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28th February Saturday
We got up early today to catch the 8:11 train to Shinagawa and then a Shinkansen to Toyohashi and then ANOTHER Shinkansen to Mikawaanjo. We wanted to get bento to eat on the first Shinkansen, so at Shinagawa we tried to get some nice bento. Christina bought some onigiri, but at the last minute Charles panicked and bought a weird bento box with unidentifiable food objects inside. He ate it anyway and didn't die so I guess it was food after all.
On the first Shinkansen we saw the best views of Fuji that we've ever seen. Wow. From all directions! Amazing. Photos below. We got off at Toyohashi to wait for the kodama Shinkansen while the extra fast Nozomi zoomed through the station a few times. The Kodama was a very short trip, just 15 minutes. When we got off, we saw Emi waiting for us at the gate! Her mum was there to pick us up but only had a very small car! Lucky we had our tiny bags!
At Emi's parents house were her sister, father, and nephew Riku who was only 1 when we last saw him 5 years ago! We were soon joined by Emi's brother, sister-in-law, and other nephew (Naoya, 12) and niece (Moka, 9). What a party! We all piled into multiple cars and zipped off to a "burger" restaurant, which turned out to be Japanese style burgers. Not the kind you get in between buns, these hamburgers are more like fancy rissoles. Charles had a kind of tray with many small items (including a burger) and Christina had spaghetti in tomato sauce, with a burger. When we all got up to leave, the waitress asked us to wait and brought out ten tiny ice creams in little glass bowls. Emi told us that the manager likes her mum, so whenever they come to the restaurant they get some freebies.
We went back to Emi's parents house and all the kids got out their 3DSs so Christina did too. Moka showed us her Mii character and Christina set hers up so that their Mii's could meet and be friends. cute! Emi had to move on to the next step of her preparation so we went back to the station and we got the next Shinkansen to Nagoya (5 minute trip).
We were able to check into our hotel (Nagoya Marriott) immediately, and were shown to our room by a lovely porter girl who insisted on taking our luggage for us. This hotel is pretty swish.
After a rest, we went out to attempt to find an ATM. We also visited several convenience stores to see which was the best one. We walked past a nice looking restaurant with hot plates at each table and decided to have an early dinner (it was 5:45). We managed to communicate in terrible Japanese with the waiter who couldn't speak English at all. We got okonomiyaki and yaki soba. Yum!
After dinner we went to Takashimaya department store which was in the same building as the hotel. We bought Emi and her husband a present and had it wrapped.
Now bed! Big day tomorrow!
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