My home is my castle

So, you don't post anything for a week and when you do, all I get is a picture of the side of a block of flats? Yes, rubbish eh? Well, I've been a bit busy what with teaching (got three new students signed up this month - don't they know there's a recession on?), doing unpaid work for Our Man in Abiko (go on, cut and paste that into google and see what you get) and now practising to play Hey Jude in front of hundreds of people (maybe). I got roped into playing in a family's community-centre variety show after my protestations that "I'm not very good" were taken as modesty, rather than the truth that they really were. The organiser, the father of one of my students, then told me I also have to play Sing by the Carpenters. In Japanese. The Beatles have a song for it: Help! Oh, and I ran a 10k race on Sunday - time was 52 minutes, since you ask.

Anyway, so what's with the side of a building? Well, I noticed it while dropping the youngest off at nursery the other day. Just thought the, how you say, utilitarian nature of the corrugated aluminium walls contrasted oddly with the flowery name. Allow me to crop a little closer...

So long, W.

I don't know if I should stay up for the Obama coronation - it's at 2am local time - but I think I probably will, there's so little else worth watching on TV, don't you know. In the meantime, ya'll might enjoy this little game I found on my virtual journeys. Will Obama prove to be a let down like Blair? Probably, but then he doesn't have to do much to be better than the last guy. Here's hoping for the best...

 Goodbye Mr. Bush
Bush goes away from the White House... Tell him goodbye YOUR WAY (throwing boots, eggs, daisies or candies) This is a multi-highscore and cumulative-score game!

First day at nursery school

Sorry for not posting much recently, hope this makes up for it.

Natural selection

Here's a picture I snapped at about 4.45 pm on the seaside at Kamakura on New Year's Day that I forgot to share with you all. It's a little taste of the forces of nature, which we gave thanks to at Kamakura's largest shinto shrine below, wishing for a lucky new year in health, business and miscellaneous life, with several thousand other folk. In order to do that, we were shunted around by loudspeaker, in a very unnatural way:

Far better was a little local shrine a stone's throw from where we were staying, where, apart from an impatient foreigner (me) we could get on with it at our own pace:

Compare with the shrine round the corner, back at the ranch, by clicking here.

What we did on our holidays

1. Followed a map. Abiko is the red station with the arrow. Kamakura, our destination, is the last but one station on the bottom left. The journey took two and a half hours. The big circle in the middle is the Yamanote Line which circles Tokyo and is a bugger to get off when you have had a few. 

2. To get to our friend's house, we crossed over a river, and look what we saw. Nice colourful koi (carp). Can you see his black brothers? Can you see the photographer's shadow?

3. Watched the surfers waiting for their wave to come in.

4. So, this is the sea. We've heard so much about you.

5. Can you make out Mount Fuji? (Hint: It's the snow-capped mountain in the distance to the left of my head, between the green cliffs).

A very belated Happy New 'un

Here's the pesky video that refused to upload, anyway, without further ado:

A belated HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We just got back from Kamakura, a former capital of Japan back in the olden days before foreigners had been invented, so I haven't had a chance to wish you all a Happy New Year, allow me to do the honours:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I did spend the last hour trying to upload a nice video of the beach, but the system is conspiring against me, I will try again another day. As you would have been able to see, it was lovely, sunny, warm and full of middle-aged and elderly surfers. The place had a Bohemian feel to it, and was much like Brighton, apart from being sunny, warm and full of surfers, who incidentally would ride to the beach on bicycles with their boards held on purpose-made panniers. Oh, and Kamakura has a big Buddha. (Remember him?) It's been a full year since we were last there, so it is becoming something of a family tradition, though next year I'd love to be able to come back to the UK before I forget all my English.

Picture that, Mk iv

Picture 4: How old did you say you were?

Picture that, Mk iii

Picture 3: The only way is up

Picture that, Mk ii

Picture 2: Katherine all made up for her end-of-year ballet show

 

Happy New Year, all.