Fish 'n chip shops

Met up with a friend of my wife and her Canadian husband last weekend. Took the kids down to a kids amusement park. A whole floor of a department store was packed with kids bouncy castles, slides, go carts, and the likes. Lani had an absolute ball...pun not intended. It's hard to find places in Tokyo where a kid can just let her down and be a kid.

Anyway this couple who were back here in Japan for just a few weeks said it took them about six months to readjust to Canada. I tell you what I feel that way whenever we are back in Australia. Reminds me of a British mate who back in England in holiday and hankering for some good ol' English food went down to a fish and chip shop. Not really liking fish all that much he fortunately found a cheese burger on the menu and promptly ordered it.

Upon hearing the order the guy says to him "wot...ya com ta fish 'n ship shop, 'n ya order a cheeseburger???" incredulously. And my mate goes..."well it is on the menu".

Can't wait to get back for some greasy fish and chips even if the waiters don't kowtow enough to this most respectable customer.

Tokyo Disney Sea

A group of friends organised an outing up to Disney Sea for Nobuko's birthday on the weekend. I had never been there before so it was quite a surprise. Through the entrance you can see the volcano which was built up 50-100 metres above the rest of the park and had flames pouring out the top at night complete with booming eruption sounds all over the park.With the Japanese eye for detail it was so damn well done. There were some streets there where you could really lose yourself and start to believe you were in Europe somewhere or in Arabia depending on which "land" you were going through.

Toko, Ricca, and Kumi...getting far more excited than my three-year-old daughter.

Drink driving

Reading the news here the other day I happened upon an article about a temple or shrine somewhere in the country that had taken it upon itself to educate the public about the dangers of drunk driving. Which is all fine except that according this article it had only just recently dawned upon the all knowing priests in charge that after re-education, visitors to the shrine should perhaps not be given free sake in a little paper cup to be knocked back before going home.

Wonder what mind bogglingly stupid things the tourists are struck with in Australia?

A completely unrelated temple...actually I think it was a castle we visited years ago in Nagano.

Parks

For want of something to write about, here are a couple of shots of moi, Lani, and the old bird....who happens to resent being called "the old girl"....taken up in a park in Tokyo.
The parks here are rubree. Huge, well planned, with rubree rines of trees. A complete contrast to the colourless mess of mismatched buildings that make up Tokyo.