Homecoming

With this post, we bring a wonderful trip to a close. Our last day was a decidedly rainy one.

We had a breakfast buffet at our onsen for our last day. So many tasty things, and so little time, as we had a deadline for leaving to make our train.

And I had to have one last bento/konbini meal of course for the train ride to Osaka and the airport:

And lastly, to make sure you get home full, some plane food:

With that, I’d like to thank my friends I traveled with and new friends I have met. This was one definitely one of my favorite trips I’ve taken, and as always, I look forward to returning. Until the next vacation, thanks for following along with me, and hopefully see you soon.

The light at the end of the tunnel

What is time? Does day and night really matter? We started this trip messing up our body clocks and we shall end the trip this way. For the last major sight to see on the trip, we are in Toyama Bay and here to see the firefly squid. We had a boat tour that would take us out on the water at 3am. As Mother Nature was our DM, we had to roll the dice on whether or not we’d get to go out, and we rolled…

Undercover

It was hard…really hard to wake up today. I am convinced I sleep best on futon, and think I need to get this for home, it’s just so comfortable! After dragging myself out of bed, the group went downstairs for our last japanese-styled breakfast, and as usual, it did not disappoint.

In the Village

We started our morning immediately dealing with hopping on the train to Takayama. This was by far the most scenic train trip I’ve taken (in the very limited amount of trains I have taken in my life).

Quiet calm

For our last day in Nagoya, we took a day trip out to Tsu. This was a bit of nostalgia for one of my friends, as she lived and worked here for a couple of years.

Some days you just have to chew your way through

Today turned out to be not much other than wandering around and eating, so let’s dig in. Breakfast for most of the group was onigiri, and various bao.

I found out that there was a curry cheese bao, and promptly had to have that.

Pickle me pink!

As we start winding down our trip, we have another transit day today to Nagoya. Before we left, we had one last meal to have in Kyoto, and for pickle lovers, this was the dream meal. This was at Akoyachaya, and there was quite the waitlist by the time we showed up, about 20 groups, but well worth the wait.

Here and there and back again

As with most parties/gatherings, one tends to be a bit slower in getting started the next day, and as such, we got off to a bit of a later start this morning. We made good on our desire to return to Nishiki market to properly sample their (mostly fried) foods for breakfast. After a nice, brisk walk, punctuated by a couple of pit stops in to some konbini, we made it, and proceeded to procure some treats.

All that glitters is gold

As this is supposed to be a a travel blog, I cannot lie down on the job forever, so we have resumed our normal travel plans today. We’ve been spoiled on lavish breakfasts the past two days and as such, have kept to konbini (a bastardization of convenience store) food this morning, me with my inari pouches and my friends with the various bao buns .

Our first destination today was Nijo Castle, a very ornate castle with very squeaky floors. According to my friend, which now may be a questionable story, the emperor at the time this was built was paranoid of being assassinated, and intentionally had the floor built to squeak. From what we read inside the castle (photography was prohibited inside), the floors became squeaky with wear and time.

Train-ing for the food olympics

Today is another short post/travel day. We concluded our onsen break today, by having another large Japanese breakfast, followed by another nap (much needed as it was quite warm last night.