Culture Day

Wednesday was Culture Day, a national holiday, so a day off for everybody and luckily, it was sunny too. We'd planned a day out around Nagoya with the others, but in the end it was only Sven and I who showed up in the robby at 10. First stop was a Japanese garden, where we'd hoped to see the autumn leaves but the sunny weather means that everything is still green. It was beautiful, very prestine with lots of water features and rock monuments- basically a fine example of a typical Japanese garden. Then, we headed down to the port so Sven could see the sea because he's got a view of it from his bedroom window at home, and he misses it a lot living in the middle of a city. Bless him, he was so excited. There was a festival at the port; I caught a glimpse of the Power Rangers on stage before they headed off, presumably, to save the world of course. All the kids were completely captivated! There was a giant mechanical panda-like creature that little kids could ride on at the amusement park nearby, which you can just steer and go wherever you want. A bit like the bumper cars without the rink. Naturally, I count as a little kid so I hobbled on, and caused a bit of commotion cos my driving skills are non-existent. Kept crashing into the other little kids, who probably pitied my lack of co-ordination!

There's a Roy Lichenstein's exhibition that is closing this weekend; I've been desperate to go and Wednesday was the last chance for me to see it since Im off to Tokyo this weekend. The exhibition was really good, though Whaam!... was sadly omited from the collection much to my annoyance. Its my favourite piece; I tried to paint a replica of it for George's birthday a while back but couldnt figure out how to print the dots properly. It still hangs unfinished on my bedroom wall and one day I will figure out a way to finish it.

We had dinner in Sakae at a Japanese restaurant, we'd originally wanted to go to a continental restaurant with an Italian chef just because he had bad teeth. In my experience, most good chefs have bad teeth, I dont know why that is. Anyway, that restaurant was booked out for a wedding and we werent exactly dressed for crashing that- we would have done if we were. Our dinner was beautiful, really well-presented and the lovely ladies waiting on us were attentive to a fault. They were baffled by the fact that Sven speaks more Japanese than me, and kept stopping by for a chat throughout our meal!

It was a brilliant day, really really good to see the world outside the Ohmeikan!