Anticipating December

Quick post to indicate my plans for December. I am really looking forward to a short visit in Hong Kong from 9th - 13th December to attend the wedding of Mark and Grace. Should be a good party and will also allow me to hook up with my parents for a few days. I am also interested to see what Delta Airlines is like as I have never flown with them before.

Then towards the end of December, many functions at Weathernews (including my own) will shut down for nearly 1 week. I am looking forward to some time at home and will attempt to dust down some of my culinary skills aquired at university.

New Year celebrations will be muted for us this year due to the passing of Takashi in March. I am however looking forward to 2011 and hoping there will be a few leaps forward, in true Year of the Rabbit style. 2010 is a year I will be happy to swiftly forget.

Aberdeen for Relegation?

Why oh why do I continue to support The Dons? A 9-0 humiliation...........9 - 0 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Akihabara

Yesterday was Culture Day in Japan which means another welcome national holiday. Japanese workers have far fewer paid holidays to take when compared to the average Brit, but the large number of national holidays in Japan do make up for it somewhat. I think the next public holiday will be on 23rd November, so not too long to wait.

I have always been interested in Akihabara, primarily because of the numerous electrical shops which are located there, hence the Electric City moniker. After arriving in Akihabara around midday I was in need of some sustenance before I browsed though the many shops. I had settled on getting a burger for reasons of convenience. However, as luck would have it, I stumbled across a Brazilian steak restaurant which I recalled had been highly recommended by one of my colleagues at Weathernews.

The place is called Tucano's and I soon discovered that it was worth visiting Akihabara for the steak alone. A nice big piece of rump steak with a smattering of green beans and sweetcorn cost 880 yen. Not a bad price for a great piece of meat. I of course felt obliged to order an Asashi beer to help wash it down. What a great start to my visit in Akihabara!!!! I will return for another steak in the not too distant future, I promise.

After lunch, I meandered through a maze of large and small electrical shops. I marvelled at the sheer selection of goods on display and could have spent a fortune had I not been careful. Although browsing was high on my 'to do' list, I also intended buying a very capable Japanese-English electronic dictionary. These devices are remarkable and contain volumes of dictionaries, encyclopedias etc. As they are highly capable, I was soon to discover that they also came at a highly capable price. One girl was doing her best to sell me the latest Casio dictionary for 35,000 yen - far too much! I had decided that as the price was so high, I would not end up buying a dictionary after all. However, I passed a small shop on a side street that was selling the previous generation of Casio dictionaries for only 15,000 yen. Quite a saving and it seems that the only difference is that the latest model has a colour screen. The main drawback to this learning tool seems to be the requirement that you need to be fluent in Japanese to use the thing. Quite a painful process indeed....

Well, a successful trip to Akihabara and a great way to break up the week. Other news......yes! I will be off to Hong Kong in early December to attend the wedding of my brother. Not long until that trip and am really looking to a small break away and seeing the family.

Will try to do another blog soon. Till then, take it easy.

Kaihin Makuhari

It has been a beautiful day here in Chiba. Lovely blue skies with a fresh autumnal wind blowing. I ambled to a cheap restaurant for lunch and was impressed once again at the great value for money my lunch represented. Perhaps I should have taken a picture......

Despite my contentment, feelings of unease regarding Kaihin Makuhari are always close to the surface. I have come to 2 recent conclusions why I dislike the place so much:

1. The place is so contrived, I feel like a character in SimCity. Nothing has been left to chance with the result being an almost perfect reproduction of a town planner's brain fart. No charm, no excitement, no beauty. Although I have never been much a fan of the Japanese built environment, at least some of the older areas of Tokyo display some form of character or variery. Kaihin Makuhari reminds me of a long road in the Australian outback........constant monotony.2. Permanence. Simply put, there is none. One excuse for the parcity of visible history is the fact that many parts of Japan were levelled by American bombers during the closing stages of WWII. This is an excuse that doesn't sit well with me. In most parts of Japan, I have rarely seen buildings in excess of 30 years old. Another excuse is the number of destructive earthquakes in Japan, the world's most tectonically active country. However, if some wooden buildings in Kyoto or Nara can survive hundreds of years, their is no excuse not to have other architectural relics or treasures. There is good reason why Kaihin Makuhari does not possess old buildings - the area is on land mostly reclaimed from the sea. However, I do not believe any of the houses or office buildings will be here in 50 years time. Japan is a land of disposable buildings which are intentionally built with limited life-spans.

