A Little Update

Just letting you know I'm fine, as I haven't updated in almost a month!

First of all, the shocking event this month was the sudden passing of my dear friend, Richard on June  13th.  I worked with him at Aeon for a year, and he was only 32 years young. It turns out he had an undiagnosed heart condition.

My favourite memory with Richard has to be huddling keeping warm atop Mt Fuji, sharing a can of Umeshuu (plum wine) waiting for the sun to rise:

You'll be sorely missed!

Secondly, I've successfully moved house to an apartment in Meguro, south, central Tokyo. It's 150% larger than my two previous apartments for the same rent! And I can walk to work in 20 minutes!! Why should I settle for the life of a Tokyo commuter?!

 A very unexciting picture of my apartment before moving in all my junk!

I hosted a housewarming bbq party on Sunday 26th and luckily my house survived!

Finally, I've been studying every single day since April in preparation for the N3 intermediate level JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) on July 3rd. My reading (of Chinese characters) has improved quite considerably! I took a mock test today and passed with 72%, so I'm pretty optimistic :)

Love to all xxxxxx

The 'Rents Visit Days 5,6 and 7

Day Five

We got up early to take a train headed north-west of tokyo to Chichibu, where a sleepy countryside town at the foot of a  mountain swarms with tourists keen on seeing the carpet of spring Phlox flowers (known as shibazakura in Japan).

Although the photos don't really show it, it was a scorching day, and the flowers were so colourful in the sunlight!

 Animals were out in force, we were treated to dogs in prams, a *pig* (a debut for me) and some sheep!

 

 Posing in front of some torii gates leading to a shrine

 Korean bbq

Day Six

Another excursion outside of Tokyo, we headed west to Mt Takao. Mt Takao is a popular day trip for Tokyoites, as it's not too far from Tokyo, and it's thought to be a "power spot" (or pawa-supotto as they call it in Japanese-English. This is a new spiritual craze that was only created 20 years ago). This means that climbing Mt Takao will bring you good luck as the Earth's energy gathers at this place. Another "power spot" we visited was Meiji Jingu.

 My Dad is tickled by a double mispelling on this signboard. Can you see them? Click the picture to zoom in..

Onwards and upwards..

Video: My parents climbing a particularly slippy and muddy part. I like 0:21 hehe..

Yay! We made it!
600m high! It's no Mt Fuji, but it was good exercise and a chance to get some fresh air

I'm proud of my mum, who had foot problems :)

Afterwards, we went to a 'Trick Arts Museum', which was really interesting! Here are some photos:

 Good, isn't it?!

We finished off the day with Thai food

 

 My parents look sad.. must be because they're leaving Japan tomorrow :(

Final Day

We went to the top of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building to take a last glimpse of Tokyo

Look how much my mum's chopstick usage ability as improved!

And them we said goodbye to them at Nippori airport before rushing off to work.. they got home safely seemingly 48 hours later. Phew! I can also safely report that my mum's feet are back to normal.

Thank you for visiting mum and dad!!