HEART OF JAPAN

In November, I took my third trip overseas to the same beautiful country, which I seem to love more every time I travel there — Japan.

It is a short eight-hour plane ride and is only one hour behind Australian time, so you need not worry about long uncomfortable plane rides or horrendous jet lag.

My husband and I travelled with my mum, Daphne and my dad, Gordon.

This was Dad’s first overseas trip at 74 years young, and I am happy to report now we’re back on home soil that they both loved it.

The season was autumn and the beautiful red leaves and crisp cool air made Japan even more beautiful to experience this time around.

We landed in Tokyo and spent one short week exploring Harajuku’s Owl Cafe and Meji Shrine, magical Tokyo Disneyland and electronic Akihabara to name a few.

We then used our Japanese rail pass to hop on a Shinkansen or bullet train, to venture to Osaka where we would spend another wonderful week.

Here we went to Universal Studios Japan and spent most of our time in The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, lunching at the Three Broomsticks where I fan-girled hard.

We also explored Osaka Castle and met up with my wonderful friend of 10 years, Kanako and attended her amazing wedding party.

We met Kana’s awesome friends and cooked takoyaki (octopus balls) and okonomiyaki at her new house together.

We then went to Japan’s southern island, Kyushu, and met up with more wonderful friends, Yuko and Teruko.

We travelled to Fukuoka and explored Dazaifu temple.

We visited Moji Port, where you can stand on Japan’s South Island and look over to see the middle island of Honshu.

We saw many other wonderful places in our three weeks, which went by in a flash.

I find myself already longing to go back to the wonderful Japanese culture and the delicious food, not to mention all the wonderful people we know and love, and all the new wonderful people to meet.