Japan: Day 3

Gifu City

Waking up to the call of nature I walked briskly through the arctic-like cold - down the hallway to Yuya's bathroom. Since the Japanese winters are quite mild, barely any of the homes have any central heating, so they depend on electric stand-alone units to heat the areas they are using which are of course off during the night. The daytime temperatures are perfect in comparison - a pleasant 15-17 degrees.

The one saving grace during these late night bathroom visits though are the Japanese toilet seats - the coolest anywhere for sure. All have the standard base and tank, but most have an electronic toilet seat. As soon as you sit down you can hear and feel the seat begin to warm up. Then, after your business, you could just get up, flush and go, but if you want the bidet option the toilet seat will do that for you as well - with settings for men and women of course. The one in Yuya's parents' place even auto-flushes, and some others (in the X Wave hotel for example) begin to pour water into the bowl after you sit to mask the sound of any natural disasters.

I went back to bed, and eventually woke up to the sound of Yuya and my parents talking outside my guest room at the table. I quickly washed up and joined them at Yuya's parents' place for some breakfast. After scrambled eggs, mini sausages, toast and coffee, we had some kitchen table discussions including mini-English and Japanese lessons for all.

I had hoped we would visit a Ramen (noodle soup) restaurant in Japan, so Yuya took my parents and I to one that is quite popular in Gifu, where the Canadian paparazzi unleashed their cameras on the unsuspecting staff. We started with some very fresh gyoza - Chinese dumplings - before being served two types of Ramen, both quite spicy and made for hungry people. Yuya ordered everything, including gigantic beers for my Dad and I which I had serious trouble polishing off.

We then went to a popular nature park in Gifu and had a nice walk around, taking pictures of some Japanese Coy, monuments, more cars of course, and numerous flower arrangements that were part of a local competition. All of this was at the base of Gifu mountain and castle, near the children's playground I remember Yuya taking me to last time I was here - a large wooden obstacle course. We took a break at the tourism centre where cable-car rides to the top of the mountain are booked, and sat for some hot vending-machine coffee. Whenever they say hot though this means the can is like molten lava, but the coffee itself is just above warm. I am now deeply missing Starbucks.

Returning to the car, Yuya then whisked us through the narrow Japanese roads, his engine screaming in the background as he wove through the tight bends and hairpin turns, uphill to a fantastic look-out point where we got a great view of Gifu city. The drive back down the mountain was almost as exciting if it weren't for obtrusive reflectors on the centre line that were placed every two feet, and would seem to take out a tire if one were to stray over the line slightly - which isn't hard to do given the narrowness of these roads.

Once back on ground level, we hit a drug store - quite the experience in comparison to Shopper's Drug Mart - then eventually made it home around 6.30 pm or so. Rina also joined us for dinner - Yuya's mom made some great enoki mushroom soup and fried chicken.

After dinner we gave Yuya and Rina some wedding gifts - his parents gave me a very ornate Japanese gift card with some serious cash money inside. Maybe I should stay in Japan until I spend it all! They also showed us a very nice wedding book they made for themselves; thick pages like a nursery school book, and very professional wedding photos with Yuya wearing a very formal kimono, and Rina clad in 4 eccentric kimonos, from deep red, colourful and flowery varieties to an immaculate white. Obviously the Japanese women put more effort into this than the men! Or maybe Yuya's just lazy. Whichever.

We then fled to our rooms and settled in for the night, preparing for a trip back to Tokyo in the morning to get a taste of the big city.