New experiences

Sorry for the lack of a post yesterday. We were travelling all day from Tokyo to Fukui, where we are now, and I didn't get a chance to find an Internet connection. The journey, which involved 5 trains, was a fairly trying affair as Tom refused to go down for his morning nap even on the super-smooth bullet train. The afternoon leg was a bit better, but we were mighty relieved when we finally arrived and were chauffeured to our accommodation. We're staying with Dylan, a friend of mine from my days in Kobe, and after we'd settled in and given Tom his dinner, we all ventured out to the local onsen to give Tom his first taste of a hot spring. He was in the ladies' part with Nik while Dylan and I chatted away and caught up, but we'll take him in with us when we next go (probably this evening) as Nik had trouble changing both him and herself with only 1 pair of hands (Tom was doing a very good impression of a Kamikazi, he kept trying to jump off the baby change station (its straps didn't work) which meant she had to grow extra arms to restrain him whilst dressing herself - fun!). Still, he apparently enjoyed the experience very much and charmed all the other bathers with some good splashing.

Tom's cough isn't getting any better, despite his medicine, but he slept very well again last night and seems bright and perky again today, so I don't think he's suffering at all. We're off up into the mountains today to visit Eiheiji, a working Zen monastery, so we'll have to wrap him up warm as it's still quite chilly. Will post again later on.