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We are back!
The trip was magnificent.
The exhibition was well received, many friends were hugged, songs were karaoked and the season was most definitely summer.

I don't have many good photos of the exhibition at the moment, but as soon as I get my hands on them I'll put them up. In the meantime here's a bunch of happy Tokyo times in our friend Shoko's house.

Hydrangeas - ajisai - were everywhere, and lined the local train tracks.

There were small animal parades all over the house.

 

Shoko made us a delicious, multi-plated dinner.
All the vegetables came from her parents' garden near Sendai.

 

 

Animal parade!

 

Breakfast with a polar bear speaker.

Thank you Shoko and Shinya for having us!!!!!

Yokohama

After the wedding business was all wrapped up we spent a day wandering around Yokohama.

We were quite smitten. Wide streets, shiny buildings, Chinatown and trees.

I fell in love with all the Chinese junk shops. I restrained myself to just a pot holder and a lantern.

Blindly taking photos with a wavering hand above the crowds. Ridiculous results.

Animal shaped steamed buns - oh yes.

I ate a green panda with matcha goo in the middle and Gareth got a delightful-looking but disappointingly gelatinous pork pig bun. (Fact: pigs say "boo boo" not "oink" in Japan. What do ghosts say then??)

We also spotted this advertisement. What better way to show your dislike of guns by having adorable otters smashing them on their bellies.

the weddingu

Joel and Kumi Porter.

babes in the city

Our lovely friends Kumi and Joel fell in love, he proposed she said "hai" and last weekend they got married.

But before we blog about the wonders of a traditional Japanese wedding this short post is about Kumi's Hens Night in Tokyo, held a few weekends beforehand.

First there was an afternoon picnic in Kumi's parents garage with snazzy sandwiches, fizzy wines, scones, doilies and paper pom-poms.

かんぱい Kumi!

Afterwards we went to a Phantom of the Opera themed restaurant with gigantic chandeliers, mask shaped crackers and dramatic music.

Followed by dancing and McDonalds in the wee small hours. Classy babes.

Next post: the wedding.

Oh gosh, we are getting behind ourselves

During the first week of November we took some days off to go down to Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. It was an incredible holiday, crazy busy, but just wonderful with lovely friends and delicious food.

Part 1: Tokyo

We took the night bus from Sendai on Friday 29th and arrived in a typhoon stricken Tokyo at 5.30am Saturday morning, with one umbrella between us and three hours to kill before our first engagement -- the national junior high school brass band competition which Gareth's schools was in, representing Miyagi.

We kept ourselves warm and dry in a cafe, pigging out on hotcakes, drink refills and doodling on newspapers.

The brass band competition was really good. We only stayed until Gareth's school Koyodai had played (we felt 5 hours might be too much for us). I was hugely impressed with their conductor who danced, bobbed, crouched, jumped, and gesticulated elegantly. You didn't need to hear the instruments - his gestures expressed the music exactly. I was totally enthralled.

The students were excellent too though and deservedly won silver.

Afterwards we went to a couple of art galleries. The first had an exhibition by the amusing artist Misaki Kawai. So lovely. So fun.

The second gallery was showing a collection of Van Gogh paintings. We were cold and grumpy by the time we got there, and the gallery was packed with people. The show was presented in chronological order, beginning with Van Gogh's earliest works -- sketches, studies and copies of other painings -- which, frankly, were not all that impressive. But by the time we got around to Irises we were awestruck.


Later Gareth and Shoko worked on a last-minute zombie animal poster for Shoko and Sasayu's Halloween party.

Jiizasu (Jesus), owl and the Debiru (devil).


The awesome "I heart NZ" sheep and kiwi.


Sasayu in her adorable ghost costume.


Shinya's minimalistic Kintaro costume (Kintaro is a manga character whose father is an eyeball on a tiny body).


Kohei was a tree.


We played musical chairs and then fell asleep on the sofa.

Then it was time to catch the 7am shinkasen to Osaka ... part 2!

And some more Mori, Onegaishimasu!

As well as the Sensing Nature exhibition, the Mori Museum also featured an interesting, but a little hokey, dinosaur show.

We liked all the snaggletoothed ones.

RAAAAAHHHH!