I had a good birthday yesterday, despite not being 100%. We slept in, and had the mandatory croissants out on the deck. The young lady, who deals with all our complaints, stopped by with a beautiful chocolate cake. I rang Mum and Lyndsey to wish me “Happy Birthday”. We headed off to “plant street” to […]

We had a great weekend. We “slept in” until 6.30am, and then fiddled about the house. Just after 10 am, we left for the centre of Surabaya. We stopped at Atlantic Tours, at the Hyatt, to drop off some plane tickets to be adjusted.  From there we drove the circuitous route to the Hotel Majapahit […]

We were up and out of the New Izu hotel by 7.30am, and off to the airport train station. After check in, it was very difficult to find anywhere to get a cup of coffee. The Garuda flight to Denpasar was very good, and we got a bit of sleep after four white wines each. […]

We had a VERY big day today, seeing about half of Tokyo in one day. We had brekky at the same cafe as yesterday, then bought our super express ticket to the airport. Firstly, we took the train to Tokyo station, and had a look at the Emperor’s front gate. When we walked back in […]

It took us a while to get up and moving, and it was nearly 9.30am before we had breakfast. I went to the golden arches and then joined Helen in a nearby coffee shop. We caught the train to Harajuku, and met Jane Thompson, Jul and Gemma at the Meiji shrine. Jane is expecting their […]

Hanako drove us to the station and saw us off at the shinkansen gates. We got off at Nagoya and changed to one that stopped at Toyohashi. Yukiyo and her husband and daughter were there to greet us. They drove us, for about twenty minutes, to an Italian place called “Cannery Row”. It was pizza/pasta, […]

Last night was a lot of fun. We caught a taxi to a restaurant somewhere near Sogo. It was new, but traditional Japanese. Hanako ordered a range of small dishes. Junko was delayed at her shop. The food was delicious, although the cigarette smoke grew worse during the evening. One of the waiters even came and […]

Another very enjoyable day. Hanako prepared a feat for breakfast – toast, yogurt, miso soup, egg custard, fish cake, egg roll, …. From the dining table, there is an excellent view of the house across the street, where the Vivians lived, 20 years ago. It has not really changed at all. We were out of […]

Yesterday was wonderful. We took a long time to get going. Masa was ill from drinking with Hirayama-san until 2am. They headed off at 9am. Hanako drove the rest of us to Hiroshima – it was a public holiday, but Junko was working at the shop, because it was sale season. I bought shinkansen tickets […]

Helen was surprised that the view from the carriage window consisted almost entirely of concrete buildings. There was the occasional open space on the trip south. I hardly recognised Hanako at the turnstiles. She has grown into a confident young woman and her English has actually improved in the twelve, or so, years since she […]