Living the high life!

How does one cheer oneself up when one has nothing to look forward to? Look back! And so back to the winter adventures of Mumsy, Lorraine et moi...

And so here are the ladies at Yokohama bayside, in front of my ship, Queen of Kunitachi the 1st (let me dream...). We'd hauled ass to Yokohama after shaking off our NY Eve hangovers (or was that just me?) wandering around Shibuya and Harajuku. Our mission was to get ourselves to the top of the highest building to gape at the beautiful bay. Alas, it was closed. I can assure you I checked the opening times, but occassionally the internet - my life source - let's us down.

But no tears were shed, as we are women with means, and there was no way I was letting these ladies go back to England without reaching the dizzying heoghts of some sky-scraper or other. So we nosied around various buildings, first finding a curved escalator (which of course we rode up and down, for the inner child could not be contained!), and then a fantastic-looking hotel (with a stern looking guard who didn't look like he'd let us pop up to the penthouse floor just to take a looksie!). But no top-floor observatories - darn!

Onto the next building... bingo! The 65th floor had a nice swanky little bar. No matter that we were looking a little windswept, or that I was dressed in my usual ensemble of scruffiness, we were paying customers!! Check out the lobby...


Nice. Fiver cover charge and over a fiver per miniscule cocktail and worth every penny (I was gone after two cocktails anyway - they were potent)! The view was fantastic, the jazz band was wonderful, the staff were the right amount of snooty, but perhaps the best part was speculating as to whether the two young, slim Russian ladies accompanying the middle-aged salaryman were working girls or not. We concluded they were. Of course.

Here's a blurry shot of the view for you.













And here are the ladies sipping on their sunny cocktails.

Mission accomplished. Satisfied. Next came the looooooong train ride home and a cheap dinner!

Tuesday, Tuesday, Tuesday...

Drowning in a murky pool of self-pity today. Weekend's over, back to work, nothing to look forward to, all topped off with ominous gray clouds. Blimey, someone come and give me a slap!

Time for something new. But what? There's nothing I can do in Japan, I'm young, unqualified, and my ambitions outstrip my intelligence. So I gotta leave.

But I don't wanna leave. If I leave, can I come back? See my intention is to go home, get myself back into school, get qualified, and get myself back out here to do something I really wanna do. Use that brain that's rattling around up there. But I'm thinking my chances of accomplishing this are slim; life has a habit of creating traps, and opportunities are shy.

This bird's gotta fly... but where to?

Kate Lawler's my new best friend!

Hooray for beer and Z-list celebs!

Did you know Kate Lawler's turned her hand to DJing? Seems the TV career's gone down the pan. Anywho, saw her playing at some club in Tokyo, she's not bad. Couldn't tell you a single track she played as I was well oiled, but there was some good stuff - oh wait, she did drop the Baywatch tune (Hasslehoff and Pammy running down the beach - yey!).

So, as you know, there's only one place to dance in a club, right in front of the DJ - it's fun to be winked at by famous people! So, whilst Kate was spinning her records and pressing little buttons, I flashed a smile at her friend, standing behind her in the DJ booth. 10 minutes later, she'd come to join me on the dance floor - result! 1 hour later, Kate came to join us both (yup, it was time for the real DJ to play!). She's a nice lass, bit skinny these days mind, I gave her a hug and thought I might break her!

However, the excitment of meeting demi-celebs could not be matched by the excitment of grabbing the belt of the sexy gay dancing man on the podium as he girated away... or matchmaking lonely-looking randoms... or combing the club to seek out and meet every Brit in the place!

I need reins...

Kyoto: Day 3

Sorry guys, it's taken me 3 weeks to tell this tale - getting a bit slack! There's just too much fun stuff on the internet. Yes, I have a problem. Yes, I should go outside more often. Get off my case!!

OK, so, yeah, Kyoto. Day 3. Can't actually remember what we did, but the photos tell the story...
Now, this picture I love. It was one of those random little moments that makes you smile like you've got a banana stuck in your mouth. More heart-warming than a cheap Hollywood flick that promises to 'warm your heart' (you really need to read that part in a deep, voice-over style grumble). This wee tot just sat there, oblivious to the chaos going off around him, happy as Larry, seemingly unaware that perhaps his minder was trying to bump him off.... I jest, I jest!

Just before this little treat, we'd had the luck to stumble across some kind of religous ceremony going off in Nishi Honganji Temple, which consisted of around 20 beautifully robed monks (maybe), chanting in unison. Forgive the ignorance - I haven't a clue what was going off!! But it was quite spiritually calming - until my legs went dead from kneeling for too long!

Then we headed off to Ginkakuji, my favourite spot in Kyoto. 'Gin' means 'silver', but as you may notice from the photo above, it ain't silver. But do not fret, no fibs were told! Ginkakuji is not gin because the poor dude who owned this temple gambled all his yennies at the races; fast horses, fast women, champagne! Not true. But he did run out of money, I forget why.

And here are my lovely ladies; peaking through a beautiful little window in front of a beautiful little garden in front of beautiful little Ginkakuji. Look at the sleeve of my mum's jumper - her arms are shrinking!

This is a tree.

Here's the view of Ginkakuji and it's wonderful gardens overlooking Kyoto. The garden path winds it's way round the zen garden (complete with giant sandcastle), over the carp-filled lake, past the waterfall and up the side of wee hill (which my mum may choose to label as a mountain!). Tad chilly up there, but lovely view, huh?

On leaving Ginkakuji we embarked on the Path of Philosophy - a peaceful little path following a tree-lined stream which samurai and geisha used to stroll along in the warm evenings (I guess!). However, our deep, meaningful philosophising was rudely interrupted by a crazy (but nice) local lady who decided to accompany us along the path (ecstatic at the chance to dust off her English), and the occasional shop!

After shaking off the crazy (but nice) local lady, we headed over to Heian shrine, which sits behind this. It's called a torii. There's one near every shrine, but this puppy is massive! Alas, we didn't quite make it to Heian shrine because mum got a wee, tiny bit grumpy around this time. 'Nough said.

So we got on a bus to head over to our last sightseeing target - this. Toji temple. A five-story pagoda set in pretty gardens. Unfortunately, it was closed. We dragged our tired, cold bodies across town through rush-hour traffic to be greeted by a 'Closed' sign. The guard was not impressed by my 'But we're from England - England!!!', pleas, but he did let me take a picture before shooing us away!

And then we were done. Truly done. Tired and cold with sore feet and the long journey home to look forward to. T'was a mostly uneventful journey, though I feel the need to mention the unecessary train detour (my fault), a lost glove (a damn fine glove - RIP), a new variety of tea I discovered in the vending machine, some botched Japanese homework, and... cake!!