Shiny Happy Weekend

Miraculously the weather was fantastic this weekend. Sunshine on Saturday and Sunday, which meant no lazing round at home for Mike and I! It’s a bit difficult to justify mooching round at home when the sun is shining and there is still so much to see.

We were pretty tired on Saturday though because we’d been out for dinner on Friday night with R and K. Mike was really hoping for an early night on Friday, so we declined dinner with the rest of his workmates after meeting them all for “one” drink after work (or after my afternoon sleep in my case!). We did need to eat however and a nice quiet dinner for 4 seemed to be a good idea. Somehow we didn’t even make it to the restaurant till nearly 11pm!

So Saturday got off to a pretty late start. Oops. But not to worry, Sarah had a great idea for lazing around WHILE seeing the “sights” of Tokyo ... we went to Yoyogi Park and lazed around there! We read books, sat in the shade, people watched, ate pineapple and perky nanas, read some more, listened to people playing drums, guitars, singing, practicing plays, juggling, walking their dogs (that IS a sight worth seeing in Tokyo, believe me. People don’t just match clothes with their significant other here; they also match with their pooch!).

On Sunday we intended to get up early (of course!) but someone (OK, Sarah) forgot to switch on the alarm. Oh well. A friend had recommended we check out Odaiba at some stage so that’s where we decided to spend the day. Odaiba is a bit (quite a big bit) of reclaimed land in Tokyo Bay which is linked to Tokyo by the Rainbow Bridge. We bought a couple of day passes for the monorail in Shiodome and spent the day wandering around. We “drove” and electric hybrid car in Toyota City Showcase – for ¥200 a wee car drove us around a 7 minute circuit – no hands! We also went on a 115m high ferris wheel in a car with a glass bottom, which was fun but a little bit scary for Wimpy Sarah, and visited the so-called “Theme Park for Ladies” Venus Fort shopping centre, which is supposed to look like an Italian city.




We finished up on the man-made beach (nicer than Oriental Bay but not sure how nice the water would be to swim in!) to watch the sunset with some cheese n crackers and a couple of beers. With about 200 other couples! Seems to be the place to take your date in Tokyo. But it was very nice and fun to watch all the city lights come on as the sun went down.

Another busy week coming up – I am going to Japanese lessons on Tuesday and Thursday nights (2 hours each night!) and have the job of organising something exciting for the long weekend: it’s Respect for the Aged Day on Monday. Plus JULIA will arrive on Tuesday (19/9) so I will have to think of some fun things to show her next week too.

Ja mata!