Lunch at school

Today we were shown around a local school. We had the same lunch as the children.

Learning Japanese

With much bowing, smiling and laughing we managed to get directions to the toilet.

Luckily, many locals speak much better English than my Japanese. 

High tech toilets

There is so much technology in Japan.  Even going to the toilet nearly requires a manual.

Although some of the symbols are self-explanatory it's hard to work out how to turn it off once it starts!

Here's the house control panel:

Authentic home stay experience

After a bite to eat we were picked up from Osaka airport by our host.  He had done his masters degree in California and his doctorate at Oxford, so his English was impeccable.

My Japanese is very basic and mainly just limited to pleasantries.

After waking up at 4am, we finally got to bed about 10.30pm which was 2:30am NZ time without any sleep.

We were made very welcome and we provided with an authentic experience.

Early start

We stayed in Wellington overnight which meant we enjoyed a sleep in as it was only a 10 minute taxi ride to the airport.

We were checked through to Japan and spent the next hour relaxing in the Koru lounge.