An Update!!!!!!

Sorry everybody for the lack of updates recently! Summer has pretty much finished and my visitors of three weeks - my parents have left Japan. We had a fantastic time, and I think my parents did too.

They arrived in style, aboard a Shinkansen covered in Pokemon (a special one-of-its-kind Shinkansen!) in Nanyo where I met them at the station. Shortly after, Mr Hosokawa, one of the guys at the BoE arrived at my house with a big van intended as a carriage to whisk them around Nanyo on a little guided tour!! Fantastic! But after travelling for about 20 hours they were incredibly tired so we had a bit of Sushi and went to bed.

The following week was one for chilling out and relaxing around my city, on the Wednesday we went to a Beer Party in a local swanky hotel, we had a fantastic night there with loads of my friends like Marie and Shoko. During the raffle, I won a box of healthy foods like Tofu and such, Mum won a box of Fresh vegetables, and then Marie's friends won a crate of Beer, and the grand prize of a night's stay in the swanky hotel. What happened in the end, was Marie's friends swapped our boxes of veg and healthy foods, for the crate of beer, and the night for two in the hotel!! This was followed by my mum and dad both having to do a speech to the large group of Japanese people, and my being encouraged to sing Karaoke to them all! Fantastic night! We also went to see one of my friends performing Taiko, and ended up eating Yakitori all squashed together in a tiny little local bar with the owner speaking a heavy thick hard-to-understand local dialect, and one random customer paying for all our groups drinks! The kindness of strangers eh?

Our first big trip was a road trip! We hired a car (because my car is seriously dying) and planned to drive up all the way to Aomori, the further part of the main 'Honshu' island of Northern Japan. The road trip was great fun - toll roads are the fastest way to drive places around Japan, but they're quite expensive, so we didn't bother first of all - and chose to drive the more scenic routes. However, it took us almost 7 hours to drive up to Aomori, due to the winding roads around mountains, and the slow Japanese speed limits - a knackering journey which resulted in us more-or-less missing the whole point of us driving up - to see the famous 'Nebuta Festival' the giant lantern floats and noisy lively dancing around the city. The weather was also rubbish which meant that the floats had to be covered with plastic so as to protect them from the rain! But the drive was fantastic, and I got to see some more of Japan (Aomori gives me the impression that it is...significantly rural and hard to get to from the rest of Japan). We also saw some amazing lakes in Akita prefecture - Lake Tazawa, and Lake Towada - such beautiful lakes and amazing scenery around them, on clear sunny days. They were amazing and I'm hoping to revisit Towada sometime during August to do like the Japanese do and 'see the leaves'!

After the trip to Aomori, we took the quicker toll road route down to Iwate prefecture to stay in a lovely Japanese style hotel in a place called Osawa Onsen, it was a beautiful location situated by a beautiful stream and hill covered in mountains, with a number of onsen around to enjoy. It was there that we had a beautiful and delicious 和食 (Japanese-style dinner), which dad (very proud of him!) tried to eat....a lot of lets say! I think the food was the most challenging thing for dad - but he did really enjoy some stuff, especially Japanese-style pub grub!

Mum and dad tried there first onsens, and then it was time to quickly return back to Akayu for a bit of a rest. We managed to visit Yamagata city to check out Yamagata famous festival the Hanagasa Dance (Flower Hat dance) which was really nice to see. Various groups from around Yamagata process down the main street of the city perform a special dance using special Yamagata hats. , before heading down to the last leg of our time together, down in the Kansai area, to see Kyoto and Nara, and then finally to Tokyo.

Kyoto and Nara were incredibly hot! We stayed just outside of Nara in a place called Oji. We stayed at this small traditional Japanese style house run by a nice Englishman and his Japanese wife, all the staff spoke great English, breakfast was delicious and at a good price too! Right next to the station. It's called 'Yougendo' if you ever fancy going! (I thought it was that good I thought I'd do a bit of promotion!)

In Nara, we were lucky to see the Toukae festival (燈火会), where, towards the evening, thousands of candles were displayed around some of the famous sights and areas of Nara. It was a beautiful sight, and the temperature was a lot cooler!) Kyoto we visited the Golden Temple (my second visit), and a rather impressive Castle - Nijo Castle. Perhaps not as grand as the famous Himeji Castle, but nicely presented and a different style.

Finally, we returned on the Shinkansen to Tokyo for the last leg of our trip. We stayed in a lovely hotel (with BEDS!!!) and a nice view of the Tokyo skyline, we went on a boatride down Sumida river (not so attractive but a different experience!) and enjoyed the beautiful monorail journey and view around the Odaiba bay area of Tokyo with the Rainbow Bridge in the distance during the evening.

From Tokyo onwards, time seemed to fly. My parents had seemed to be in Japan for a really long time, but at the same time, it didn't seem so long and it was time for us to say goodbye in a very very (very) crowded Tokyo Station. (The end of our trip was during Japan's biggest Buddhist festival 'Obon', where the majority of people return back to their homes to spend time with family and celebrate the memory of their ancestors)

But we had a great time together, and as mum keeps reminding me 'it won't be long before you're back home for Christmas!' But before that, no sooner have my parents left, than my bro Tim comes over with Kieran (again!) and two other friends of mine! Busy times eh?

It's been very busy settling back into my second year, hopefully I will get a bit of time (soon soon soon!) to fill you in with more news!