The lack of permanence or continuity doesn't sit well with me (or I suspect other people, even perhaps the Japanese). In Britain or other countries, I find it reassuring to know that not all things in life change at breakneck speed or immediately disappear. It is good to have a connection with the past and to know that the buildings you use and see today were once used by scores of previous generations. By the same degree, it is comforting to know that when we are all gone, many of the places we know today will survive unchanged.

That's one of the problems with Japan - the past is lost and the future will show no trace of your existence. Generations go their way with history confined to the life-spans of living people. The country is all the poorer for it.

Skye News

The Isle of Skye has been in the news a lot recently for both good and bad reasons. Last week the new Royal Navy attack submarine HMS Astute grounded on shingle near the Skye bridge. This is the second grounding of a nuclear submarine off Skye in 7 years. Although many would not agree, I always enjoyed seeing the submarines off the island when I was a boy. I remember great excitement seeing these sinister shapes anchored off the Black Rock in the Sound of Raasay. The waters off Skye are frequently used by Navy submarines for testing and torpedo practice and Loch Portree is actually termed a Z-berth which is deemed suitable for use in the event of a reactor problem. Z-berths are generally placed in areas with great water depth, just like the waters off Portree and in the Sound of Raasay. HMS Astute now appears to be heading back to Faslane to lick her wounds and bring the Captain closer to his court martial. And on a lighter note, I see that Skye has been voted one of Europe's the best island holiday destinations in a survey performed by Conde Nast. That's not really a great surprise to be honest. There are few nicer places than Skye when the sun is shining......unfortunately that is not a common occurence.

And that's about that. Tokyo is now much darker in the evenings as the winter draws in and temperatures are now around 15C. I will soon have to change to my winter futon and plug in my kotatsu table to keep me warm in my pied a terre in Makuhari. Until the next time.........

A Pleasant Lunch

Clara and I had a very pleasant lunch together on Saturday at the frequently visited Popolamama Italian restaurant in Kumegawa. Nice food in a comfortable setting, at a very reasonable price.

I like spending quality time with Clara and take great pleasure in seeing her grow up. Can't wait to see what she will be like when she is 20. Time passes at breakneck pace so I should not have long to wait until that day.

We both ordered our favourite lunch. I went with the tomato and garlic spaghetti whilst Clara chose her favourite called tarako spaghetti. As can be seen from the link, Clara's lunch option is mixed with cod roe. It must be a pretty healthy dish to eat and Clara loves it. I'm a bit squeemish when it comes to fish and Clara always takes great effort in trying to convince me try her spaghetti. I always say that perhaps I will try it next time.

Clara reads and collects a Japanese manga series called Doraemon. There are about 45 in the series and there are only a few which she is now missing. Yesterday I was lucky to find number 23. As Clara is such a book worm, she immediately started reading and managed to finish it in no time. I will now try and find the remaining few books to complete her collection.

Another week beckons. I will try and live quietly as I am sure the end of this year will be busy with birthdays, Christmas and a couple of other events.....I will keep you posted. The blog has been a bit quiet recently so I will try and be a bit more prolific in November and December.

Kinugawa Onsen

We all paid a brief visit to Kinugawa Onsen and stayed overnight at the Mikazuki Hotel. The principal reason for our visit was to take an onsen and let the waters do their magic.

The hotel was nice, although the room was slightly disappointing. It generally felt a bit Butlinesque as it was clearly designed to cater for the masses. And masses there were....oh the humanity! Humpf....not exactly the laid back break I had imagined, but nice nonetheless.

In no particular order, the highlights of our brief trip were:

• The hotel's chocolate fountain to which Clara made several visits due to her sweet tooth.
• The onsen - nice and not too busy.
• The walk over a suspension bridge to a pinnacle overlooking the area.
• The boat trip which we took down the river.

Ok, Actually, when I come to think of it, the boat trip was definately the highlight of the visit. The peace and tranquility of our 30 minutes glide down the Kinugawa River was soothing to a soul at odds with the Tokyo urban nightmare. Even just a small taste of the countryside was enough and an added bonus was that the town planning mess and decay called Kinugawa Town was hidden from view by the high valley sides. The gentle breeze and blue skies contributed to a feeling of contentment. I may have to change career and gain employment as a boatman on the Kinugawa River - it was that nice.

