Tadaima!

Well, our two weeks are at an all to swift end. Yesterday's marathon journey home, started at 7.30am Japan time, saw us get back safe and sound just short of 24 hours later.

We had a blast, and it opened our eyes to a few things I think. We'll be working on some changes for a few months yet, but I'll speak more on that later. So, what did we get up to? Here's a quick run down of what we did and what I may get to write about over the next couple of weeks:

1. 木曜日　Arrived and whisked straight away to Anderson Kouen（アンダーサン亜公園）, near Funabashi（船橋） for a day out.
2. 金曜日　Visited Kashiwa and a few of the old haunts.
3. 土曜日　Travelled to Shizuoka with K's dad to visit his mother, T's great-grandmother. Got a round of karaoke in.
4. 日曜日　Shizuoka fish market, an abortive attempt to visit a frisbee shop, return to Kashiwa and a lost night with a couple of engineers I met while watching Reysol get defeated.　
5. 月曜日　Returned home in shame. Finally got back out the house to meet my friend Mikako, her lovely new baby daughter and Eiko (a lady who was once my student, but later an employee of the Eikaiwa （英会話）I used to work for). Made the visit to that frisbee shop. Cool.
   
6. 火曜日　I headed in to town to meet my old friend Duncan for hanami in Ueno park, then we met Gwilym and Dave. I later met some old girls from Shane, Akiko and Takako.
7. 水曜日　While the others visited Tokyo Disney I walked the north half of the Yamanote Line (山の手線）the circular overground railway that links many of the major stations in Tokyo) from Ueno　（上野） to Shibuya（渋谷. Along and interesting day.
   
8. 木曜日　A quick visit to Nagareyama-otakanomori, a new local station on the all new Tsukuba Express rail line, and a great new shopping centre.
9. 金曜日　Visited Asakusa, the traditionally working-class part of east Tokyo where a major shrine for Tokyo-ites is located, this time using the brilliant Tsukuba express.
   
10. 土曜日Travelled down to Yokohama（横浜） to meet Toru, a former student, and his new son. I raced back to go to yakiniku with the family.
    
11. 日曜日　Travelled to Hakone　（箱根）, a beautiful National Park south-west of Tokyo, famous for it's onsen, or natural spring baths.
    
12. 月曜日　Returned from Hakone.
13. 火曜日　I took a trip to Minami-Kashiwa（南柏）, my old home station. Things have changed a lot. I wandered past my old apaato and then walked to another station through the suburbs, just for the vibes. great.
    
14. 水曜日　Popped in to Akasaka for a chat with some important people, then an old study buddy in Ichigaya (市ヶ谷） who edits a science journal in Tokyo, before a trip to an izakaya with a friend near an old school of mine.
15. 木曜日　Quiet day around Sakasai（逆井） and Kashiwa as it was raining, getting gifts, but did visit a great izakaya in Sakasai.
16. 金曜日　The epic journey home.

A great trip, documented with loads of pics and video that I will be putting up over the next couple of weeks.