what do you see?

Finally found a good internet place - you have to pay but the computers work fast and you get unlimited free drinks...so hopefully updates will be more regular.

Saw another blessing this morning. This time of a new plot of land that they were going to build on. A monk was setting up 4 young willow saplings in a square with a tatami mat in the middle and tying prayer slips on to them...I didn't have much time to watch unfortunately, but...!

Hot weather back with a vengeance now...and it feels worse because we`re not used to it...

Visited the temple in Shimousa Nakayama again on Sunday and witnessed the interesting sight of a car blessing...a young couple drove their new minivan up to a small shrine where a (young/novice?) priest performed a ceremony, chanting, clicking sticks together and burning incense. Anything to bring them luck on the roads of Tokyo I suppose...

On Mondaywe visited Ochanomizu, a studenty area with some hilly streets and a river at the bottom of a deep "gorge"! There's also a Russian Orthodox church there, complete with onion domes from the late 1800s!

Over the last few days the weather suddenly cooled down a lot - it's been under or around 30C for a few days now, and not humid, so it almost feels chilly. It's so nice to be able to walk out of work/train and feel cooler outside than in...



Last couple of weekends have been fairly uneventful. We went to Odaiba on Monday though. It's like the Canary Wharf of Tokyo although bigger - an area of artificially created islands in Tokyo Bay full of shops, offices etc and an unmanned monorail. One of the stops is for Venus Fort "the theme park for ladies" - basically a huge shopping mall made to look like streets in Italy, complete with a fake sky overhead which changes gradually from day to night and back again, complete with a moon visible from one the "squares"!



"One of the things that makes Beagles special is our ability to reason."

Not much news to report this time...things are going on pretty well, and Christine's trying to get a transfer to a different school at the moment, to be nearer to Tokyo. Still hot...I think we're somehow getting used to it though. The weekend starts now for us - we might go to the beach somewhere in Chiba on Monday...

Ah of course, last weekend was the local hanabi (fireworks) festival (there is one roughly every week throughout the summer in the different cities). Fireworks in Japan are amazing - they go on for about an hour and a half, with huge, very colourful, weirdly shaped fireworks. We watched the recent ones from the river-bank just in front of our house, as the stations nearer were packed completely solid several hours before the fireworks even started! There were a lot of people even near our house which is probably a couple of miles from the actual launching place - mostly families with a lot of children, blankets, food, barbecues and a lot of beer. Somehow everyone seemed to know that is was finished even though there was no obvious way of telling - people stood up as one and walked off leaving us sitting bemused in the darkness. It was cool to see so many people wearing traditional yukata (summer kimonos)!

I can't believe its been so long! The computers have just been busy all the time, plus two of them have been broken for ages...

Well the weekend before last we went to Yokohama, stayed overnight in a "love hotel" - only 7000 yen for the night, and free karaoke, tv, video, playstation, jacuzzi...

Next day we went on to the Izu peninsula, where we stayed in a "ryokan" - a Japanese style inn. Very relaxing and interesting - this one seemed like it hadn't changed since the 50s! Also went in the scalding hot bath which wasn't that nice after a full day walking in the sunshine and temperatures in the mid-90s(F)...which it has been continuously for the last couple of weeks. Nighttime, only a few degrees colder too.



That has to be it as this place is closing in a few minutes. Will try to somehow get in here again soon...thanks for the emails everyone by the way, will try to reply personally soon!