I left Shikoku on the train on December 27th. It was snowing at the station. I crossed the bridge to Honshu which is a beautiful road with views of the Seto sea and its small islands. In Osaka, Ryan and Jason got on the train. We then travelled to Nagoya at sleep speed due to heavy snow. At times the snow was at least 1 meter deep and sometimes there was a total white out. It was a beautiful winter wonderland. We meet Chris in Nagoya

Started with breakfast at 8 am. There was a choice of Japanese and western buffet. I had Japanese, but my stomach didn’t like it much with negative results for the next 2 hours. Anyway. We visited Nagoya Castle in the morning and the Christmas illuminations in the evening. Castle was impressive but unfortunately the main tower was closed. The Palace was open en had amazing gold leaf rooms. There was also an exhibition of traditional handmade toys and dolls. The Christmas illuminations were quite beautiful. And I drank hot mulled wine, very Christmassy, and made me think of the Netherlands and German Christmas markets.