It's hot!

Today it was hot! air temperature was 34 degrees, relative humidity 70% which means that the Heat Index (how it actually feels) was 47 degrees - I have never felt so hot in my life, and we've still got another 5 degrees or so to go!

The kids had crazy hair day today, which was lots of fun, and there were some great crazy hairs! It was a bit embarrasing going on the train - the Japanese think we're a bit odd anyway, and today they really struggled to avert their stares!!

I had the day off work today as I'd arranged to go to Kawagoe with three other mums - we arranged it because two of us had missed the earlier trip. We'd arranged it today becuase there was to be a temple sale - crossed between a big junk market, and an antiques fair.

One of the Mums has a business making beautiful quilts from old kimono material, so she knows her way around these markets and also speaks Japanese, which is really useful. The market was lots of fun, but really felt like being in an sauna - we were all dripping in sweat - nice!

Anyway, we all bought some things - I bought two Japanese lions which could be really tacky, but I thought were really cool. I will attach a picture!

Then we went to this old Edo (old Japanese) street - in the 1600's or something the traders in Kawagoe made their buildings fireproof and, because they didn't loose all their stock everytime there was a fire, they made lots of money, so were able to fireproof the rest of their buildings, hence they survived, so there's this row of beautiful old Edo houses, which are now shops - so we had a very interesting day wondering round these old shops (with me carrying round two large lions!). For lunch, we found this little stall down a side street selling these japanese mini-pasty things (like fried dim-sum) have forgotten what they were called, but they were very tasty!

Then we made our way back on the train to school. A very enjoyable day out!

Shopping

We have now almost got shopping sussed, and it really has taken us this long.

The Japanese do not do 'supermarket shopping' as we do, rather they go to the shops every day, and buy the food they need for that day. Now that's all very well if you a) don't go out to work b) like eating bits of squid and tentacles off other sea-creatures; we fit neither of these categories.

Every week, now, I go to the OK Discount Supermarket (Felix thinks it's hilarious that they should call themselves, 'OK' - sounds a bit crap really!) Anyway, OK is OK and it's relatively cheap - this is where the Japanese go, so, as you'd expect, everything's written in Japanese! We now regularly buy pak-choi and beansprouts, daikin (a sort of giant white radish) noodles, rice, miso, rice sprinkles (recent, fab discovery!) and chicken. You can also get small pieces of cheese, milk and yogurt in OK, so it serves us fine. Funny thing is, most people there fill a small basket, Neve and I normally go on a Sunday morning while Felix and Ross are at rugby and over-fill two very large baskets, which we then have to transport back on our bikes - this always makes for an interestng journey back, especially because, on the last three visits, we have bought 'bargain' umbrellas (neither Neve nor I can resist a bargain, and today's brolley was extra-good becuase it was reduced from 1,000 to 190 yen (about £1.40) and it has loads of spikes - even Felix got excited about it - Ross questioned why we now have 7 brolleys, but hey, it's rainy season, and it WAS a bargain!)

So our basics are sorted. We then need flour for the bread-maker, now at first, we were buying this from the International Supermarket (at about £6 per normal sized bag of flour - makes for rather costly sarnies!). Then a mother at school told me that someone had told her that someone had told her about a concension shop on the 8th floor of a large supermarket in Shinjuku, not far from where I work. How excited was I when I found a HUGE bag of flour for not much more than you'd pay at home, so I bought 6kg of the stuff (which I then had to carry home) however, we can now have bread without worrying about it!

Fruit and veg is difficult to get here - you can buy the basic pay-choi and beansprouts, and spinich. You can get brocolli imported from China, but it's very expensive, and apparetnly has so many pesticides that you could use it as mozzy repellent! We eat a lot of bananas as you can get these at the SunKus (circle K) convenience store down the road. I buy apples occasionally, as they're £1 a piece. Have yet to buy cherries, can't face spending 20p per cherry. The best one we saw, however, was peaches - was about to pick up a box when Felix pointed out that they weren't £7 for a box of 8 peaches, but £70 for a box of 8 peaches - decided against peaches!

