Mosquitoes like sake

I meant to add more to the last entry but haven't got around to it. I think I'll just do detailed captions for all the photos and you can experience my family time like a good old fashioned slide-show.
So, back to talking about me. Just over a week after the family left was 'golden week' a run of public holidays that coincides with the first good weather of the year.
I went to Kyoto again to catch up with Sophie who I hadn't seen in 4 years. We stayed in an excellent we place called Kyoto Cheapest Inn that was only ￥900 a night (plus high season charge) and had an excellent time roaming the city and checking out various shops and shrines.
Her friend Simone (an Italian wine-maker) joined us on the second day there and one night Soph and I left our bags with him and decided to rough it and go camping. The original plan was to get out of town and do a hard-core hike, but the attractions of the city proved too strong and instead we spent the better part of the day lugging our packs around the shops and didn't head for the hills until late afternoon. Since it was too late to get anywhere wild and rugged, we went to the nearest hill we could find, nipping through a lovely shrine complex, we found a relatively secluded spot in the town belt and pitched our tent.
Although our site was completely out of sight and surrounded by nothing but trees, we soon found a parking area a few minutes walk away with a lookout and a man who sold sake. I blame the sake for making me ridiculously tasty to the hosts of mosquitoes in attendance. I still have little bite-scabs all over my legs.
I love Kyoto and I am glad that both my trips there have been somewhat shambolic so I still have so much to see (or re-see a more opportune time than on the way back from a night in the mountains.) I have many lovely moment-images, like sitting in the sunshine by the river with Japanese buskers (a very rare sight) busking in the background. Or running around in the rain to find some Japanese-style drinks and Simone making friends with an enthusiastic fellow when we finally found Tatami three floors above the river. Or when I found the three storey fabric shop… mmmmm lycra. So all in all it was lovely. Lovely to yarn with Soph and walk the nightingale floors, lovely to find a shop that sold me some foreigner-sized shoes, lovely to meet random Polish people in the Cheapest Inn kitchen and lovely to have so many holidays at once. Next week I am off to a conference in Kobe. Ahh my jet-setting lifestyle…

Extraordinary adventures

I had intended to spend today writing a brilliant travelogue of all the extraordinary adventures I had with my family. Unfortunately I am not feeling very up to being brilliant today so you’ll just have to take it as it comes. Today I am feeling grumpy and tired and achy, oh so achy, because yesterday a man hit my bike with his car. I am very fortunate that he did not hit me with his car, he only got the front wheel (which was impressively buckled) because I managed to brake a bit when I realised that he wasn’t going to stop pulling out of that driveway just because I happened to be biking past. He was terrifically shocked and apologised hundreds of times and got me a new wheel/mudguard/light and had my bike reassembled very quickly (too quickly for me to get any photographic evidence) I have bruised knees and various twisted bits and decided to purchase a helmet.
To the story… until last Monday I had family at my house. It was strange and wonderful and we used all the rooms at once, before that though there was travel and mishap by boat, bus, aeroplane, taxi, and several types of train.
A quick overview.
I met Miriam in Osaka on Friday the 14th where we shopped and walked quickly and it rained. On Sunday we went to Kyoto which was beautiful, delicious and peaceful. On Tuesday slow-bussed to Hiroshima where we met Mum and Dad and on Wednesday went on a morning-trip to Miajima to see monkeys who failed to show up (the monkeys have gone into the forest to find food, the monkeys will be here soon…) We rushed to Hamada on Wednesday afternoon so they could check out my from-July-home and on Thursday were kept from the island by six-metre swells and spent the day in Matsue. We got to Oki on Friday in time to watch a thousand year old dance and then made “New Zealand food” for a collection of island folk. On Saturday we vegetated (and I drove!) and on Sunday we toured the island.
Now you know where the lines are, I will colour in a few bits.