Another grey day

The weather has not been helpful this week. I write this from the gym at lunchtime, looking out through the glass to a grey sky and light rain.

Sonia and Kyla were heading off to Disneyland this morning, hoping to get there before the rain sets in too heavily. Tomorrow is forecast to be worse on that front, so today was really their last chance. Yesterday was better, but they were cooking dinner all day - two appetisers, steak with creamed spinach and garlic mashed potatoe, and some sort of meringue/mousse thing with candied lime for dessert.

Not exactly sure what we'll do Saturday, but Sunday we are off to Tsumago to spend the night in a Ryokan. Should be interesting, but it is about four hours drive from Tokyo.

Rain

Well it seems like autumn has arrived with a vengeance. Yesterday was fine and sunny, although down to around 25 degrees. That is in contrats to the 36 we had the preevious weekend. This morning started at about 15 agrees - at least accordind to the car on thw way to work this morning. And it is raining. So from 36 degrees to 15 in less than 10 days? Crazy.

We went to Kawagoe yesterday, had a look around, then raced back home to make lemon cupcakes (lemon cake recipe) for dinner at my boss's house last night. Kawagoe was full of people (mostly OAPs) who were taking advantage of the cooler weather ahead of the rain coming this week. Lunch was ramen (cheap noodles) in a place somewhere down one of the side streets. It was ok rather than great.

Now at the gym, need to concentrate on the weights. Should be more information(?) On Kyla's blog.

One exhausted Kyla

Sonia here...

Well Kyla has indeed arrived and managed to make tentative friends with our very nervous cat. Made us realise how much of a stressful experience moving back to NZ at some stage will be for Sachi - she does not cope well with people other than 'her' people in the house and Kyla put up with a lot of hissing before a tentative truce was called.

Kyla really picked her day to arrive. Narita airport always has a decent amount of turbulence on descent. Today was exceptional. My plane got in about 40 minutes after hers, and for the first time in all my flying history I had a landing aborted just feet above the runway because the winds were buffeting the plane so badly the pilot could not hold it steady enough to touch down. We turbo charged back up into the air when we ran out of runway for him to keep trying :-). Pleased to report that Kyla did not have quite that scare, but she did get a pretty bumpy approach that she seems to have dealt with just fine. We will make a world traveler out of her yet!

We spent the morning at home and introduced her to the concept of Saturday morning house cleaning. Then headed up the road to introduce her to her first taste of 'real' sushi. She gave it a good shot but I think it is fair to say she prefers Sharon's chicken based variation. The Japanese would be horrified! We had a great 'counter' experience at the Sushi Bar though with a couple of the sushi chefs and a two of the other customers taking great delight in testing Andrews Japanese skills. The noise was as always in the sushi shops loud and boisterous - a very interactive experience- much to Kyla's amusement.

Afternoon was spent out and about running weekend errands and then dinner at home (can we have non-Japanese food being the request :-)...). The Freaky Friday movie finished the day off - with very heavy red eyes it was off to bed and hopefully a good long sleep.

Looking forward to some fun days ahead - visiting the beach tomorrow, shopping Monday, Disney Tuesday, cooking a three course dinner for Andrew on Wednesday, Kawagoe or Kamakura on Thursday and Cirque de Soleil on Friday. We will be exhausted by the end of it!

We'll let you know how it goes.

Ok

Found her. Guess she does not have to catch the bus home after all.

Hmmm

5 more minutes then I give up and go home. Kyla can find her own way to the apartment.

Flight update

Apparently Kyla's flight arrived at 603 instead of 630, but there is no sign of her. Perhaps I was too late (arrived here at 630) and they sold her into slavery?

Real time

On the way to the airport to collect Kyla. Pouring down and windy - great way to start.

Friday night

Well Kyla is on her way. I see from the flight status that she has landed in Sydney, and now has a couple of hours to wait before her flight leaves for Tokyo.

I am trying to decide whether to spend my evening doing the cleaning, or wait until tomorrow morning once I have collected Kyla and Sonia from the airport. I think it can probably wait - the place doesn't look too bad. And I have had a hard day (cue violins), and want to finish watching The Matrix again. So I think the cleaning will keep for 12 hours...

New News

There is none.

I am at the gym, trying to stop myself getting bored on the treadmill. I was thinking that it has been quite a while since the last update. That is because there has been almost nothing happening here.

I am sure that you will appreciate me having avoided coplaining about the heat (up to 40 degrees some days). This week it is officially cooling down. Not today, which is up to about 34 degrees, but tomorrow the forecast is for a high of 24 and rain. I am sure that Sachi and I will freeze. Tomorrow happens to be a holiday, so I will dress her up in a teatowel if she starts shivering too much! Wuss of a cat...

The holiday season is pretty much over now. The expats who were heading home for the summer are now back. And I am about 6 weeks away from officially working for Metlife instead of Alico.

I finally got a bike park in my building so the motorbike is now convenient. And no longer takes up space in my friend's garage. His place is about 45 minutes away by train or 20 by car. So not hugely convenient for popping out for a quick ride. Moving the bike across also meant I could clean it for the first time. I realised I need to get some wheel cleaner to shift the chain oil and grease that has speckled the inside of the wheel.

We have planned a diet of raw fish, horse sashimi, okonomiyaki, monja, and chickens' hearts for when Kyla is here next week. Should be gun trying to capture her facial expressions on camera. And then putting her on the back of my bike - but she can use the friend's spare helmet so that any regurgitated raw fish does not mess up my helmet. And I wonder how she will find wearing a kimono and wooden sandles all day?