We've still to find decent washing powder, and they don't do anti-perspirant here (someone visited the factory from the UK and kindly bought us two boxes of extra-strength Ariel, and some decent 'runt!) Anyone who visits, please expect a large order from us!

Our saving grace is CostCo (large American hyper market) which is about 1 hour's drive away. We've been there twice now, and each trip is a great excitement - we buy all sorts of rubbish and totally slob out eating cakes, crisps and salsa each time we go! Nearly running out of all this nice stuff - so another trip is looming (might have to figure out how to drive the car for this one!)

Hectic weeks!

The last couple of weeks have been a bit mad, hence no blogs. I've been finishing off a project I started in the UK for GlowWorm - great to know that it's feasible to work over here, but clashed with the end of term, so the timing could have been better - ended up having to do a few early mornings to fit it all in. However, got there in the end! Ross had also had several English-speaking visitors to the factory, so was kind of obliged to entertain them, as well as running the factory.

Highlights of the last couple of weeks include Felix's year 4, 5 and 6 disco - it seems that Felix, Flynn and another lad attracted a sizable croud doing their acrobatic stunts (you can see that they're really not ready for girlfriends yet!!). Felix tells me that he nearly tried a back-flip - so glad he didn't as he's never attempted this off a large squigy gym mat, so I think we'd have ended up with our first trip to A&E!

There there was the school end of year 'do'. For this we got a babysitter, and paid a huge sum of money for our tickets! However, was in a lovely posh hotel, with as much champagne as you could drink all night long. It was great for Ross to be able to meet people, as mostly it's me meeting the mothers. Baby -sitter cost a small mortgage, but did clean the kitchen which, whilst somewhat embarrasing, did make for a much more pleasant kitchen!

Neve has had a kid's party in 'TAC' (Tokyo American Club - of which we're not members, mainly because it's £18,000 just to join, then there's a monthly fee - but to many of these wealthy banker ex-pats, that's just a drop in the ocean) Anyway, she has experienced the luxury outdoor pool with slides etc. so at least she knows what she's missing!

I have had a couple of 'end of year lunches' with the mums - one for Neve's class, and one for the new parents, it's a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon!

I've got friendly with a few Australians, and they have a great club here! On Friday I went to the Australian society annual wine-tasting, which turned out, as you'd expect, to be a somewhat alcoholic affair. Good news for me was that Ross was out with clients, and got back in time for the babysitter, so I was able to stay and drink beer, and caught (really only just, skin-of-teeth caught) the last train home!

Last Sunday, Felix's class had a picnic in the park - very pleasant, although Ross buggered off early to do some work! Felix had a lovely time prooving that he could climb the highest up the tree, playing softball, and then showing off that he can ride his unicycle!

Tomorrow is crazy hair day for the kids, and end of term is Friday, so it will all quiten down then. Most of the mothers and kids, it seems, go back home for the Summer, so it's gonig to be a very different atmosphere.

Ginza on Sunday Afternoon

We took a trip to Ginza today which is one of the premiere shoping streets in Tokyo. It was the location of the 'mint' hence the name Ginza. Gin means silver.

The original shopping district was burnt down after an earth quake in 1920 something. They then paid a english architect to build a new shopping area. He made a bunch of totally inappropriate brick buildings that nobody wanted to live in as they were too hot in the summer. Eventully the government subsidised the rents and people moved in. The area was then christened 'Brick town'.

Highlights of today's tour.

Chuo Dori being closed to traffic so that shoppers can wander anywhere they like.

4th Floor of Toy Park which has a 36m, 8 lane Scalextric track which the kids can pay 200 JPY for a 5 min go on.

Totally realistic dog soft toy/robot that you could stroke and cuddle and behaved just like a real dog.

Sony building that has 5 floors of show rooms of all the latest technology. We played with PS3, camera's, Cinema surround sound, PCs and Walkmans.

Strange cat man. Bloke had brought a bag of kittens down to Ginza and placed the mum and a kitten on top of the sign. In typical Japanese fashion this then resulted in camera frenzy by passer by's including us.

