life makes sense in Japan
3rd Jan, 2008
Today we woke up very early and left the guest house in Nikko with our wheely suitcases being noisy on the slopy roads. We took the train and then the Shinkansen (bullet train) from which Hannah tried to video Mt. Fuji behind the passing buildings. She kept losing it, white as it was against the sky. I thought I saw a crane.
Hannah left us to catch her flight and didn’t see Nick & Yuri bow goodbye at the ticket barriers. Yuri favoured Starbucks for breakfast and I had an aduki bean scone and sprouted brown rice bagel. Nick says Tokyoites judge the level of civilization of an area by the presence of a Starbucks.
We went back to Nick and Yuri’s place where I immediately exclaimed at the size of their plastic frog, which is called Catherine, apparently. After Nick had shown me the view of Fuji, Yuri gave me the frog to sit on at the heated blanket table. Nick read me childrens’ books as we watched their marimo (a spherical alga) bob up and down in the goldfish bowl. ‘It’s nice to be in relaxing Tokyo after all that excitement up in Nikko.’ I said. We dozed as Nick checked his email and was surprised to find that a friend had joined the Jehovah’s witnesses. Then we played a German mole-themed board game and went out for lunch at the panda cafe where Nick and I made origami pandas.
The rest of the day continued in a similar vein. It was lovely. You should all go & visit Nick and Yuri.
(Unless you don’t know Nick & Yuri or you are Nick & Yuri)
