Where does the time go!

So I'm writing this almost 4 weeks into the school term. Can't believe where the time's gone!

Key things that we've done which might be of interest to anyone reading this:

We had a business visitor from the UK - David Walton was the chap who was my boss 15 years ago, and who put in a good word for me to get me a job here. He's now 'big cheese' for the Asia Pacific meeting. He came over for his biennial meeting, and Ross and I were invited to entertain him with KK (MD of the Japanese company), KK's wife, and a chap called Gary from Hawaii / USA / Hong Kong. Anyway, no expense spared!!! We went to this amazing Japanese restaurant called Nadaman (on the 14th floor of Odakyo Departo for future reference). This restaurant is reputed to be the best sushi restaurant in the whole of Japan (Oh God! I thought when I sat down and they told me this - I've managed to avoid sushi thusfar!!). It was amazing - we had about 10 courses of the most amazingly presented and really delicious food: a beautifully laid out tray of orange roe on daimon (japanese radish), some special mushrooms, and strange green olive-looking beans, followed by sashimi (raw fish), then tempura, then salad, then some eggy custard stuff with some fish in, then steak (very rare with delicious gravy), then some miso-ish soup, then a plate of various types of sushi, then pudding - fruity stuff and bean-jammy stuff, served with beer, various types of tea, and the most delicious sake served in beautiful glasses (which I've subsequently seen and have requested as a birthday pressy from my luurvly husband!)

The following day, after a day of meetings with David, which was really interesting for me who sits somewhat on the periphery of the big picture stuff, the Shinjuku office and David all went out for beers and Karaoke - I officially love karaoke and we had a blast!!!

The following Friday, Sasha arrived. She came alone, and we were a bit worried about whether she's manage to find herself around, but she did amazingly well - after showing her how to find her way back to our house from Shibuya, she was able to explore by herself. On the Sunday, we took her to baseball (I think Ross will post some pics!) which was great fun (we sat behind this avid fan of the Giants who gave the kids loads of the orange memorabilia and showed them what you had to do when a home-run was scored!). Then we (with the exception of Sash) went on this roller-coaster - Neve had to stand on tip-toe to convince them she was the right height!. It was seriously scary - we got to 80mph on the first dip - I glanced accross at Neve and thought she was going to freak - but she said she loved it in the end!

Sash went to Kyoto for two days, and had a great time

On the Friday, I took the day off, and introduced Sash to ex-pat mum's coffee mornings, then a trip with 3 other mums to Kappabashi - a district in Tokyo where restuaranteurs go to buy their stuff - so there are shops for how to deck out your shop as a chinese, an american diner, and any other type of thing, and also many shops selling plastic food (they all display food in restaurants!) We also bought loads of lovely pottery, and Sash bought us these beautiful pics as a thank you / b-day pres.

The kids have settled really well into school. Neve is really friendly with Fiona and Lydia - the three of them have been writing a book since the start of term. Fiona's dad is a journalist (according to Neve!) so has managed to secure them a book deal (!). Fiona is writing the book, Neve is the illustrator, and Lydia is the researcher. Neve has written the 'blurb' and the 'about the authors' section (she wrote them in bed and left them on her bedside table - how cute is that!). Felix is still thick with Flynn, and has befriended a boy who lives locally which is great.

On Saturday, we took Sasha to a Charity Wine Tasting - which was a very good 'ex-pat taster' - held on the roof garden on a £10,000 a month block of apartments, overlooking many skyscrapers! Lots of hob-nobbing... then waking up the next day thinking "Oh god, what did I say to xyz", and sash nicked a bottle of wine - which seemed fine at the time, but which, the next morning, seemed like a BAD idea!!!

We're going to Beijing! We'd booked half term off a long time ago, but didn't know where to go. After deliberating, chatting to various people, and doing a bit of phoning around, we soon worked out that Hawaii was too expensive, we want to get out of Japan... long story short we've booked flights to Beijing - there are a number of ex-pats who've lived in Beijing for a while and who've given us lots of advice and books. So we found a cheap(ish - not quite easyjet!) travel agent and booked. Slight problem -Japan is very low-tech when it comes to payment, and Barclaycard are very inflexibile when it comes to living abroad, so I ended up having to withdraw over £1,000 in cash from numerous accounts, then walk through Kabukicho (not the best area of Shinjuku!) carrying a large bundle of cash, and pay this way!!