Politician sound off in the centre of the street. There were lots of groups of politicians and their supporter groups. We thought this was going to result in big punch up but they failed to perform and we wandered on the next attraction disppointed.

The last picture is for Steve (you know who you are). The Mount Blanc shop has a huge bill board on the side showing Steve's most favourite pen with the diamond in the top.

Shimokitazawa

We went to Shimokitawa yesterday for a look around and then had dinner. This is a 'boho' kind of area of Tokyo with lots of funny little shops selling all kinds of things. We found a hat shop that sold rubber masks. The horse is Felix and the Tiger if Neve.

Our other most favourite shops we have found are;

Hot Wheels shop; It sells nothing but matchbox 'hot wheels' models. I was tempted by the Split Screen van drag racing model at £100, not!

The Tat Emporium (Not sure what its really called) which is like poundland crossed with the gadget shop crossed with a bizarre kitchenware shop, crossed with the kiss me quick shop.

The girly hair bunchy shop which Neve likes.

Sports Clubs

We are now settling into a bit more of a routine in Japan which includes getting the kids into some Japanese sports clubs.

Both Felix and Neve go to the swimming club at a pool 3 stops down the train line. It's a totally Japanese club and one of the Japanese Mums at the school help Julie to fill in all the forms and get the kids enrolled. We then had to pay some huge amount of money for the official swimmimg trunks and the coloured hat that shows which class you are in. Of course when you go up a class you have to pay for a new hat.

The instructors are really good and really drill the kids on how to do the strokes. There's none of this politcial correctness that we have in the UK. The instructors stand in the water and grab the kids to show them exactly how to do the strokes. Like most Japanese things there is lots of attention paid to getting the technique right. The lesson is of course in Japanese which the kids have to try and understand. They are the only Western kids in the class. There is one kid that has an American father so he does the translating for the instructors if Felix and Neve can't understand.

Felix also goes to Rugby training each sunday morning with the MRS Rugby club. This is a Japanese club but the BST School have adopted as the Rugby club of choice so around 8 english kids attend. They also have one Aussie coach who does the translating for them. As with the swimming they spend a lot of time on technique. This week was scrum and line out. They are now starting to play tag rugby matches at the end of each training session. The expensive part of the club is that you have to buy the club kit. I think we have spent about £150 on head protection, official club shorts and shirt. In Japan all school boy rugby requires protective head gear to be worn so Felix has to have the padded skull cap.

Neve's and Julie's Girl's Nite Out

So, we've had a lovely evening!

Friday night, and Ross has to entertain clients, Felix gets invited to a sleepover, and I have a conference call with someone in Germany (being 7 hours behind, it's quite difficult to talk to them on the phone). So I picked up Neve after school, and took her into the office with me (where she was afforded lots of attention!), Neve sat in an rather smart office with her DS, and some colouring (and was apparently bought some biscuits by the big cheese boss, bless him!). Then when the meeting finished, Yasuo suggested we go out to Karaoke, so off we went, me, Neve and Yasuo - Neve;s three words to describe Karaoke - exciting, bit embarrasing, small room with tele in it, sofa. Then we went off to our new fave 270 yen restaurant where we met up with two other guys from the marketing department, and drank beer (and ate edamame) These guys are so lovely - really kind and made sure we had a nice evening! They are so young-looking too - one guy who I genuinely thought was abuot 35 (and certainly younger than me) said he had twin daughers who were 20 - I think my jaw dropped, so I had to ask his age - he's 51!! Baba-san is 57 and KK 58 - I thought they were all about the same age as we are!

Then they really kindly took us to a pharmacy (this is a bizzare place in Japan as there is nothing you'd recognise - all sorts of herbal things - most Dr's will apparetnly send you to an onsen (hot spring) if you're feeling under the weather, so you can imagine what they have in a pharmacy!) Anyway, we really needed something to fight back against the mozzies - becoming a real problem - so now have three things which you plug in the wall, and some stuff you put on the bite (that smells like ammonia and menthol!) Fingers crossed!