On the way back to Tokyo, I snoozed in the car trying to catch up on sleep which I had lost over the previous week. I was feeling really tired as I had only slept about 12 hours over a 4 day period - I won't go into details.... Around lunchtime on our drive back to Tokyo, Yuki's brother suggested we stop off at a restaurant which only sells gyoza - Japanese dumpling. Very satisfying, although a cold beer would also have been appreciated to help wash the food down.

A good weekend, if not a great one. However, it is always nice to experience something different. Until the next time.

Back Budhmor

Hi

Just wondering if any of the Scottish readers of this blog would consider a small donation for Back Budhmor. Budhmor House is an old folks home in Portree which is now in need of major renovations costing roughly GBP 1.5 million. As my Granny has spent some time there, I know it is a worthy cause.

Neil and Grace Souter will cycle the arduous 115 mile journey from Inverness to Portree at the end of next week, so there is not much time to raise funds. If you would like to help ensure the survival of Budhmor, please make a donation to:

http://www.justgiving.com/grace-neil-souter

Good luck Neil and Grace. Wish I could join you on the cycle and share a pint in Kintail.

Clara's Scottish Odyssey

Sorry to have been so slow in updating this blog......been busy with work and other commitments. The continued summer heat is also sapping my energy...Clara spent a whole month in Scotland this summer with my parents. In the back of my mind I recognise that Tokyo is not the best place for kids to grow up in and I am therefore happy for Clara to be able to briefly experience the life of a Scottish kid. It makes me happy to think she has the opportunity to run wild and enjoy the great outdoors.I get the feeling that Clara is now fully expecting to visit Scotland each summer and Yuki and I will be more than happy for this to continue. Personally, I think that the lives of Japanese kids are too constrained (especially in Tokyo) and they lack the proper childhood experienced by many in Scotland. My ultimate goal is to have Clara study at university in Scotland when she is older......I think that when that times arrives, she will probably be quite agreeable to the idea.The 1 month trip to Scotland was planned long in advance and Clara had no qualms about not seeing her Mum and Dad for such a long time. As can be seen from some of the photos, Clara met a lot of friends, spent a great deal of time at different beaches, visited her great granny a couple of times, saw my Great Aunty, did a bit of crockery painting, went horse riding, ice skating, and probably a list of other things which have escaped my mind.Clara was happy to come back to Japan and appreciated reacquainting herself with some of her favourite Japanese meals. Yuki and I have both agreed that we will all visit Scotland next summer and I am looking forward to that already....better start saving. Clara's return to Japan marked the official end of summer for us all. Back to normality for now but I hope that by around spring 2011, we will have some new experiences to look forward to.I hope to soon be able to post a more regular flow of news on the blog as my schedule will clear up a bit for the next month or two. Bye for now.

Shimogo - A Brief Return

Sorry, I have been a bit slow updating the blog recently. The summer heat in Tokyo seems to have made me a bit lethargic and it is only now that I have the motivation to make some updates.

One of the highlights of August was my brief trip back to Shimogo on Saturday the 7th of August. I was looking forward to meeting up with Tomo and Satoshi again as it was about 18 months since I had seen them last. Both seemed fine and had not changed at all. Every now and again, Tokyo really starts to get me down and I can feel the need to flee the big city for the soothing delights of the countryside. The journey up on the Tobu Line was relaxing sedate and with each passing kilometer, I started to feel better about the world. It is nice to be reminded that life does exist outside of Tokyo.

I was scheduled to meet up with Tomo and Satoshi in Wakatsuki restaurant at 6.30pm. As the taxi dropped me off at my ryokan (called Suzukiya) at 6.20pm, I had to quickly check in and dump my bags in order to make it to Wakatsuki in time. Although I only had 10 minutes to make it to the restaurant, the innkeeper still managed to find the time to highlight my poor Japanese. I only have myself to blame I suppose.....

The walk from my inn to the restaurant was one down memory lane, as it was a route Clara and I used to walk each evening after dinner. Fond memories. The distinctive mountain in the background of the photo was lovely in the fading light and really stirred my memories.
Wakatsuki was fun and I think we drank quite a few beers. Tomo was kind enough to provide a belated Fukushima peach birthday cake sourced from the local French restaurant - very pleasant indeed! After stealing the 5 year old toilet slippers from the toilets and lobbing them into a nearby rice field, we went off to sing karaoke at a bar which I have never been to before. At this point, my memory becomes hazy but I remember singing some Frank Sinatra numbers and one or two Bon Jovi hits.

