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This is a big gold statue of buddha. There were signs up everywhere saying No Photos! I am a very naughty boy…

This is what japanese people thought elephants looked like once.

Japan interlude continues for an unexpected week due to complications in the
booking process. Back in
Africa on 1st January – celebrating the new year somewhere in the
stratosphere…

Just enjoyed the rather disturbing dish of chicken lanterns – unlaid eggs.
Why does this never turn up in
chickens bought for roasting in the UK. No worse than a lightly boiled
egg… Not disturbing at all – but I
drank the goats blood earlier in the year which may have changed my body
chemistry…

Visited Nikko yesterday – bit
disapointed by the Sleeping
Cat, I must say an extra 500 yen seemed a bit steep even if we did see
“Shogun’s” tomb…

It is very cold…

These are buddha cakes. They have mashed beans in the middle. Nicer than it sounds.

There was a good selection of old man hats to choose from.

We went shopping in the cheapest end of town. Reminded me of the old days in Botchergate, Carlisle. Apart from the Buddhist priest standing with a begging bowl.

Struggling with evil japanese keyboards which will inexplicably start adding 東京 characters. Bear with me.

Flight from Dar es Salaam to Nairobi to Abu Dhabi airport full of arabs of every shade, confuse the　airport staff enough that they bump you off the waiting list you didn’t think you were on and into a seat that whizzes you to Hong Kong’s crazy massive airport via Bangok, then a nice shiny seat on Cathay Pacific to Narita where greeted by an almost empty airport and it is not the Masaai cattle market anymore…

Yuki’s family all crammed into already crammed grandmother’s house, trying to make sense of death and family at the same time as what is Shibuya about with all these people people everywhere and I am starting over the tops of their heads dazzled by the lights and giant tv screens at the crossroads.

Funeral ceremony of ice skating music and old men with cauliflower ears then off to Sapporo Beer Station for wake.

Now in Tsukuba Science City.

Yuki! You’re taking pictures of me with my mouth open…

And so we flew half way around the world. Amazing view of kilimanjaro’s summits from the plane.

We got as far as Tukuyu, very close to the Malwai border and Lake Nyasa/Malawi when we recieved a call from Yuki’s mother. Yuki’s grandmother passed away last week. We are now back in Dar, trying to sort out a flight to Tokyo for the funeral.

High stress trying to get these things done quickly (and on a weekend) here in Tanzania. Getting there slowly. Should be in Tokyo with no warm clothes and more or less no money by Tuesday night…

No time now to tell youse about Iringa, Mbeya and the Mbozi meteorite, nor the mad dash back to Dar we made courtesy of Festo, the road rage driver from TechnoServe. Cheers Fest!

Will try and get online in Tokyo and might even manage to get some more pics up. I did that last week, so maybe you should head over to the Pics page and see what we have been up to…