We went down for a cooked breakfast which was included in our room rate. There was a lot to choose from but I just stuck with noodles, soup and rice. Back in our room I had to do some more work and we left about 1000 to meet up with mum and dad, and Aunty Linda and Uncle Owen, who were catching the train in this morning.  We only had to wait about 5 minutes for them to arrive but it was too early for them to check in, so they put their bags in storage and off we went.

We walked through the train station to the bus terminal and hopped on a bus to the northern side of kyoto. We got off and walked a bit, stopping at a shop to buy Kaoru a wedding gift – she had previously talked about these combs that she liked, which keep your hair shiny, and given all she had done I thought she deserved a nice treat.

Finding lunch was tricky but eventually we found a place we could all eat at. We walked around the Yamato shrine grounds for a bit and then went to the kimono hire place. Kaoru and I walked around a bit more while the 4 oldies got dressed up in kimonos. We came back and picked them up, and found some cherry blossom trees to take photos under. Dad and I had a beer to keep us going. Then it was off to have a traditional tea ceremony.

Lots of people wanted to take photos of the 4 westerners in kimonos so it was slow going. But eventually we arrived and learnt about the ceremony and had some tea ourselves. Once that was over we had to walk back to have a pre-booked rickshaw ride. It was quite chilly and we appreciated the blanket the driver put over us! We had a very informative and enjoyable 20 minute ride through kyoto but then it was time to get back to the kimono hire place and change back to normal clothes.

We caught a bus back to the hotel and checked mum and dad and Aunty Linda and Uncle Owen in. Dad and I had some wedding sake – he was down to 500ml from the 2 litres he took about a week ago! Kaoru found a shabu shabu place for us to go to for dinner and made a booking, so off we went. It was a delicious feast. Then we said goodnight and Kaoru and I went back to our hotel.