11th June

Was going to write some erudite blog about something or other, but have been out to lunch with a load of really raucous Aussy women, so am now somewhat the worse for wear.

Started the day very sensibly trying to help the Japanese to put some kind of structure to their marketing department. Feel like I achieved something because I managed to collar the marketing manager (who I do think knows what he's donig, and who I also think doesn't like me very much!) to clarify what it was that he wanted me to do, and to suggest some new ideas to change their somewhat stolid state (!) Anyway, seems that there are some big changes happening in the department (I think they're going to fire someone - unheard of in Japan!) Assume it's not me, as I think they would have said so! He also explained to me that he liked some of my ideas but could not change anything until after the personnel changes. So this is good, as now have something to aim for! Am now curious to know what's going on - really don't have a clue most of the time!

11:45 came and I had to make my farewells, rush to the loos to change into my posh frock, and make my way to the Grand Hyatt at Roppongi Hills (this is quite posh!) Found the restuarant, on a terrasse overlooking the skyscrapers and was handed a bottle of fizz - now I could get used to this!! Very fun lunch! I feel rather prim, and I really thought I was quite open-minded!! We concluded that Japanese men are rather asexual - clearly these Aussy women like their men to be men!! Lots of talk about the diamond parties they'd been to (don't do Tupperware here!), and expensive hotels that had been stayed in - we're so not in this league!!

3:30pm came, so grabbed a taxi with 3 other women and arrived really lake to pikc up Neve (got a bit told off!) then ran to the train and figured out which train to get to Felix's school. Got there late (got a bit told off again!) Felix had had a swimming gala and seems to have a load of medals which is great! Now waiting for Ross to get back so we can have Friday nite - not quite the same without our friends, but we do try!!

Trip to Hong Kong

Hi All, Ross here. I went to China this week on a business trip, we travelled via Hong Kong so it was an opportunity to have alook around a place I'd never been to before. The company we were visiting offered to take us sight seeing the afternoon we arrived.

Our plane landed at 1330 so it was about 1530 by the time we checked in and assembled for our tour of Hong Kong. We were staying in Kowloon so we started by walking down to the harbour. There is a Chinese equivelent of the Holly Boulevard Walk of Fame. The only name I recognised was Jacky Chan. We also saw a bronze statue of Bruce Lee.

We then got on the Sky ferry which took us across the Harbour to Hong Kong island. We walked through the banking district with all the famous banking buildings. From here we took the venicular railway up to the top of the mountain where this is a big tourist shopping area and observation platform. You can see both sides of the isalnd and get really good view of the skyscrappers.

That evening we were taken out to dinner on the 29th floor of a building that faced the skyscrappers. We had a table right by the windows. At 8pm they start a light show that involves all the buildings across the water. Looks like this is the way that the various banks score points over each other by having the flashiest lights. The show included lasers pearched on top of 5 of the buildings.

The next morning we took a ferry boat from Hong Kong, past the Pearl Delta and to a city called Jiangmen which is where the factory is. We spent the day here looking at plastic mouldings.

At lunch time we headed into town for food. We arrived at this great big restaurant and were told we could select our lunch from a whole load of tanks with lots of things wriggling about. Clearly dinner was going to be very fresh. Our host chose a load of things for us. We have a private dinning room complete with sofas and TV. Apparently all very Chinese. I survived the bush tucker trial including the KFC snake!

At the end of the day we took the ferry back to Hong Kong. That evening we ate out at Al Pasha which was a Turkish style restaurant complete with Belly Dancers. All very cool. Next day, up early for plane back to Japan.

Neat part of coming back into Japan is that now I have a residents permit I no longer have to queue up in the visitors lane at immigration.

Roughty Toughty Truckers

Now how many truckers would choose to drive a pink truck in the UK?

Trip to Enoshima

Felix's rugby doesn't happen on the first Sunday of each month. The coaches get the day off. We deciced to take a day trip to the beach. The beach is about 60 minutes on the train so it pretty easy to reach.

We didn't have any idea what to expect except that we had read that the beach get surf and they are very much into their watersports.

