High Beech

The house in the center of this picture is 'High Beech', the home where my granny spent a large part of her life. The family have many happy memories of this home and it is therefore sad to know my granny will never return.

What makes 'High Beech' really special is the location looking out over Portree, Loch Portree, and over to the Cuillin mountain range. The view is priceless - my granny on a number of occasions had to turn away hopeful buyers who would arrive without warning on her doorstep offering random sums of money.

My most special memories of 'High Beech' were sitting on my grandfathers lap after primary school, Sunday roast dinners attended by the closest family members, and staying there during the long university summer holidays. Those times were some of the happiest in my life and it is now clear that with the passing of my granny, that chapter has come to an end.

My granny was rightly proud of 'High Beech' and would sit in her rocking chair lording it over Portree. From her vantage point in the living room, she could monitor and recognise (with the help of binoculars) cars entering and leaving Portree. Slightly more disconcerting was the fact that she could also monitor the number of tourists visiting the old Tourist Office where I worked for a few years during university summer holidays.

I suppose it is likely that 'High Beech' will eventually be sold off - let us hope that whoever ends up living there will experience as many happy memories as we had during our time there. Perhaps before that happens, I will be able to return a final time to get some photos from a really special place.

New Year on Skye

My brother (Mark) and I spent a couple of nights in Portree over New Year and booked ourselves into the Royal Hotel. We were both looking forward to our time in Skye but were realistic as to what we would find.Sure enough, with a couple of exceptions, the craic was difficult to find. We therefore had to improvise and create our own fun.....

We managed to visit our granny who was in reasonable form and seemed pleased to see us. The rest of our time was spent in the pub or hotel, away from the snow and ice. On the evening of the 30th December, Mark and I had a few pints in the Tongadale Hotel and then met up with a few of the Skye lads in the Merchant Bar. Although it was a brief meeting, the guys seemed in fine spirits. After a few more pints in some of the less salubrious Portree establishments, it was off to bed in preparation for Hogmanay (New Year's Eve).

Hogmanay saw a late start for the Davidson boys, and the majority of the day was spent fortifying ourselves for the evening festivities. Late afternoon saw a brief visit to the Pier Hotel for some pints and tabloid newspapers. The Pier Hotel was then followed by the Royal Hotel public bar for some more beer, newspapers, and the delights of the bar menu. I had a reasonable steak pie and chips while Mark once again opted for fish & chips.

We then went to a few other pubs before we went to the Skye Gathering Hall for the New Year's dance. Both Mark and I were hoping for a good crowd of locals to attend the dance, but we were sorely disappointed to see that the vast majority of people were tourists. They seemed to enjoy themselves, but Mark and I were hoping for something a bit more. We headed to the bar for some triple spiced rums and coke, saw in the bells in the hall, and then returned to the Royal Hotel which was also holding a dance. This dance seemed to be a bit better than the one up the Gathering Hall and was even attended by a few of the Portree locals.

Certainly the highlight of the evening was nominating Mark to take part in some Scottish country dancing. I will let the video speak for itself....He obviously remembers nothing from the mandatory dancing classes each Portree High School student had to endure every winter in the chilly school gym.

The night in Portree concluded with Mark being hosed down with the hotel fire hose. The following morning (not too early), we returned to Inverness with a few stories to tell about our latest visit to Skye.

Roppongi Hills

At the end of September, we all went to Roppongi Hills, a new area of Tokyo which is supposed to represent a new age of urban living. The building at Roppongi Hills are supposed to integrate both business and non-business life into one nice and easy to swallow package. It is certainly impressive but the one drawback that most people will have is finding the money to live there.

We decided to go there to admire the views from the top floor and to walk around the Mori Art Museum. As soon as we arrived, it was obviously the place is not typical Tokyo. There was a lot of wide open space and there were no cars or bicycles to avoid as we walked around. Tokyo can sometimes feel a bit claustrophobic at times so I quite enjoyed the spacious open areas of Roppongi Hills and the opportunity to amble around without constantly having to change my tack. As you can see, Clara was pretty interested and was snapping away at every opportunity.

One odd thing for me was the smell of hamburgers wafting around the lower levels - actually quite a pleasant smell which reminded me of queuing at Abdul's snack van for a cheap hamburger laced with vinegary sauce in Somerled Square, Portree.

We headed straight up to the 54th floor to sample the views from Mori Tower. As it was raining earlier in the day, the crowds were light and it was a nice change not to have to queue anywhere. The views from the top were impressive and the sprawl of Tokyo spread into the far distance.We visited to Mori Art Museum and also the aquarium, but they both disappointed. The views from the top were certainly the highlight of the visit. After descending (alarmingly quickly) in the express lift, we sat outside and watched the world go by for half an hour. Clara and Yuki ate some Hokkaido ice cream while I chilled out with a nice cold Sapporo beer. After that, it was time to head home for a relaxing night at home. It was good to do something different on the weekend as I am often guilty of hanging around the house and achieving very little before Monday morning comes around again.

Books and Art

My silence in the blogosphere accurately indicates a lack of things to report. Work is busy but enjoyable, Yuki has had a bad cold this week but seems to  be getting better, and I am coming to the end of a long weekend after having had the day off on Friday.

