Like Driving in a Typhoon

After a morning dip in the onsen, we were escorted to breakfast in our private dining room. We listened to the same playlist from dinner last night which made us chuckle - it included “Amazing Grace” and “Time to Say Goodbye” by Sarah Brightman which my mom was once obsessed with. The dining at the ryokan is amazing, but their playlist should definitely be longer.

Our beautiful breakfast below, again not in a collage and in order to appreciate the presentation and details:







This soft boiled egg was wonderful:





This yogurt was probably the best I’ve ever had!



Also, my mom managed to take a photo of our awesome server and it gives you a feel for the room:



After enjoying coffees in the lounge, we shuttled back and forth in packing up the car and I tried to get CarPlay to work but failed. Here is a photo of the entrance and carp that my maternal grandfather loved, according to my mom:





Then we were off to Nagoya and Nara heading southwest. I used the car GPS as it was more in tuned to local alerts such as construction and detailed lane changes, and the Google Maps for flexibility as I struggled to punch in names and addresses in the car GPS. This combination was helpful as I would prefer the roadway signs to be larger. Thank goodness Justin reads Japanese and I was comfortable driving on the left side - this would be a lot otherwise. My mom took a photo during the morning:



Through mountain tunnels with openings that looked like curated gardens and cruising on elevated highways, I found the Japanese to be orderly drivers - not a lot of speeding or swipes and very calm. It rained moderately and we noticed so much fog hanging around the mountains - you could now understand why so many Japanese drawings depicted mountains and fog. We also passed many cherry trees and my mom did her best to capture them:



After about 3.5 hours, we arrived in Nagoya. It’s the 4th largest city and known for being the headquarters of Toyota and Brother Industries to name a few. I had picked Nagoya as an intermediate stop and an option of seeing Nagoya Castle which is a reconstruction after being destroyed during World War II.

But as we left a little later than planned, it’s not one of the top castles to see in Japan, and walking the grounds in the rain was not ideal, we decided not to enter. From the parking area, you could only see a little peek of the castle which has a few nicknames such as Golden Castle and Meijō. I did take a photo of the peak bloom of these cherry blossoms along the outer castle walls:



We popped into a cute restaurant for some coffee and tea, and red bean and mochi snack. Nagoya Castle made for an excellent rest stop!



Our original plan was to visit Nara Park for the Great Buddha and sacred deer, but at this point, the rain started to really come down. Also Justin was not feeling well, so we decided to head straight to the hotel. In the 2 hour drive to Nara, the rain came down so hard, the windshield wipers were on the fastest setting. I was amazed by the rain and Justin reminded me about the typhoon weather here as he took this photo:



Eventually the rain let up and at a service area, I took a photo of some cherry blossoms and the fog that we saw all day:



After circling off the elevated highway, we arrived at Fairfield by Marriott Nara Tenri Yamanobenomichi which is south of Nara. I had planned to come here after the park, and on our way south to Mount Koya. It’s a bit in the burbs, but the hotel is immaculate as it just opened 2 years ago. A sakura lined road in Tenri:



Dinner choices were a bit limited to chains as restaurants appear to close early here, so my mom and I walked to Marukatsu next door which is a low key katsu restaurant. My mom ordered a pork and shrimp set and I had chicken. A collage below of our respective sets:



We were surprised how well the katsu was fried and prepared and combined, only cost ~$18. As the young server explained using English note cards that we can have refills of rice and cabbage, she also advised it was “cash only”. I only had ¥1,000 (~$6) and she said there was no ATM onsite and closing in 30 minutes. She offered for us to come back in the morning and pay, but I decided to ring Justin who came over with his last ¥2,000. I thought maybe I missed the “cash only” sign and without Justin, we did fumble through the ordering with pointing and pictures. But the waitress kept apologizing to us there was no sign. I did notice a QR code for Alipay and Justin and I agreed they needed an option for Chinese tourists.

Justin also remarked that it was helpful he didn’t have an appetite as we didn’t have enough cash. With our coins, I’m sure we could have come up with the amount for a 3rd small set, but I guess we’ve become too reliant on our Pasmo / Suica cards! As Justin noted, we are clearly not in Tokyo anymore as the servers didn’t speak any English, cash only, and trusted us to pay tomorrow…

In order to save time later in the week, my mom and I headed to a gas station. Thank goodness for Google translate with a camera option, so I could decipher the instructions without my brother. We also stopped by the local 7 Eleven for cash and Choco Monako Jumbo that was in an algorithmic Instagram post. It was deliciously light and so popular that apparently, 1 is sold every 0.17 seconds!



Then we headed back to the hotel. Also, today is the 3rd anniversary of our dad’s passing. It’s nice that we’re spending so much time together and as my mom said, it’s nice that all of us will be together the first time we’re in Korea after his passing. We are definitely getting in a lot of quality time - over 5 hours in the car alone today!