Friday, February 24, 2006
What no sumo?
We started the day with the alarm going off at 6:30 (sorry, didn`t we leave our jobs?) as we had a much-anticipated appointment with a sumo school master...or so we thought. It would have been the ultimate Japan experience; watching wannabe-sumo wrestlers in training in a small intimate `stable`. I had been looking forward to this for the last few days. However, we must have picked the only time in the year that the wrestlers have time off, a bit like coming to England expecting to see a football match in July. I like to think the wrestlers spend the closed season in the Japanese equivalent of Aiya Napa, riding mopeds and getting embroilled in kiss and tell stories. Oh the disappointment! We tried 3 stables, but none were open or even answering the doors. We didn't even see any fattys who we could take a picture of and pretend they were sumos. Not even a hot chocolate in McDonalds would cheer me up. (Can I just say in our defence that Maccy D`s is the cheapest place to buy hot drinks in such an expensive country!) I couldn`t believe that we had to walk through the smoking section of it to get to the non-smoking section which was not even sectioned off! The cheek!
So we decided to go to a place called Kamakura instead, famous for its Buddhist temples and scenic coastal views. Wrong!!! With the realisation that we hadn`t done any proper exercise for a long long time, we decided to hire bikes and explore the town. I swear it only started to rain once we had set off on our flat-tyred excuses for bikes!! We could have been riding along Margate seafront for all we knew. It was too wet and dreary to appreciate. The place reminded me of Barry Island. I think the rain helped jog the memory. We were just wishing the time away before we could return our bikes and return to being dry and warm!
So what do you do when you`re looking like 2 drowned rats? You go to the most exclusive part of Tokyo of course. Roppongi Hills...home to the rich and glamorous shopping in ridiculously expensive boutiques. We stood out like a sore thumb - but hey, we had some practice at the Park Hyatt yesterday! We looked like a couple of extras from a Matalan advert. I thought we would be escorted off the premises. But the Japanese are too polite for that luckily.
I perfected my sleeping-on-a-train skills on the way home. I`m getting really good, only the one jolt and no dribbling.
So we decided to go to a place called Kamakura instead, famous for its Buddhist temples and scenic coastal views. Wrong!!! With the realisation that we hadn`t done any proper exercise for a long long time, we decided to hire bikes and explore the town. I swear it only started to rain once we had set off on our flat-tyred excuses for bikes!! We could have been riding along Margate seafront for all we knew. It was too wet and dreary to appreciate. The place reminded me of Barry Island. I think the rain helped jog the memory. We were just wishing the time away before we could return our bikes and return to being dry and warm!
So what do you do when you`re looking like 2 drowned rats? You go to the most exclusive part of Tokyo of course. Roppongi Hills...home to the rich and glamorous shopping in ridiculously expensive boutiques. We stood out like a sore thumb - but hey, we had some practice at the Park Hyatt yesterday! We looked like a couple of extras from a Matalan advert. I thought we would be escorted off the premises. But the Japanese are too polite for that luckily.
I perfected my sleeping-on-a-train skills on the way home. I`m getting really good, only the one jolt and no dribbling.
# posted by Rhodri @ 12:03 pm 
