Moveable Type: Day 120 in Japan - A Sad and Happy Day (Happy Birthday and Goodbye)

The happy part of today was that it was Sam's birthday. The sad part was that Mum and Dad left Japan today.

We had a really easy breakfast and an easy day of packing and preparations for their travels. We had a few expeditions from the house through the day - to buy Sam some cakes for morning tea, and to buy ingredients for the great lunchtime onigiri cookup. We cooked a LOT of rice, prepared bacon, capsicum, cheese balls, pork, chicken, tuna, mayo, wasabi, spring onions, and probably something else I am forgetting, and put it all on the table for everyone to prepare their own lunch onigiris. I think everyone like the Japanese version of the sandwich, and we even headed to the Daiso (hyakuen store) later to pick up some onigiri makers for Mum and Anna.

Sam's birthday cake, stamped with the date!

Off to the hyakuen store

Sam with his Mario chocolate birthday present.

After the hyakuen visit, Mum and Dad chucked the last bits in their bags, said their goodbyes to Anna, and then the four of us (Mum, Dad, Sam and I) started the journey to get Mum and Dad onto their plane. They will have had a very multi-mode trip home by the time they get there! We caught the train to Sannomiya, the Portliner train to Kobe airport, a shuttle bus to the High-speed Ferry station, then they caught the ferry across to Osaka airport, a bus to the terminal, a plane to Brisbane, stay the night, another plane home, then Lousie was picking them up from the airport in a car. Talk about Planes, Train and Automobiles. I think skidoo was the only mode of trainsport they aren't up for in the next day or so.

Last photo together :'(

Going...

Gone.

Anyway, we said our teary (on my part) goodbye at the Kobe Airport Ferry Terminal, and Sam and I waved at the boat until we couldn't figure out which light was theirs as they headed across the harbour. Sam called his Mum and Dad while we were on our trip home (and we had a really lovely view of Kobe from the front seats of the Portliner - a lovely way to come into the city at night!), and then we got to stand in the front window of the JR train home, so we watched the rain start to beat down on the front window as we sped home.We met Anna at the station to introduce her to the delights of Saizeriya for dinner (mmmm, fake Italian!) and had night which was probably too early for a birthday, because we were all quite tired. Happy Birthday, Sam!