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We left Tokyo with excitement in our step. Well, make that hobble, for it was a f***ing epic mission to Tokyo station with our insane amounts of luggage and the broken wheel of my suitcase threatening to fall off completely under the strain of all the things I have no strength to throw away or resist from buying in the first place.

Anyway, we ended up making the train on time, and 20 minutes later we were enjoying our flavoured water from the vending machine and watching an incredible, if a bit cloudy, view of mount fuji from the very comfortable train. Surprisingly lots of legroom too!I was pretty impressed.

So we were obviously extreeemely excited to see our dear friend Megumi, who used to live with us back in the Carrington Road days for 8 months. That was 9 years ago, she was studying Sociology at UNSW and rented a room in our flat and we loved her. It has been almost a forgotten dream to visit her here, but with the help of facebook and a bit of magic, here we were being picked up by Meg and got to see her husband Shinji and their new baby Mikoto, or Miko as everyone calls her. It was so great to see her again, she looked the same with her beautiful smile and deep dimples and just general loveliness. Miko is a stunner, cutest baby out there (sorry Suri Cruise you have been replaced) and so happy always.

We enjoyed a quiet day reminiscing and catching up on the past 9 years, exchanging gifts over a delicious hot-pot-style shared dinner of Nabe, and laughing lots. Then the next day we were bound for Kyoto with Meg and baby for an adventure or two, and we were mighty excited about that, not to mention the prospect of joining her a few days later on a trip to her hometown near Kanazawa to stay with her family. Oh how I love the Japanese.