April events....

Friends A and G arrived into a very wet Tokyo. Impressibly spurting Japanese words and full of cultural knowledge. They put us to shame (as normal!)

They were keen to go to NohTheatre. An ancient Japanese art form. We went to a performance with English subtitles. We were also handed an English summary sheet as we walked in. Good eh? However the session started off with a 30 minute talk by a Japanese man who stood on the same spot and had no visuals to accompany his talk. He laughed in several places but I checked and the Japanese in the audience we not laughing along with him. In fact a guy in the front row had hit head right back enjoying a good sleep.  Know how he felt as it was incredibly difficult to stay awake! 

With the rain we thought all the blossoms might have disappeared but we decided to go and seek them out anyway. We then managed to find a Gyozo dumpling place someone had recommended and gorged on them with grated carrots and beer. (The beer was not grated). 

For discussion class, talking
about needs found this!

Doing the Shibuya crossing but going their own route!

Ordered a Deuter 20L for the weekend!

Our friends then disappeared to do some travelling around Japan and the following Friday we met them in Hiroshima for the weekend.(I'd decided my Deuter 10L was not up to the visit so ordered a 20L joining Amazon prime to get it in time.  I'd been hanging out to get it in Kiwi Turquoise but it was not to be found anywhere...I've included a photo as I know everyone will be interested. If you need me to send you the link to a video showing all the features just let me know.

In our hotel room on the eighth floor? We were woken up at 1 AM by the earthquake....

The next day A & G had arranged a guide to take us to the shrine built on stilts in the water and then to do all things related to the atomic bomb. Thankfully the old photos were suitably grainy so I could not see the full horror of it all.  All the various venues focus on peace rather than war. A number of kids were out in town collecting signatures to stop nuclear weapons, to give to Obama on his visit.(list of signatures not nuclear weapons).

Know where we are but no idea how
to get to where we want!

Intrepid explorers!

The next day we went to a temple with lots of waterfalls. Lovely.Decided to go on the recommended walk which came without a map. Never a great idea. Several paths were roped off and we ended up climbing down another way. And then following a service road that is in the process of being made. Visitors at the temple were surprised to see us appear from the river!

We all got ourselves lunch at the station and headed off to a park. One of the nicest I've ever been to. Dominic and I then returned to the train station to go home. 

We got to go to a baseball game to see the Giants play, luxuriously from a box. In the cheap seats on everyone's chair was a freebie of a Giants branded t shirt.  I did not realise but some were orange and some were black.  When you looked at the crowd something was cleverly spelt out in kanji.

A&G returned to base. We went with them to the cheapest bar in Tokyo.  It's a set of vending machines that unusually stock alcoholic drinks.  So everyone buys whatever they want and stands or sits around drinking. 

We finished off their holiday with a display of ikebana, then to a garden with bonsai trees.  It's part of some wedding complex. So you cannot move for brides and grooms and their entourages. 

That's it!