So we're heading back to Japan. Since booking it in August, I must admit the holiday has come around fast. Having Christmas, New Years and half a dozen birthdays in between might have had something to do with that.

Lots of people have asked why we're going back to Japan. Not surprisingly, nobody that has been over there have asked that question. To be honest, I'm not sure why we're going back. Is it to see the sights we haven't seen yet? Yes, partially. Is it nostalgia, trying to recreate some of the great times we had on the first 2 trips when my girls were younger? Yes, a little, but that's not all of it. I can't explain why we love it so much, but we just do. The attractions, the people, the culture, and just the fact that it is so different from everyday Australian life makes it an unforgettable destination.

And there is the food. Flick through the previous blogs, and browse some of the pictures. You'll notice a theme.

As for today's journey, I'm happy to say it was fairly uneventful. Even though we were "organised", the morning consisted of bouts of manic packing, organising and double-checking of our luggage, documents, etc. Once satisfied that we'd at least packed the essentials to get us to Japan, my parents and Veronica's mum gave us all a lift down to Broadmeadow station.

A few leisurely hours on the train passed relatively easily, aside from the noisy bogan family in the row in front of us. I'm now convinced that bogans should be banned from owning technology, or at least heavily regulated. The teenage son, with his mobile phone on as loud as it could possibly go, received an SMS message approximately every 14.7 seconds for the duration of the trip. The loud incessant complaining of the mother was continually drowned out with the shrill bleating of her son's SMS tone. I hoped that the remoteness and tunnels beyond the Central Coast would render her offspring signalless, but apparently not. Then *she* started receiving SMS messages, except her SMS tone was a very loud verse of some Natalie Imbruglia or Kylie Minogue song. Urge to kill....rising......

But all too soon we arrived at Central, made the relatively painless switch to the airport train, and 3 stops later we were at the domestic airport station. After a short walk in sweltering heat we were at the hotel. Again we're staying at the Formule 1 Hotel at Mascot, which has now been rebadged as the Ibis Budget hotel. No more or less ****** than it used to be when it was the Formule 1, but it is still somewhere cheap and close to the domestic terminal to lay our heads, it fits the bill nicely.

While browsing the net at dinner, Veronica noticed the news of a train derailement around 20 minutes after we arrived at the airport station on one of the Eastern Suburbs lines (Eastwood maybe?), and it noted the ensuing rail delays that it was causing. Very glad we weren't caught up in that chaos.

After a McDonalds run (next door) for dinner and wifi it was back to the room for sleep. It's currently 9pm, and we've got the alarms (yes, plural) set for 3am. We've got a taxi booked for 4am, and if by some miracle it shows up we'll be on our way. If the taxi doesn't show, this is going to be a very short series of blog entries.