And that is essentially the story of my brief visit to Shimogo. Satoshi kindly collected me on Sunday morning and drove me quite far to a convenient station from where I could get back to Shimogo. A brief visit, but nonetheless enjoyable!

Thanks to Tomo and Satoshi for their hospitality.

36 is the magic number...

A picture of me on my 21st birthday - I haven't changed a bit......

My birthday today, 23rd July. Lots of emails and messages which is nice but I am really trying to forget....perhaps my friends and relatives will start suffering amnesia. Fingers crossed.

Goodbye JET?

It is with rather mixed emotions that I discover the future of the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Programme is in doubt. I, and tens of thousands of foreign teachers have been placed in the most obscure of places around Japan in the name of internationalisation and English education. The majority of these teachers will look upon their time on the JET Programme fondly and regard this time as one of privilege. As many of the readers of this blog will know, we had a great life in Shimogo, one which we will never forget.

However, I always suspected the JET Programme was an anachronistic throwback to the bubble years in Japan, a gold plated project in need of a reality check. It now seems that the Japanese Government agree. My hope is that the JET Programme will survive but in a much scaled back version. I think that even if the budget for this programme were halved, the impact on internationalisation and English education need not be that great. From my experience in rural Japan, the number of JET teachers could easily have been halved whilst still managing to fulfill the teaching commitments in all the schools of the local area. A hefty cut in funding does not need to be a bad thing, but could be the perfect opportunity to remove waste and increase effectiveness at grass roots level.

Long live the JET Programme, albeit in a smaller and more agile form to suit the times. An interesting discussion on the merits of JET can be found here.

Hakone

Japanese insurance companies often offer special travel / accommodation deals to customers who pay into their health insurance schemes. There are hundreds of hotels / resorts around Japan that are solely open to customers of insurance companies and are therefore not advertised or available to the general public. These places offer seemingly impossible low prices - it was therefore with some degree of trepidation that Yuki, Clara, and I went off to Hakone (100km from our home in Tokyo) to take up our 1 night reservation in the Toslove Hotel. From a search of the internet, the hotel does not even appear to have a webpage, the best I could find was this link.

Before our check in at 3pm, we decided to get some lunch and then take a boat trip on Lake Ashi which forms part of Hakone. We opted for an Italian restaurant on the shores of Lake Ashi - delicious, but the lasagna I ordered was of minuscule proportions and extortionately expensive. I felt a bit cheated but decided to hold my tongue and keep the atmosphere light.After lunch, we crossed the lake under very Scottish weather with heavy rain and high winds - invigorating and effective in blowing away some of the cobwebs accumulated by the hard Tokyo cityscape and charmless sterility of Makuhari (where I work).

Upon arrival at the hotel, the Porsche 911 parked outside reception was a portent of things to come. We checked in and all the signs were good - immaculate interior with gleaming marble floors, eager to please staff, and a quite fantastic and spacious room with large sliding doors looking towards lovely green trees. We loved the place immediately!

We stayed in our room for a while and exchanged superlatives before heading down to the hotel onsen (baths heated by geothermal energy with health giving minerals). I quickly showered and then got into the indoor bath - lovely and hot making the knots in my muscles slowly untie. After 5 minutes, I ventured out into the cold air to try the outside bath. Hot once again but the cold and wet mountain air made for a lovely contrast. I sat in the hot water as large raindrops from the overhanging trees splashed onto me to the soothing sound of singing forest birds in the background. I sat there with a smile on my face and really appreciated the moment, heightened further by the complete solitude - I was the only one there.

Once back in the room, Yuki and I opened some beer from the minibar and were quite surprised to discover that the charge for the contents was actually lower than supermarket prices. Making a profit is obviously not a big priority for the owners of the hotel. Clara watched a DVD from the selection on offer behind the hotel reception and then had fun on the PlayStation 2 which are also available for hotel guests.

After an hour of light drinking and reading, we went to the dining room for dinner and received a quite sumptuous menu of Japanese cuisine. I am not the most appreciative person when it comes to Japanese food but Yuki was clearly a very happy lady. After dinner, we relaxed in our room once again before heading down to the karaoke bar to sing a few songs and have a couple more drinks. I sang a few numbers but my performance was less than stellar. Clara was very brave singing a couple of songs in front of a group of other quests and hotel staff.

