Adventures in the Looking Glass

It being  sunny day I decided, after washing my kitchen floor, do the washing up, hoovering, doing the laundry and some yoga, that it would be a nice idea to leave the house and bask in what seem to be temperatures equivalent to an English summer, before it becomes impossible to open the windows for fear of bugs and death by heat suffocation.  Of course, I don't normally like to leave the house on a Sunday, unless it's to take on the swarming mass of Tokyo with other company.  So...I'd forgotten why I don't like leaving the house.  Within about 5 minutes some eijit on a bicycle tried to take me out on the pavement leading down to an underpass.  An underpass, that is, with designated cycle paths.  And he had a fully functioning bell on the front of that bike, too.  I've decided that if I must leave the house, I shall do it on my bike, and then at least I'm on an equal footing and only really need to worry about cars.  Eventually I found a quiet footpath between some houses and strolled down there before taking a hasty detour home, taking an underpass beneath the train tracks which also coincides with the small river nearby heading underground for a couple of blocks.  It was rather eerie under there so I took a photo...on my Holga.  You'll just have to wait for it.

Golden Week was rather lovely.  I went down to Gifu to stay at Rachel's house. I took the night bus, which was an exercise in torture I don't wish to repeat.  It would all be fine if my legs didn't decide to take on a life of their own whenever I'm on long journeys.  Having weird leg spasms while you're attempting to sleep is deeply uncomfortable and no doubt a little weird looking to the other passengers.  Next time I'll just suck it up and take the Shinkansen.

Here're some photos from Gifu:

     

The Other Laura and I posing in Nagoya.           Down by the river in Gifu after the BBQ.  I was sporting an 80s quiff and pink sunglasses.




Looking along the river to Mount Kinka, with Kinka castle at the top.
And this is me half way up it.

After Gifu, my friend Brooke visited for a couple of days.  We hit China town in Yokohama in the pouring rain, and spent the afternoon with jennarose  in a cafe discussing Dean Winchester and drinking coffee.  Dinner was at a cool little Mexican place (it being Cinqo de Mayo (spelling?)) which did great food in small portions and had a quite confused waiter.  I think it took three languages to get all our ordering done - Spanish, Japanese and English.  At the end of dinner the guy lifted up the apron on the little skeleton in the doorway and flashed us a stuffed willy whilst thanking us loudly and guffawing. 

Which also reminds me of the Moroccan restaurant we went to in Nagoya, which did fabulous cheese briwat, hummous and fish tagine.  And then there was belly-dancing!  I was dead impressed. 

Speaking of belly dancing, I shall be returning to the land of shimmy tomorrow after a month's break.  In the meantime I've been checking out various videos on youtube and have decided that I need to learn to do Tribal bellydance.  Watch this and you'll see why. The best bit is about halfway through.  You'll know which bit I mean.

Err, that's it for now.  Maybe some more ramblings later, after I've consoled myself with a chocolate Hobnob and a cup of tea.