It was great. The beach was really big and sandy. The water was warm (well warmer than Cornwall in the summer) so we all went swimming.

This is also clearly a popular windsurfing beach, with around 100 hundred boards on the beach or out on the water and it wasn't even a windy day. The kits was all the same brands as we would get in the UK, I saw Gaastra, Pryde, Noth, F2 and JP. We found a few shops but the gear was pricey. Now woindering if we can sort roof rack for the car and get gear shipped out. It looks like most people keep their gear in board stores behind the beach and then get the train their when they want to go sailing.

There was the tiniest amount of surf but there must have been 20 people on Malibu boards trying to surf. I think many of them may have come from the nearby surf school.

They were also building a lot ot temporary buildings at the back of the beach which looked like they were bars or restaurants. I think the beach gets really busy in July and August. They have a huge firework display on 1st July to officially open the beach.

After lunch we walked across to Enoshina Island. This was the location for the sailsports during the 1964 Olypics. Not surprisingly it had a great big marina. It also had a whole load of temples all linked by a circular path that ran around the whole island. Along the way there were loats of sounvenir stalls and food stalls. Some of the food being sold was very fishy.

The most bizarre was the suid cooking stalls. They take a fresh quid, place it on a hotplate and then shut the lid. Whilst squeezing the lid down they inject steam. The result is best described as squid crisp. Judging by the queues it's very popular, we couldn't bring ourselves to try it.

The Japanese count things differently depending on the shape of the object. Food is normally considered a normal object so for example one would be hitotsu. Because they make the squid so flat they order it using the counting system for flat things ie ichi mai.

On the far side of the island you could walk down the cliffs onto the foreshore. Here there was a cave made by the action of the sea. We paid to go inside. Right at the back is a series of old temple stones and a dragon. The dragon was apparently eating all the local children until some local lass volunteered to marry the dragon provide he gave up eating children. Apparently he agreed and moved to the cave by the sea where he lived happily with his new wife.

Saturday Afternoon in Harajuku

One the most fashionable shopping areas, Harajuku, is a short train journey from us. Saturday afternoon we decided to head for thisarea so we could visit Kiddy Land which is Tokyo's answers to London's Hamleys.

The reason for the visit was to purchase more 'ammo' for their Nerf guns. Felix got one for his birthday and then Neve saw one reduced and decided that she needed to defend herself against her big brother so bought one as well. If any children are reading this I can recommend these toys, they are ace. They fire foam darts. You pump the gun to load and fire. They have magazines so you can fire lots of times before you have to reload.

Once we arrived at Kiddyland its a really good opportunity to see what the latest toys are. Just inside the front door they were selling these virbrating bugs things. They wriggle along until they hit something and then they change direction. It's like watching a load of cockroaches.

We also found a whole stand full of Smurfs. Remember getting these things from petrol stations in the 80's? Well it looks like they are alive and well in Japan.

The final thing we found which were pretty cool were Star Wars Light Sabre chopsticks.






















Next we walked up Omotesando which is the main street until we reached the Softmap shop (Japanese Vodafone) who we promoting the Apple Ipad. This must be the current must have item in Japan. Very neat, I want one!

Thursday 3rd June

What a bizzarre couple of days! Things didn't start well when Neve forgot her lunch, and I forgot a letter I wanted to post, ended up having to drop kids at school, then rushing back home, then back to school. Eventually got to the station faced with buying a 'Narita Express' train ticket to the airport. Bloody machine wouldn't speak to me in English, so I had to smile nicely at the very patient girl at the desk who kindly helped me to buy the return ticket... then I worked out that I could only return a day later - more rushing to find the main office to get a refund.

Eventually managed to get on the right train at the right time. Mission 1 accomplished! Our Ozzy neighbours had leant me a 'Lonely Planet Korea' guide whcih I grabbed from them before leaving this morning. Speed read the relevant chapters in time to arrive at Narita not having a clue where I was going, when, as luck would have it, my colleague who I was meeting called to say he was there (subtley asked for directions and found him) Mission 2 - check!