We returned to the room once again and dispatched a happy Clara off to bed. As one of the hotel staff members wanted to sing a couple of songs with me, I briefly returned to the karaoke bar once again. I was the only customer by this stage and did not have to worry about embarrassing myself in front of the other guests. After talking to the barman, it turns out that the Toslove Hotel only has 14 rooms and that July is the busiest month of the year. If July is the busiest month, the place must be deserted in November.....sounds perfect!

Back in the room, I tried to watch the Germany v Argentina World Cup game but found my head lolling around through tiredness and the effects of the beer and wine. Sleep came quickly once I forced myself off the sofa and onto my bed.

After breakfast the next morning, we made an early departure and resolved to make a return visit for a couple of days in September. Quite a fantastic place at a price that beggared belief! We will be back. We then went back to the lake to browse though some of the local shops and perhaps buy a souvenir or two. Hakone is famous for wooden products with distinctive designs. I still use wooden chopsticks from Hakone that were given to me 15 years ago by a student when I worked at GEOS language school in Tokyo. As can be seen from the following photo, there are quite a lot of Hakone products on offer. We also made a return to the lake, this time under our own propulsion. We hired a pedalo which left me a sweating wreck after 30 minutes of exertion. It was good fun for us all and allowed us to take some decent pictures of the famous tori gate which emerges from the lake. The time in the pedalo effectively marked the end of our brief visit to Hakone but we will definitely return in the not too distant future, probably for two or three nights next time. The highlight of our trip was clearly the hotel. It is not a place to party, but perfect for changing down a couple of gears and enjoying the finer things in life. I will take a good book with me next time and my swimming trunks for the hotel pool.

I haven't enjoyed myself so much in a long time - a great weekend with the family that will be repeated in the not too distance future.

New Format

Just noticed that Blogger has a number of new blog designs on offer so I thought a new look would freshen things up a bit. Hope you like. It is now nearly midnight on Sunday and the dread of another week at work is upon me. I am happy that the World Cup has started and am looking forward to Japan v Netherlands on Saturday 19th June.

Not too long until Yuki, Clara and I head off to Hakone for a night away. After that, Clara will go to Scotland for a month, departing from Japan around the middle of July. While she is away, we have another trip planned to Karuizawa, a popular resort in Japan. Another week beckons....lets hope it is a good one.

Lake Kawaguchi Revisited

After a 3 year hiatus, we visited Lake Kawaguchi once again to have a brief change of scene and for some respite from the metropolis. The location of Fit Resort is shown on the poster of Mt Fuji. I won't go into too much detail as my post from our last visit (nearly 3 years ago) would suffice.

One of this years highlights was playing tennis - Clara found great pleasure (and exercise) in being the ball girl and played an important role in keeping the game flowing as the need for players to scramble around for tennis balls was removed. The other highlight was swimming in the lovely pool with Clara. As with the last time, the pool did not have many other swimmers, for most of the time we were the only people there. Clara loved it and gained a lot of confidence - a great chance for both of us to spend some quality time together.

The room itself was slightly disappointing, but that became less of an issue the more beer and wine I drank on Saturday night. A lovely weekend away which was not even spoiled by the 2 hour traffic jam we found ourselves in on the drive home. The only problem is that the weekend is over in a flash and I will be getting up at the crack of dawn tomorrow for the long train journey to Kaihin Makuhari - no rest for the wicked. Perhaps some colleagues and I will climb Mt Fuji this summer if we all gather up the required motivation. As I have been in Japan for some time now, I really need to conquer Mt Fuji to tick off the list of things to do. More on that later, perhaps.......

Mark to Japan

Mark came to Japan on Friday evening in order to attend the interment of Takashi's remains in the family grave. We had a few beers on Friday night to catch up and left the house on Saturday morning to travel to the nearby Kodaira City cemetery.

The actual Buddhist ceremony was very brief with only close family members in attendance. The urn was placed in a space under the large granite headstone with a surprising lack of ceremony and then after the priest had recited some sutras, we went off to a steak restaurant to have lunch. The mood was relatively light and Takashi was spoken about fondly by all. The day was more of a celebration of his life than an event to mourn his passing.

