19 & 20 SEP 26
Holidays and 50th Wedding anniversary.
We are having a Silver Week in Japan. It is a stretch of consecutive September holidays that happens only in certain years, usually when Respect for the Aged Day and Autumnal Equinox Day line up so that the in-between weekday becomes a holiday too. In 2026, it runs from September 19–23. Therefore Mami’s parents decided to travel to Osaka to spend time with us. Yay!!
Little did they know that we were planning to have a family surprise 50th Wedding Anniversary. Their actual anniversary is in October however, we secretly planned dinner with the whole family. Nana also prepared a special gift for Yoshi and Yuoko, using her artistic design skills to create an AI framed poster of an original photo of her parents. It looks really good.
By the way, if anyone would like to make a similar poster for someone special, let us know. Nana can design one for $50 a poster!
We had dinner at an All you can eat hot pot. Not only the hot pot, there were a variety of side dishes such as Bonito Sashimi, Fried oysters, noodles, salad and of course desert. Not bad for $40 per person.
When we presented the poster that Nana created, they were both so surprised as we had made no mention of their Wedding Anniversary. Yoshi was tearing up at the surprise and both of them loved the framed poster.
We continued to spoil them the next morning by catching a train to Kyoto so we could take Yoshi and Yuoko to their favourite cafe.
Inoda Coffee is a popular Kyoto cafe which opened in 1940. It offers coffee and “western” style Breakfast. They say Inoda Coffee helped popularise and shape modern coffee culture in Kyoto and postwar Japan.
Yoshi and Yoko each had a breakfast plate that contained scrambled eggs, bacon and salad with croissants. Nana and Yuri shared sugar toast and mushroom soup while Mami had egg sandwiches. Mami got me mushroom soup to taste and it was delicious. Mami also got me a coffee and she had to ask for sugar and milk as they usually only serve straight coffee. When mami asked for milk and sugar, the wait staff did not look too impressed. Have a look at the size of the milk jug they brought me! We were all laughing, as the jug as the jug was no bigger than a thimble!! I could not drink the coffee, it was way less than average.
The afternoon was spent separately. Mami and I went to Citybakery Cafe, for an excellent coffee and the others headed home to rest, after a big weekend.
Mami and I sat at the top floor of the bakery and sooked, as we drank coffee and watched the Cats VFL team lose the Grand Final to Hawthorn which made it even worse. I just hope Mitch Knevitt, Jai Clarke and George Stevens get more time in the AFLside as they all deserve it.
Still sooking, Mami and I headed back to Kyoto station to head back to Osaka as we had arranged to meet up with Sumiko again at an AEON Mall in Dainichi. It was our last chance to catch up, so Mami had bought some cakes at Daimaru in Kyoto, that she knew Sumiko would love.
The train trip was horrendous. Being a holiday weekend the train was both crowded and hot. Both Mami and I were feeling claustrophobic, so we stopped at Kuzuha Station and tried to cool down and get some space. We messaged Sumiko we were running late, and gradually felt ready to get on a slow train, which are usually not as packed as the express trains.
Sumiko was running a bit late, but managed to catch up with us at the Starbucks in Dainichi. We spent an hour or so with Sumiko and had a really good chat. She is hoping to come back in March/April and if she does we will certainly love to catch up again.
We now only have one more day in Osaka before we head back to Shunan, Mami’s home town, travelling by Shinkansen with Yoshi and Yoko. We are both looking forward to spending time with them.
