we headed for Shibuya to try and find Littlebird (a gluten-free cafe that had been recommended to us).

Maeve had to try out a swing we passed on the way.We found Littlebird before it opened for lunch but if it hadn’t been clearly signposted there’s no way we’d have believed it was a cafe. On the third floor of a very narrow building, it didn’t look like the kind of place that could accommodate multiple diners.To our great relief, it did open on time and we were first in the door. It was tiny inside (kitchen smaller than ours, seated max 14 people) and there were multiple people queuing by the time we left.

Note above the happy face of a girl who knows she can eat anything she likes from the menu. The food was fantastic. The kids were particularly pleased with their karage (fried chicken) and their rice rolls (crepe filled with custard, topped with ice cream, cream, banana and chocolate)!At this point we realised we were running a bit late for our Robot Restaurant reservation. I’d like to tell you that we handled the next half hour with efficiency and calm but, sadly, we made some poor decisions… This led to Morgan getting to the venue in possession of the portable wi-fi unit but without the email he needed to show we’d purchased tickets, and the kids and I stranded without wi-fi and no idea how to get to the restaurant. Long story short, we did get there. Enough said.

What to say about Robot Restaurant? It’s a loud, flashy (as in lights), very random show with no discernable concern for intellectual property law. But Morgan and the kids loved it. And, I have to say, I found it rather entertaining. Perhaps I’ll let the following photos speak for themselves…

And see if you recognise anyone here…

Not only was Disney cool with them using Darth Maul, but they also let them use the Imperial March. So generous.

And in case you were worried it wasn’t sufficiently creepy, check this out:

So, that was Robot Restaurant. Super random, but strangely entertaining.

By this time we were all pretty tired. Very tired, actually. So we decided to eat in. Went to our local konbini (convenience store) and purchased various items – some of us were more adventurous than others. We had to scan the back of packets looking for Japanese characters that represent ingredients forbidden to Maeve. But it was a success in the end – yummy dinners for all. Convenience stores here have a very big range of fresh, ready-to-eat food and it is delicious. A bigger range than most NZ supermarkets, in fact.

We crashed after dinner. No photos of that because I was the first one to fall asleep (before 8 local time)!