Family Visit - Tokyo 1

Sky lounge on top of our apartments in Shinjuku.

Dad cleanses his spirit.... :)

Buildings of Meiji Shrine

Preparations for a Traditional Shinto wedding

Alan playing piano in the Sky Lounge

This is actually to scale...

Just a small portion of Tokyo

Alan points out the view from our room

Another Izakaya in Shinjuku

Karaoke in Shinjuku, we topped it off with Loch Lomond of course!

Family Visit - Atsugi

A few days after my family arrived they came to visit me in Atsugi.

Chatting to Nana and Papa on Skype.

Dinner at an Izakaya

Steven and Karen get stuck in!

Mum and Karen knocking back the never ending Nihon-shu bottle!

Parking Solutions

In order to make maximum use of space there are parking machines like this across Japan. You put your car in then it rotates round like rotisserie. Not sure what happens if it gets stuck!!

Psydoll

Last Sunday I went to a Gothic Industrial Metal night in Shinjuku.

I had met members of the band Psydoll a few weeks ago at the leaving do for the French guys. They have been to Scotland several times and have played in Glasgow. It was really strange talking about the 13th note and the modern art galleries at royal exchange square.

Psydoll - http://www.psydoll.com/

This group were sort of new romantic and were throwing roses into the crowd.

Interesting costumes

Glasgow special Whyte and MacKay - and cheaper than back home too!!

Tanabata

On Saturday I went to the Tanabata festival in a town called Hiratsuka.

Tanabata is a story about two lovers represented by two stars in the sky who spend all of their time together. The gods become angry that they never do any work so they seperate them with a river (the milky way). Deciding that to keep them apart all the time would be unfair, they allow them to meet once per year. Tanabata festivals are held at this time.

People write wishes on little pieces of card and then tie them to bamboo poles to make them come true. I wished for no more bicycle accidents! Heres hoping....

Streamers are hung from the streets. A lot of them are made by local schools.

Some Taiko Drummers. The timing and precision was really impressive.

Ryan, Loic and Mika leaving party

We went out for Karaoke for Ryan, Loic and Mika's leaving party.

Add your song to the little computer and it will go on the list.

Everyone in the their costumes.

Don't ask.....

Pikachu (Brian), falling asleep.

Free drinks and ice cream.

Crashed Bike

On Friday, at lunchtime I decided to go to the bank on my bike as I am still waiting on my ATM card and would have no money for the weekend otherwise.

I approached a corner and without warning a car appeared from a blindspot behind a shed and despite hitting the brakes I hit it on the rear wheel. I did not hit it very hard and didnt fall off the bike. There was little damage to the car and no injuries but as for my bike....

Front wheel completely crushed.

The driver got out of his car and in typical Japanese fashion began apologising. He seemed very concerned about me but the language barrier prevented us from sorting the situation out. He bought me a drink from a nearby vending machine then we called my office and soon after my boss Owa-san turned up to help out. I explained the situation to him so when the police turned up he was able to give him my statement. We agreed that we each held responsibility and would pay for our own damage.

After that, the man was kind enough to offer to take my bike back to the Youth Heim in his car. I can't help wondering if everything would have been to civil back home...

Mattieu giving me a lift back from our cruise night. Although this does'nt look particuarly safe either, guess Ill never learn....