I woke up about 6.00 local time, which was quite impressive! Kaoru, Mio and Arisa were awake (Arisa was getting ready for school).
To make things interesting, a few servers back home had crashed, so I emailed Sparky and had breakfast. Afterwards I gave him a call and he was just getting them back up, so crisis averted, but it was an annoying start to the “holiday”.
We packed the small suitcase that I brought to Japan (I brought it empty, for Kaoru to be able to fill with any food she wanted to bring back). It was much easier than carrying a bag so a good idea. I still had my backpack for my computer, and a few other things had to go in there. Once ready, Mio drove us to the train station. It took us 3 trains, and about half an hour, to get to Tokyo station, where we purchased our Shinkansen ticket for Nasu. We had just missed a train so had 45 minutes to kill.
It was about 11.20, but I was getting hungry so we had some lunch and relaxed for a bit, before doing some quick shopping for a treat, and then we caught the Shinkansen. We hadn’t purchased reserved seats, thinking it would be quiet, but the platform was very busy! We considered upgrading but decided against it. Luckily we were able to find 2 seats next to each other. I got a little bit of work done on the train, and we arrived at Nasu on time (no surprise there) after about 1 hour of travel.
At Nasu we changed to a local train – we had to wait 30 minutes so we must have just missed one. But eventually we arrived at the local station, and Okasan and Ottosan were there waiting for us. The first place they took us was the local shopping centre. Ottosan had to pick up some new glasses. It was nothing like a Tokyo shopping centre – more like a Melbourne Home Center! I had a look around their equivalent of Bunnings and was tempted to buy a laser tape measure (~$50, reduced from $90!) but fought the urge. We looked around the camping section, and it was quite interesting seeing what they had. A lot of things that were Coleman brand, but different designs to what we have, for the Japanese market. There was even a camp table with a burner in the middle!
Our next destination was a hotel. Apparently in Nasu, that’s the place to buy bread. So we purchased a few things to eat over the next couple of days. Then it was off to the house.
Kaoru came here last September so she had seen the extension on the house, but I hadn’t seen it yet. The second house now has a washroom, bedroom and kitchen. Still with the same sort of design. It was amazing. I could also see piles of chopped wood all over the back yard. So somebody’s already done the work I was expecting to be doing! I guess it’ll just be sharpening the blades for me this time.
We went inside and I had a proper look around the extension. After some tea and the treats we bought back in Tokyo I got a bit of work done while Kaoru caught up with her parents. But first I had to fix the internet coverage in the house. The phone line is now running in the second house, with a different box (not the old router) so the UFO’s I had installed weren’t communicating properly. Pretty easy to fix up, which got all of my devices working immediately as they had previously been connected. We also made some labels with the SSID and password so whenever visitors came, they could easily find the password to get them on the WIFI.
Dinner was the usual feast, which no matter how full you were, you just can’t stop eating. Ottosan bought out a bottle of sake for us to enjoy with dinner. So I had to get used to the custom of pouring his drink and him pouring mine. I fumbled my way through a bit of communication, stringing nouns and verbs together, but not really making much sense.
After dinner there were a few more work things that needed to be finished. Then a relax in the new bath, and off to bed.