Surprise, surprise! Seeing as how I haven't sent any of the Christmas cards that we've written yet I thought I would give everyone an early gift of a long overdue blog. I know, I know, it's been a while. In the last five months we've gone to Canada and back, been to the infamous Twin Hills Rodeo, finished school for the year and finished up the last muster of 2009. I would blog about Canada but most of you were there. I will just mention that Kelly was an absolutely blushing bride and the Van Dinthers are one of my two favourite newlyweds. I would talk about twin hills but unless you live under a rock you will know from Dan's facebook page that he rode the bullock for 6.9 seconds and got an 85 in his first camp draft and made it to the final. Well done Dan! You will all be pleased to know that Tom and Josie have passed grade 2 and prep respectively and are very excited to be on their summer holidays at the moment and away from their cranky home tutor...
What you WILL want to hear about is the past 10 days spent in Japan as landing in Tokyo - one of the biggest cities in the world - was a far cry from seeing the same 5 people everyday at Mellaluka. We arrived in Tokyo at around 11pm and followed the 'locals' to take the bus into town (they know best!). Dan was hungry after the eight hour flight so we snacked on some pre-packaged octopus on the hour ride into town and some sort of jelly donut that didn't appear to be cooked as it was chewier than a mouthful of peanut butter. When we arrived at our hotel it was a touch on the small side however had the one thing that Dan had been waiting for... the electric toilet. It comes complete with a heated seat, bidet, some other spray thingy and a fan to dry your bottom when all is said and done. Unfortunately Dan turned the pressure on the spray up to its maximum then called me in to check it out. I wasn't overly impressed to be sprayed in the face with toilet water but have to admit, in hindsight, it was rather funny. The next day we spent exploring the area we stayed in, Shinjuku, as well as Shibuya and Harajuku. There are loads of department stores in Shinjuku and we spent a good few hours exploring the store Tokyo Hands, which sold everything from 'smile straighteners' to butt lifting underwear and naughty santa suits. Once we had worked up an appetite we did what does us best and followed the locals to a cozy looking restaurant in Shibuya. It was a touch complicated as you order from a machine outside - this worked for us not knowing a word or symbol of Japanese so we picked the picture that looked like it had something interesting, paid, got our ticket and in we went. We were greeted by cheers as we went in and felt awfully important until we realized that the staff do that to anyone who enters - even if they just came in to use the toilet. We then sat in a circle around the kitchen and watched as they prepared the food which was pretty cool. Next came the difficult part, eating a bowl of soup/noodles with chopsticks surrounded by Japanese people trying not to make a fool of oneself. Fortunately for us, slurping is practically obligatory, as is shoving as many noodles in your mouth at one time so we did just fine.
We spent the next couple of days in Tokyo exploring the imperial gardens and the electronic mecca that is Akihabra. WE (note) bought a very reasonably priced ipod touch that proved to be quite the bargain however I haven't used it since nor have I seen or heard from Dan so I'm not sure it was the wisest move.
We then headed out of Tokyo to spend two days in the region of Hakone where you can get excellent views of Mt Fuji and stay in a traditional Japanese Inn. Unfortunately it poured rain the entire first day we were there. Not to be brought down by a tiny bit of bad weather (torrential downpours) we took the boat tour and the cable car up the mountain with the idea that it may clear up and we might get some hiking in. Sadly we saw no more than five feet in front of us and by the time we'd done these things we were soaked to the bone, carrying all of our things which were drenched and emitting a very questioning scent from our muddied shoes and socks. We prayed for better weather that night and woke up to clear skies! We went up the mountain for the second time and had a fantastic day taking loads of pictures of good old fuji and visiting Owakudani where there are 80 degree springs that they hard boil eggs in (although I am not entirely sure why). ANyhow, we enjoyed our black shelled eggs, which are said to add 7 years to your life which means that Dan will now live an additional 28 years as he scarfed four of them. We headed that afternoon for Kyoto which is quite famous for its traditional temples and Shrines.
More to come later!