Flight all went smoothly, and after a bit of panic, my dressing like a scruffy tourist (lots of effort put in here!!) paid off - they didn't challenge that I was traveling on a tourist rather than business visa!

Travelled to our hotel with a mad taxi driver who managed to give us a running commentary in really very good English, periodically talking on his mobile, and dodging in an out of the 8 lanes of traffic at 160 kmph!

Right, milatary operation began - I was here on business so clearly had to attend the meeting and network accordingly; however, as I'm unlikely to go to Korea again, I really wanted to 'do' Korea in the rather limited time we had. Decided that to 'do' Korea, I needed to visit a temple, see the Nan Dae Mun Market, and buy sufficient tacky souvenirs. As luck would have it there was temple opposite the hotel - it was very beautiful - to me it looked very like Japanese temples, but my colleague, Baba-san, pointed out that Korean temples are decorated very elaborately in many colours, there were hundreds of golden Budhas in the main temple with hundreds of paper prayers (presumably!) hanging from the ceiling.

Back to hotel, and it was apparent that we had no instructions on where / when to meet! More fishing around, and we found someone who knew. We had a further hour. Temple ticked of list, shopping to do methinks. I'd read that the hotel in which we were staying was part of a massive conferencing facility with the largest underground shopping mall in Asia - had to be investigated. It was most impressive! And what's more - decent tacky souvenir shop found. Ticked off list.

Back to hotel for conference. Anyway, this all went smoothly, and it was very interesting to meet the different people and learn about the products. Also ate Kimchi for dinner (Korean traditional dish - the Japanese think it's revolting - I thought it was delicious!) it's chinese cabbage with lots of salt, garlic and chilli - bit like soeurkraut with chilli and garlic! (Steve Lockwood - you would love it!) Not great for the insides, however. Glad I had my own room!

Day 2. All went to plan. Had a ridiculously large 7 course lunch, which didn't end until 2:30. We finished conference at 6pm and then were supposed to meet for another 7 course dinner at 7pm. Time for a sharp exit.

Ran to my room, got my bag. Ran to the tube - having navigated Shinjuku train station in Tokyo, felt confident I could negotiate Soeul's underground system. Felt like a naughty school girl on the run! Navigated the two trains, but took 40 mins - much longer than I'd anticipated. Found the market - hooray. Fab - lots of interesting sights to see - tacky souvenirs, street vendors selling all manner of unidentified dead things, stalls selling pig feet, and some other pig parts, several vendors selling slabs of ginseng and tubs of grubs - the guy seriously expected me to buy some, but this really was beyond the call of thorough souvenir shopping! Saw a huge Ginseng shop - should have bought some, but the boxes were huge and I was seriously running out of time! Decided it was time to go back...but where was the street from which I'd come. Oh !@&*, the train station had gone. I had no phone that worked, not enough money for a taxi, no one knew where I was, and I couldn't speak the language. Good planning Julie! Armed with my train ticket, I found someone who looked like a security guard. They pointed me in a direction totally opposite to where I thought. Ran up and down lots of similar looking streets ...anyway, eventually, I found the station - I was more than a little relieved! Then stumbled into two African Americans who clearly found me intriguing, and, funnily enough said they were getting off at the fake station name I'd given - could do without this! So had to sprint off train tellign them I was really late!

I was more than a little relived to get back to the hotel. Sprinted up to the room, put on some 'runt, changed my top, and went into the restaurant sayign that I'd really needed some fresh air and didn't want any more food! Hooray, market accomplished. Baba-san then annouced that we had a meeting with the Koreans, but he didn't really understand where or why. It transpires that the 'meeting' was a Karaoke. Fab, love karaoke, so we were whisked away to the Symphony Karaoke bar - much fun!

Then at 8am next morning, the taxi came for us, and off we went home!

It was a great trip, but it was good to get back, and it did feel like coming home, which is a good feeling. Neve had had a lovely two days in Hachioji and was full of it! Felix had had fun with his friend, and has been asked to take part in a swimming gala.