After a nice family dinner, Mark and I went out around Kumegawa for some beers and entertainment. We ended up playing darts until about 4am and then got up around midday on Sunday. Although Mark's flight was not until 7pm in the evening, he had to leave the house much earlier as Narita Airport is a fairly long journey from Tokyo. I suppose it was only a matter of time until an error of semi-biblical proportions decided to make things interesting. I did well to get Mark on the Narita Express, it just turned out it was the train from the airport and therefore going in the opposite direction. Mark ended up getting a taxi which cost him about GBP150.

Despite the last minute hiccup with Mark's train, his visit was a success and was certainly appreciated by Yuki's family. I will probably visit Hong Kong for a week or so later in the year as it has been some time since my last visit.

Now I have a 1 week holiday. I have lots of things to keep me busy (more on that in later posts) but I will also ensure that I find ample time for enjoyment. Bye for now.

Tama Zoo

The Japanese are on holiday mode at the moment as it is Golden Week - the period when a number of holidays fall together into one block. Everyone is on holiday, with the exception of myself.

Since it is the weekend and the weather is gorgeous, Yuki suggested we visit Tama Zoo, a short train and monorail journey. The kid in me likes the idea of travel on a monorail - it is still a fairly rare mode of transport and the views tend to be very nice from the raised track. I think it took about 30 mins to the zoo from our house in Kumegawa. I was keen to get out of the house and get some fresh air as the skies are blue and the air is fresh. We had better make the most of the cool clear days as Tokyo will soon become a hot and humid sauna once again.At the entrance to the zoo there were carp wind socks called koinobori. These are traditionally put up to celebrate Children's Day in Japan.

The zoo was nice enough and some of the animals were fun to watch, the mischievous monkeys in particular. However, the most pleasant aspect was simply walking around the zoo, enjoying the sun, fresh air, and surrounding trees.Clara also enjoyed stretching her legs although found my perpetual monkey impersonations slightly grinding. We are all going out for dinner soon (in about 30 minutes time) to a nearby restaurant. Beers between 5pm and 6pm are half price - only ¥250! Tomorrow we plan to do a bit of spring cleaning and will also try and organise some of Takashi's things. A very nice day so far and a good dinner to look forward to.Although I am working the whole of Golden Week, I will have the following week off in lieu...more on that soon.

Tokyo Grande Biere Festival 2010

In a departure from the ordinary, I ventured into town yesterday (Saturday 24th April) to attend an annual beer festival. Full details can be found here. Although I generally like the mass produced Japanese beer, one thing that I really miss about Scotland is the great variety of beers and ales produced by small scale local breweries e.g. the Isle of Skye Brewery. It was therefore a pleasure and an education to attend the beer festival and discover that Japan also had a number of small scale micro breweries that produce some fine beers.

The event was held in an area of Tokyo called Roppongi at Midtown Hall. Roppongi has long had a bad reputation as being a bit of a den of iniquity but has gentrified in recent times and seems to be where the cool and wealthy people live and like to spend their time these days.

As well as a goodly selection of beers (about 60 in total), there was also a selection of food which perfectly complemented the liquid refreshments. My personal favourite were the meat ball and cheese rolls - not particularly healthy, but fantastic none the less. The 5 hours in the hall passed quickly as I meandered around the hall with a couple of American friends, refilling the small tasting glasses provided to us on our arrival. The atmosphere was laid back and it was certainly a pleasure to watch everyone else enjoy their beers.

Towards the end of the day, there was an announcement that said prizes would be given to those who had a glass on which the logo of the lion also possessed a tongue. Upon close inspection of my glass, it turned out I was one of the lucky prize winners. I was given a t-shirt with the logo of one of the Japanese breweries and also a ¥2,000 yen discount voucher for the 2012 beer festival. I wonder how many of the winners will actually redeem these vouchers in 2012?

After leaving the beer festival in a merry state, my American friends insisted on a visit to a kebab shop they had discovered in a part of Tokyo called Akihabara. The journey there was longer than I had anticipated, but the kebabs were the best I have ever tasted. In the end, I had a stomach bloating 3 kebabs.

The weekend was improved still further when Yuki, Clara, and I went to Koganei Park today. The weather was lovely today (18C) and although we had to queue in the car for about an hour, once we got into the park, we lay on the ground-sheet we had taken with us or played catch. I am looking forward to having a weeks holiday soon (from 8th May) so the next 2 weeks at work should not be too hard to stomach.

