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.
6 comments:
Yeh glad Andrew enjoyed it, as did all of you. I hope he will return one day and that more friends will come over to see you. We will be back soon!
Have I met Andrew?
Nope, but he knows all about you!
Right, so you haven't seen this guy for a while and he comes all the way to Japan to see you...I know that I am great and all that, but have you got nothing better to talk about than moi during his whole stay? It's actually quite embarrassing, mate.
I think I showed him one the the pictures you had just sent me. Want me to go into more details?
No, it's quite alright thank you very much.
Post a Comment