We caught a train from Kyoto to Nara with beautiful green velvet seats. John and Laxmi played Slug Terra, Varsha drew the Magritte’s castle on the floating rock painting and I read out loud from the book 105 Key Words for Understanding Japan.

When we got to Nara we discovered I had booked a room for the 7th of September not the 7th of October. Woops. We went to the Tourist Information Centre nearby and a very sweet volunteer found us accomodation.

We took our bags to our guesthouse but our room was not going to be ready until 5. We were hungry so we had lunch. Varsha had water in a fancy bottle that turned out to be fizzy drink that tasted like Juicy Fruit.

Varsha found some Tabi socks to go with her Kimono. We saw a shop where mochi was being made and got some very fresh to try. We set out to look around but Varsha and Laxmi were tired so we settled for extravagant sundaes and doing some drawing. Magritte inspired more drawing.

We walked back to our room past the 5 level pagoda last renovated 600 years ago. We saw deer and fed them chestnuts. There is a little bridge near our room and underneath there are lots of gods in their little aprons.

Varsha is very happy about our room. It has a tatami floor and bunk beds and beautiful paper walls. Just what she was hoping for.