Family visit

Yesterday was a special day because Mum and my stepdad Jeremy arrived to visit. They were a little weary from their long journey and I was pretty tired too having worked twelve of my last thirteen days in order to free up some time for their trip. But despite that it was great to see family again. They arrived in Kokura at about 1pm having taken the express Nozomi Bullet Train from Osaka at around 10.30am.

Having flown into Osaka the night before, after a short stopover in Sydney, their arrival did not go quite as smoothly as they had planned. The airport hotel they had booked for convenience turned out to be about 45 minutes from Kansai airport and they apparently got a little lost too once on the local train. This is not hard to do as most of these trains have no English on their route maps and at night its obviously tough to see the names of the stations you stop at. It was lucky then, that Jeremy plucked up the courage to approach several Japanese men on the train to ask for help. As is very often the case, these guys were very friendly and although they spoke little English they were able to understand each other using gestures and in the end they even drew Jeremy a map!

When they finally arrived in Kokura I took them to a Ryokan (Japanese Inn) I had booked them into. The Ryokan is a Japanese style lodging with Tatami mats on the floor and futon beds to sleep on. It was nice and really cheap, only 2900 yen per night each ($35 or so). The only real drawback is that none of the staff speak any English, which is a little difficult for foreign tourists. We also couldn't find the shower anywhere when we arrived so I tried to ask in Japanese. Unfortunately the maid was convinced I was still speaking English and determined she could not understand me. Although I've heard accounts of this happening to other foreigners that's the first time that's happened to me and I really don't think my pronunciation is that bad! Anyway I think it will be a really Japanese experience for my parents and I'm sure they'll cope. I think they must have found the shower by now.

After settling into the inn, we had a look around town and then explored the Kokura castle area. It was refreshing to listen to the observations my parents made about Japan, for example there's no outdoor seating, its so clean, and there're vending machines everywhere. There are many little things that you take for granting after living somewhere for a while and its nice to see the country through the eyes of a tourist again. Over the next few days we will explore Kokura and then next week we will travel to Japan`s ancient capital Kyoto for some sightseeing; I can't wait!