We’re staying in a nice japanese house not too far from the city center. Perfect for our family, with three bedrooms, a nice kitchen and most importantly a washing machine. It all looks and feels very japanese: futons, thin walls, sliding doors, tatami, rice cooker (and fancily colored appliances), electronic toilets etc.

We all had a long night of sleep, and feel much fresher today. We had breakfast at the house, then took the bus to the temples area.

We dropped our bags at our Airbnb and went for an afternoon walk downtown Nara. No specific plan besides wandering around, delaying sleeping as much as possible and buying food for diner and breakfast.

We still manage to get to the parc area with some beautiful temples and the deers – so many of them.

On our way back home, we finally found a supermarket! Sarah and I did the shopping – sushi for diner! Séverine and the boys went home.

We spent the rest of the day napping on the sofa while watching our first world cup games.

We were all in bed early, it didn’t take much time before we all fell asleep. It had been a long travel day.

We’re on the bus to Nara, the first capital of Japan. Sarah and Timo are taking a nap, Hugo is still awake and full of energy, despite the short 1.5hrs of sleep he got on the plane.

It’s warmer than in Oslo, about 27 C, but quite cloudy. Driving along the Osaka bay, we didn’t see much of the view… We drove to Osaka, through the industrial areas, then towards the mountains through more residential suburbs, alternating with rice fields.

We’re in Japan! We were welcome by our good friends Mario and Yoshi.

We picked up our SIM card for the stay, bought our bus tickets to Nara where we will spend the next days.

The flight was nice, we ended up getting two meals, a relief! We didn’t sleep much on the plane, besides Timo who had a good 4 hours of sleep.

It’s good to be done with that part of the trip – having arrived clears out much of the stress, especially for the parents.

After a short stopover at Helsinki airport, we have boarded for our flight bound to Osaka, Japan!

‘Will we get a meal on board’ was the interesting question the kids asked while waiting for boarding… hm, we actually don’t know, didn’t really check. On the positive side it’s nice to have an element of surprise when travelling.

The boys are captivated by the cameras on top of and below the plane. Not sure they will even watch a movie during the flight.

While Hugo is enjoying his dessert, Sarah is drawing Timo on her notebook, Naruto run style!

All the best to the Kyles, the furries, the youtubers and the Karens today at the Area 51 raid – they can’t stop you all. May you never run out of energy drinks!

… and to all the teams in the rugby world cup, kicking off now! What a day 🙂