Boys Stuff

Hi All, Ross here, making my first blog posting. Having seen the style that Julie has been writing with over the last week, I have decided that I need to provide a different perspective on life in Japan. I shall focus be focussing on "boys stuff". I intend to cover motor cars, technology, bicycles and all manner of exciting things not yet mentioned.

First of all I think I need to correct some of the errors made on the previous posting regarding Bic Camera. This is the mother of all electronics stores. There are a number of these shops around the centre of Tokyo and in fact last Saturday I spared the family the journey to the really big one in Shinjuku and settled for the little store in Shibuya. 5 floors of everything electrical that you can care to mention. You could wander for hours looking at all the things they sell (well I could) What is incredible at many Japanese stores is the vast choice of items that you are presented with. The Japanese must think they have entered the stone age when they go shopping in the UK.

I needed to purchase a ethernet cable last week. They stock several different manufacturers, a couple of types from each manufacturer, in sizes from 1m to 30m and then in at least 4 different colours. What joy. Even the mains extension leads come in at least 6 different colours. Kids managed to find TV showing Kill Bill. Not exactly family viewing but they were still riveted to it long after I have worked out which of the 862 different ethernet cables I was going to buy.

We have also managed to aquire a car whilst in Japan. Well Julie did, she mentioned to the Boss at work that we were planning on getting a car. A little later he reappeared to say that he had solved the problem and would call me. Julie rang me to explain that she wasn't sure what she had arranged but the Boss would ring. By this time I have visions of the brand new vehicle they have aquired on our behalf and expect us to pay the bill for. It turns out the company has a lease car that never get used and we can have it for free. All we have to do is fill it with petrol. Fantastic, so whats the catch? ...... Yes you guessed it the car is an Toyota Corrolla saloon (automatic). Having spent years priding myself on selecting exciting and unique vehicles I am now driving the dullest vehicle on the planet. I'll attach a picture.

I had to take it to the garage the other day. When I dropped it off they were all ready for me and had their only English speaking assistant to sort me out. When I collected the car it was a little more entertaining as it was somewhere in their garage and I couldn't remember what it looked like or the registration. Try explaining that to the assistant that only speaks Japanese. It's silver I said, feeling a proper girly.

We've only made one journey it it to Costco to do a big food shop. The traffic was dreadful and the kids managed to fight in the back all the way there and all the way back. Not the best conditions for getting used to a new traffic system. Still to figure out the motorway systems. Most are toll roads. Apparently you need a card that plugs into the dashboard and opens the toll barriers. You drive at these things and they read your card and open the barrier just in time. Not sure what happens when the card expires, I guess you demolish the barrier.

We cycle a lot around the centre of Tokyo. You are allowed to ride on the pavements which is where most of the cyclists are found. Its great with the kids but if you want to get anywhere quickly you need to venture onto the roads. As a veteran of cycling in Central London (student days) it no worst than London. In fact it's probably a lot safer. It would seem that if you run a cyclist over it is your fault whatever happened. This seems to lead to some cyclist considering themselves to be imortal. It is not unusual to find cyclists going the wrong way down the street being avoided by two lanes of traffic.

One morning I saw a cyclist, that must have been hit by a taxi, ranting and raving at the taxi driver whilst a policeman looked on. The poor taxi driver looked very embarrassed and could only bow repeatedly at the cyclist. Can't see that happening in the UK.

Julie is away with work in Korea at the moment so I have been looking after the kids. Not easy when work is 90 minutes away. (I must tell you about commuting on the trains at some point) So yesterday I left work at 1445 and got into work at 1015 this morning. Neve is away on school trip tonight. The school have taken them to Mt Takao where we went last Tuesday and Felix had play date at Flynn's. That meant I could at least stay in work to normal time today.

Flynn is Felix's bessie mate from school. They seem to have a lot in common. Flynn was heard to say 'Felix and I get on really well as we think just like each other' As parents we have interpreted this to mean that neither of them think at all before they do something. By end of play Sunday, Felix had crushed his testicles on the cross bar of his bike whilst trying some trick cycling down Omotesando (Like Knightbridge) and then put his foot through Flynn's bed whilst trying some sort of acrobatics. One skinned shin later....