From Grandma and Grandpa

I asked my grandparents to write a little something for my blog, to capture the opinions and reactions of another generation, traveling to Japan for reasons, motives and desires different to mine! :-

Having spent two weeks in Japan with our Grandson,
we now know why you have fallen in love with Japan Christopher.
What an experience for us to share some time with you and have a
tour guide on hand (he didn’t ask for a tip either).
Japan was a great experience for us: the blossom, the mountains, the people, oh everything.

We had the pleasure of meeting your local friends and sharing
time and food with them and really getting the feel of the country.
Having had just a photograph of your house, it was so good to see it
fully and its situation. Akayu is a small town where locally grown fruit
is delicious and where one can relax in a natural hot spring bath.
You can see bubble houses on the mountainside where grapes are
grown.

It was fun to meet some of your JET colleagues and share time with
them. One of the girls performed a tea ceremony which we found most
interesting. We understand that you are able to study the art of performing
a tea ceremony. Grandma still finds it difficult to take the green tea
offered during the ceremony.

We found Tokyo a wonderful city, so alive and clean!!! and at no time
did we feel threatened. Kyoto was another great city and then we
visited the beautiful town of Nara with its roaming deer and beautiful
parkland and then on to Himeji Castle so different from our English
castles.

Having had the opportunity to visit Pearl Harbour Monument we were
anxious to visit the Hiroshima Museum – we were not disappointed. It
was so tastefully laid out leaving a great impression on us and enabled us
to see both sides of a situation that should never occur again.

We are very proud of what you have achieved so far, speaking and
writing the language (no easy task) and trust the rest of your time
in Japan fulfils all your dreams.