It is rare for me to visit central Tokyo, so it was nice to hop on a quiet midday train on Friday and make the journey into Shinjuku. Whenever I visit Shinjuku, the first location to visit is always Kinokuniya Book Shop. The shop has a healthy range of titles and I usually pick up a few books on each visit. On Friday though, nothing much seemed to inspire me and I was loathe to spend ¥2,000 on a book that risked being put down after a few pages. A lot of books can be fairly expensive to buy in Japan, so you really need to be sure you want to read one before making a purchase. Nothing really grabbed my attention but I ended up buying 'Kidnapped' by Robert Louis Stevenson and a book called 'In the Company of Heroes' by Michael Durant, a helicopter pilot who was shot down and captured in Mogadishu, Somalia. Both were pretty inexpensive, especially 'Kidnapped' which was only about ¥400. It was interesting to note that a lot of the old classics sell at a considerably less price than books recently published. I will be taking advantage of that fact next time I make a visit. 

After Kinokuniya, I walked back towards the train station and stopped off in the Dubliners Bar for a few pints. I don't really like the place to be honest, but it is convenient and lets me enjoy an overpriced pint of Kilkenny. 

The unexpected highlight of the weekend was visiting the local Higashimurayama Town Office to look at selected art work produced by local children. There are tens of primary schools in the area and therefore only 2 children from each class had their art work displayed. Clara was one of only two kids selected from her class to have a picture displayed and was therefore feeling a bit proud of herself.

As the pictures will attest, some of the art work was fantastic. It was hard to believe that some of the work was produced by primary school students. Perhaps I was more impressed than most of the other visitors as I have always been appalling at art. In my final year of mandatory art classes at Portree High School, I was ranked 116th out of the 117 students in my year. Number 117 was off sick for the year. When I return to Scotland and meet some of my old school friends, they often make a passing remark (along with a smirk) about the art work I used to produce. Perhaps my finest work was a packet of digestive biscuits.

The weekend is almost over and therefore I will be taking the usual early morning train across Tokyo to my job and small apartment in Chiba. I have been enjoying my work recently which is refreshing although I do not relish having to sort through about 300 emails when I return. 

I'll try and do an update soon. Although the long weekend is over, in less than a month we will all spend 3 days in the Fukushima countryside at a log cabin which has a nice onsen nearby. Not too long to wait until then.

Portree

This posting was originally supposed to show some of the magnificent scenery that I have come across during my time back in Scotland. Unfortunately, it seems to have been largely highjacked by my negative thoughts about Portree, the capital of the Isle of Skye.

Whilst the beauty of Skye amazed me, the apparent deterioration of Portree disappointed. Perhaps I am better placed to see the changes in Portree because I visit intermittently. Others might say I have just become out of touch. Anyway, whatever the case, Portree has become more of a town than a village. The small-town heart and camaraderie that once existed did not seem readily apparent anymore and I really did not enjoy retracing some of my steps. In one bar (The Camanachd), the place fell silent as soon as I entered. Soon after I had ordered my pint, one of the twats in the bar accused me of being in CID i.e. an undercover policeman. This combined with being hassled by some scum-bag who claimed he was a surgeon, led me to finish my pint half way through and escape into the relative safety of the town square.

The Camanachd Bar was then followed by The Isles. To be fair, it was not a bad couple of hours as I got talking to about 5 tourists who seemed to be having a lovely time on the island. However, I had been warned that The Isles has turned into a bit of a shit hole and was now a magnet for all sorts of low life. I guess I got lucky.

After chatting with a few people regarding present day Portree, it would seem the place is in decline. Feral youths seem to be roaming the streets, sometimes beating up people walking home at night, regularly breaking into businesses and homes, and trying car doors to see if they are unlocked. Whilst Portree has had problems in the past, these were generally self policed and people were quickly brought back into line. Today, this control seems to be absent.

To be fair, some things in Portree have improved, but overall, the place seems to be losing elements that made it special. Hopefully, by the time of my next visit, some action will have been taken to arrest the decline.

Scotland - Isle of Skye

The holiday is over but Clara and I had an EXCELLENT time back in Scotland. We did many things and saw many people. The trip ranks as one of my most memorable in years. Everything was perfect, even the weather! We arrived late at night in Inverness on the 14th of October. After a day of relaxing, we headed to the Isle of Skye where I grew up. On the way to Skye, we drove past stunning scenery made even more stunning by the lovely weather. We passed Loch Ness (but did not see Nessie), passed Eilean Donan Castle and then across the bridge to Skye. It was a fantastic journey back home and I was really pleased to see Portree (the main town) again.

Eilean Donan Castle looked great and we stopped there to take some photos and make a visit to the gift shop. The weather was really mild in Scotland and enabled us to walk around in t-shirts. Very strange for mid October!!In Portree, I met some old friends and some cousins. The highlight of returning to Portree was seeing my grandmother. She's quite elderly and every time I see her again, I wonder if that will be the last time. In the evening, I did a tour of the Portree pubs which were all really quiet. I did manage to meet a few people and have a bit of a laugh.After we left Skye, Clara and I spent time in Inverness with my parents and I had an opportunity to do some souvenir shopping for the people I know in Japan. I then travelled to Edinburgh to attend the wedding of a friend from the Isle of Skye and left Clara with my parents. The main reason for travelling to Scotland was to go to the wedding and it proved to be a great day.