The Wake and Cremation

Takashi was finally cremated yesterday - March 30th. It has been an emotionally exhausting period and we are all a bit fragile and will remain so for a while yet. The series of events have been a blur and I will not try and recount them in any detail. I tried to prepare myself for the process by searching online for information on a Japanese funeral and this link proved particularly helpful and allowed me to anticipate and understand each stage of the process.

As you already know, Takashi died early on Saturday morning. We all went to the hospital but did not manage to be with him at the end. He looked peaceful and it was comforting to know his suffering had ended. After various tasks were completed, Takashi was taken back to the family home to lie in front of the family shrine until being moved to the undertakers. The hospital staff treated Takashi with great respect and lined the corridor as he was taken from his hospital room down to the Chapel of Rest. Once the hearse arrived, all the nurses and doctors who had treated Takashi came down to offer their respects once again and to light incense. I guess that this is standard procedure for hospitals throughout Japan, but it really left me impressed.

Over the duration of Saturday and Sunday, friends and family visited to pay their respects. Each would light incense, ring a small chime, and pray for Takashi's spirit. A difficult couple of days. On a personal note, I have never been involved in a funeral or been close to death, so the whole series of events was a new and uncomfortable experience. I suppose that older one gets, the more experience you gain in dealing with these situations.

I saw Clara shedding a private tear when Takashi was taken from the house for the last time on Monday morning. The hearse pulled away and we all watched it drive slowly away down the street. Another end point.

Both Monday and Tuesday were difficult. I could feel my heart hammering away in my chest with the stress of the situation and apart from one of two lapses, I think I did well and I hope provided adequate support to the family. On Monday, perhaps the most difficult part was lifting Takashi into his coffin. I held his head and tried to lower it as gently as possible. After this, items that he loved or were closely associated with Takashi were placed in his casket. A suit, the clothes in which he wore to great success. A box of Kent cigarettes - he loved to smoke, but they ended up killing him. Some sake (rice wine) - he was never a man to turn down a drink. A picture of our dog Sora - he used to collect Sora from our apartment every day at 8am and look after him till 5pm each day. His wallet - I have a story about that which my brother, Mark, might remember. Once this was done, the lid of the coffin was put on, each one of us slowly lowering it down. The lid of the coffin had a small window at the top which could be opened so that we could see Takashi's face.

Tuesday saw some more Buddhist ceremonies and then the coffin was opened for the final time. We placed paper cranes around his head, and then gradually covered his body with a selection of flowers. It felt like we were burying him, until only his face could be seen amongst the flowers. This really was a difficult time and to be fair, every last one of us was in quite a state.

I felt honored to be involved and supporting the proceedings. Once again, I was honored to be one of the men to carry Takashi's coffin to the hearse. He was slid in, and the mourners watched the formal hearse pull away. Once at the crematorium, the whole process was mercifully short. The coffin was brought into the cremation area, we looked at Takashi's face one last time, and then he was slid into the thundering roar of the furnace. One hour elapsed and the process was complete. The tray was pulled out to reveal bone shards. The hot fragments were placed on a stainless steel table and then bit by bit placed into a funeral urn by the mourners. Setsuko and Yuki used special chopsticks for the first bone. Clara and I were next and lifted a recognisable hip ball joint into the urn. Finally, after the family had performed this rite, the crematorium worker packed the rest of Takashi's bones into the urn.

Takashi's remains accompanied us all home and will remain in the house for 49 days until interment in the family grave, alongside his parents and sister. The remaining members of the family will now pay formal respects to Takashi at a predetermined number of intervals:

Interment at 49 days

Year 1 on 27th March

Year 3 on 27th March

Year 7 on 27th March

Year 13 on 27th March

Year 17 on 27th March

Year 23 on 27th March

Year 27 on 27th March

Year 33 on 27th March

Year 37 on 27th March

Year 50 on 27th March

I am not optimistic of being able to pay my respects to Takashi on the 50th anniversary of his death, but will do my best with all the other years. Now we are looking forward to the future once again, albeit without Takashi. Great times and a great man!

A difficult few days

Takashi was cremated today and we will all search for a new normality. I will try and post a some thoughts in a few days time regarding Takashi, the events of the last few days, and the plans for the future. Thanks to those who have left comments or have been in touch over the last few days.