Andrew MacDonald

Andrew MacDonald, a friend from the Isle of Skye, arrived in Japan on Friday the 26th of September. His stay in Tokyo was short as he had to travel down to Kobe today (Sunday 28th September) to attend a parasitology conference in Kobe. Despite the briefness of his visit, Andrew managed to cram a good deal into his time with us in Tokyo.

Andrew's arrival gave me a good excuse to leave work 'early' at 6pm on Friday. When I was walking home from Kumegawa Station on Friday evening, it felt strange to know that I was meeting up with Andrew after not having met him for a good many years. Despite his long journey, Andrew seemed well rested and ready for a couple of beers on Friday evening.

On Saturday, Yuki's dad kindly offered to drive us all to Mount Fuji and the surrounding area. Unfortunately, Mount Fuji was mostly covered in cloud and we only managed to see brief glimpses of the summit. We still managed to see a lot of other sights and Andrew seemed to appreciate the chance to a side of the Japanese countrside that he would not have seen if confined to public transport.

We drove to the town of Fujiyoshida and visited Shiraito Falls (White Thread Falls) and Narusawa Ice Cave. Neither place was too busy and I was thankful for the opportunity of briefly escaping Tokyo for the day. We spent some time looking through the souvenir shops and Andrew seemed interested in the large spiders dangling from some of the surrounding trees.

After our visit to the waterfalls, we stopped off for lunch (and a beer). Andrew was keen to try as much of the Japanese food as possible and was quick to tuck into the selection of tempura that he ordered. After our road trip around Mount Fuji, we returned to Tokyo for a nice dinner which Yuki's mum had prepared. Following dinner, Andrew suggested a trip to a karaoke box. Yuki, Clara, Andrew and I crammed a lot of songs into the hour we spent there and we all left in good spirits. Later in the evening, Andrew and I returned to my local bar (Bo Jangles) for some beers and rum and then returned to the karaoke box once more. The quality of the singing seemed high and after 2 more hours we returned home slightly the worse for wear.

On Sunday, Andrew caught an early afternoon bullet train to Kyoto where he was booked into a Japanese inn for a couple of nights. It was great to see Andrew again and I suspect that it won't be his last visit to Japan. Andrew seemed impressed with the feeling of personal safety in Japan, the punctuality of the trains, and the fun of Japanese style karaoke.

5 Merchiston Grove

After much time, stress, and expense to a number of people, our Edinburgh flat is now finally on the market. With all the global economic turmoil, I am the first to admit that a sale (at the price we want) may be harder and take longer to achieve. We will see what happens and may decide to re-let the flat around New Year. We are in the lucky position of not being under pressure to sell up and can adopt a wait and see approach. As prices in Edinburgh stagnate or even fall, it seems that the rental market is growing stronger and returns from the letting of a property are increasing. Not a bad dilemma to be in.

Anyway, we have spent a bit of money recently getting some work done to the flat and it is now looking pretty nice again. A lot of the money was spent at Homebase, which gave them a mandate to run rings round us and generally waste a lot of our time. Unless it is a product I can wheel out in a trolley, I will not be spending money at Homebase again.

I guess that I had better take some time to thank a few people who have helped with the process of finally getting the flat on the market. In no particular order : Lee, Lorna, and Kit, Mr & Mrs Noble, Mrs McMeeking, Murdo MacSween.

The biggest thanks go to my parents who accepted (as usual) all the burdens placed upon them. They spent a couple of weekends in Edinburgh after work on the kitchen and bathroom were completed, and have got the place looking great.

We will see what happens.....

The Model

Apologies for the scarcity of updates. Life has been busy for us all but we now have the pleasure of a long weekend as Monday is a national holiday in Japan.

Work has been tough at Weathernews (with lots of stories I would be unwise to discuss), Yuki has a new job at the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, and Clara has a new American friend at school. I'm hoping they'll develop a strong friendship as I am sure that Clara's English has started to slip behind that of her peers in Scotland.

Last November, we took Clara to have photos taken for the 7-5-3 tradition in Japan (click on the 7-5-3 tab at the bottom to see the blog that I wrote last November) and we were pleasantly surprised to have recently been called by the photographer as he wanted to use Clara for his advertising campaign.

We have no major plans this weekend, but we'll all visit an udon restaurant tonight. I may venture into central Tokyo tomorrow to meet up with a chap called Graham Taylor who was also an English teacher during my time living in Fukushima. It will be nice to catch up again and I'll try and write another blog in a day of so with an update.