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.

Shichi-Go-San Festival

Just a brief post to give you some information of the Shichi-Go-San (7-5-3) Festival in Japan.

As you can see from the above link, the ages of 3 and 7 are very important for girls in Japan (3 and 5 for boys). Clara visited the hairdressers and then the kimono shop on Saturday the 27th October. After her hair was styled and the kimono made just right, we all drove to the photographers shop to see Clara posing for the photos which would be made into a special album. We had also planned to make a customary trip to a shrine, but the heavy rain made that goal unrealistic. Shame as that would have been a great photo opportunity.

After a busy September and October, November is proving to be a quiet month. Work is pretty easy at the moment and I am taking the chance to go swimming and running (around the Imperial Palace) as much as possible. Friday the 23rd of November will be a long holiday weekend in Japan so I am hoping we can do something nice. I'll try and do another blog in the next week or so.