Stories from The Wonderful World of Bears

As you can see from the picture, it was always fantastic to be staying on the inside, feeling all warm and cuddly while having hearty breakfast. We would look at the icicles falling from the trees or at the snow, which lumped around like so many millions of tiny marshmallows.

On the way back to Fukushima now, we stopped at these group of islands called the Matsushima islands where they had very rich history. We even learnt that the imperial horses are sent to these islands to retire. We also had a fun time feeding the seagulls.

The place was great with large forests, wide avenues and a really crisp nip in the air. One could really stay here for a really long time, with so much peace in the air.

That evening, we went to a large factory outlet type store, however most of it catered to women, so the boys had a lot of fun going through the toystores such as the Lego outlet.

Dinner that night was at a famous sushi and sashimi place where they sold these crab soups for like 25 ringgit, very very cheap. We ordered about 5 of these at least. However, they also had many grades of fish for the sushi and GAHil ordered a piece of tuna that costs about 50 ringgit for a single sushi. She said it was very worth it !

The last day, we spend the morning at a park in Fukushima, where flowers were just beginning to bloom, so it was not at its best yet, but I still found it very peaceful. It is truly a very Zen place, and I could imagine having such a garden in Melbourne would be fantastic, if it were not for the constant droughts.

Then, it being our last night in Japan, we went to this all you can eat Japanese barbeque. Where we ate and sang and drank till late, before hitting the nightlife. Our choice of nightlife being those game arcades where you could try your luck picking out soft toys with giant pincers.

The next morning we hunted for kitchen appliances and high grade knives in the Kappabashi-dori area before moving back towards Ginza for some shopping. It was all quite rushed after that as we convened at the hotel by 5 to get to the airport.

Such a dream of a holiday...